The third-division SC Verl is currently causing a stir in the league. There are several reasons for this. One of them is the strong morale within the team.

SC Verl got off to a bad start this season, conceding three defeats in the first three matchdays. At that point, many experts already counted the third division club among the hottest candidates for relegation. Anyone who had placed a bet at the time that Verl would be in third place after 16 games would have won a fortune – but that is exactly what happened.

Thanks to six wins and two draws from their last eight matches, the team of head coach Alexander Ende climbed to third place and ousted Rot-Weiss Essen (level on points, but Verl has the better goal difference) from the relegation place.

Once again this season, despite the departures of key players such as Vinko Sapina and Joel Grodowski and former coach Michel Kniat, the club’s management has managed to put together a good, competitive team from modest means.

The latest coup was the 2-1 win at SV Waldhof Mannheim on Friday evening. In this game, the Ende team once again had to prove their strong morale. Because: Verl was 1-0 down at half-time and played a weak first half.

After the break, the visitors then improved significantly, turned the game around with goals from Oliver Batista Meier and Lars Lokotsch, and should have ended up winning by an even bigger margin. It was already the third game in a row in which the SCV turned a 0-1 deficit into a win.

This feat has already been achieved five times in 2023/24 – an outstanding record. It is therefore not surprising that Verl is the clear league leader in this category. No other team has scored as many points after falling behind as the East Westphalia team, which has managed to score 16 of the 27 points after trailing 1-0.

By comparison, TSV 1860 Munich trailed eight times this season and didn’t get a single point after that…