Despite nerves, Cologne’s new coach Marian Wilhelm celebrated his debut victory in the 3rd division. At SSV Ulm, the injury to the SSV captain overshadowed the match in Wehen.

There were two winners in Sunday’s 3rd division matches. Viktoria Cologne defeated the promoted team from Schweinfurt 2-0 at home. Later, SV Wehen won 3-1 against second division relegated team SSV Ulm 1846. However, in addition to the defeat, Ulm suffered a much more painful loss. Ulm captain Johannes Reichert had to leave the field with a serious injury. He twisted his knee and had to be carried off the pitch. “That overshadows the whole game, defeat or not. We’ve lost our captain to some extent. He was in a lot of pain. That hurts us immensely, of course, as players and as people. We have to process that first. That’s the worst news about the game,“ said a visibly shocked goalkeeper Christian Ortag on ”Magenta Sport.” The mood was very different at SV Wehen, whose coach Nils Döring was exhausted after more than 100 minutes—there were eleven minutes of stoppage time: “If the boys play like that for 37 match days, you can write me off. What the boys put on the pitch was mega. It was really fun! Sure, we made it mega exciting at the end. But it was a great game for the spectators. And in the end, it was a clear and deserved victory.”

Viktoria Cologne also celebrated a deserved victory against Schweinfurt. It was the perfect debut for Cologne’s new coach Marian Wilhelm, who took over from Olaf Janßen. His conclusion after his first three points on “MagentaSport”: “Here at home, in the stadium where I’ve been coming for 15 years, three points and a clean sheet in my first game – it couldn’t have been better.”

The new coach had to admit that there was tension. “I think I’m always relatively open and honest about that. You could see it during the game, you could see it in the guys. There were some simple passes where it was just nervousness, where there was a tingling feeling. It was the first game, many of the guys were playing here in our stadium for the first time. You can feel the nervousness. We are a young group, we have to develop in that regard. I’m proud that we were there in those moments to take them.”

1. FC Schweinfurt, on the other hand, immediately saw that the wind was blowing in a different direction in the 3rd division. The excitement of finally being where they wanted to be for so long turned to disillusionment. Markus Wolf, sporting director at Schweinfurt, explained: “Our goal is to stay up. When you’ve been trying to get promoted for six years – it’s extremely difficult to get out of the regional league – you don’t want to be relegated again in your first year. That’s our big goal. And I’m quite happy with the first 45 minutes.”