Third division club SC Verl is currently shaking up 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, losing three games in the first three matchdays. At that point, many experts already considered the third division team to be one of the hottest candidates for relegation. Anyone who had 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.

With six wins and two draws from their last eight games, head coach Alexander Ende’s team climbed to third place, pushing Rot-Weiss Essen (on the same number of points, but Verl has the better goal difference) out of the relegation spot.

Once again this season, despite the departures of regular players such as Vinko Sapina and Joel Grodowski and former coach Michel Kniat, those in charge have managed to put together a good, competitive team from modest resources.

The latest feat was a 2-1 win at SV Waldhof Mannheim on Friday evening. In this match, Ende’s team once again had to prove their strong morale. Verl were 1-0 down at half-time after a weak first half.

After the break, the visitors stepped up their game, turned the match around with goals from Oliver Batista Meier and Lars Lokotsch, and should have won by an even bigger margin in the end. It was the third game in a row in which SCV came from 0-1 down to win.

Overall, this feat has been achieved five times in 2023/24 – an outstanding record. It is therefore no surprise that Verl is the clear leader in this category. No other team has picked up as many points after falling behind as the East Westphalians, who have earned 16 of their 27 points after going 0-1 down.

By comparison, TSV 1860 Munich fell behind eight times this season and failed to pick up a single point…