Our next opponents: A village club with great potential

Position

SG Sonnenhof Großaspach, newly promoted to the Regional League South West, have causing a stir as they top the table after two games. A brilliant 6-1 victory over fellow promoted side TSG Balingen was followed by a 4-1 away win at FC Astoria Walldorf last weekend for the team coached by Pascal Reinhardt. Six points, ten goals – a dream start for the self-proclaimed ‘village club’ at the higher level. It looks like SG could achieve a seamless continuation of superlatives after last season.

The Swabians won the double in the 2024/24 season by finishing top of the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg as champions with a 19-point lead and they also won the Württemberg Landespokal. They beat Balingen 2-0 in the final. that brought the lucrative qualification for the DFB Pokal. That is only the third time in the club’s history. Both previous cup campaigns ended in the first round: SG lost 4-1 to VfB Stuttgart in 2009/10 and in 2012/13 they went out after a narrow 2-1 defeat against FSV Frankfurt. The double winners Großaspach now face Bayer 04. “We want to stay in the game as long as possible and make it as difficult as we can for them,” said Reinhardt. “If we have a great day and Bayer have an off day then we will be there to take our chance.”

In the Sportpark Fautenhau, 10,000 fans will definitely create a great atmosphere for the cup game at the sold out WIRmachenDRUCK Arena. “A whole region is up for the DFB Pokal tie,” wrote the club on their website. A state of euphoria has prevailed in the north of Baden-Württemberg for over a year as SG Sonnenhof Großaspach have an historic Oberliga season behind them. The Red and Blacks won 31 of their league games and only suffered one defeat. The team ended up on 95 points, scored 109 goals and only let in 26. The Swabian side also produced good performances in the preseason ahead of the Regional League campaign by winning all six friendlies. And now they have added the two opening victories in the league against Balingen and Walldorf.

Personnel

Pascal Reinhardt has been the head coach at SG Sonnenhof Großaspach since 2023. And now in his second year, the 32-year-old has led the club back to the Regional League. “Promotion was the target when I came here,” said Reinhardt, who played as a striker in the Regional League for Homburg, Ulm and Bayern Munich II. “We knew it would be difficult so you can’t rate what we’ve achieved too highly.” The coach continues to rely on his promotion team. The squad has stayed together. The only additions are the twin brothers Leon and Loris Maier plus Luca Molinari.

Very few players have experience of the Regional League. Goalkeeper Maximilian Reule is the only player remaining from the team that was relegated to the Oberliga three years ago. In addition to the 31-year-old keeper, central defender Antonis Aidonis is one of the key players. The 24-year-old came through the youth sections at TSG Hoffenheim and VfB Stuttgart and he made two Bundesliga appearances for VfB in the 2018/19 season. Other leading players at SG are the captain Volkan Celiktas in central midfield and Marius Kunde.

Up front, Mert Tasdelen, Michael Kleinschrodt and, above all, Fabian Eisele impressed in the last Oberliga last term. The latter scored against the Werkself in the DFB Pokal five years ago, then playing for FC Saarbrücken, in a 3-0 semi-final defeat for Bayer 04. Eisele joined SG Sonnenhof from FC 08 Homburg in the summer of 2024 and he scored 36 goals in 34 league games in his first season. Eisele not only won the top goalscorer’s award with the 30-year-old centre forward breaking the previous Oberliga goalscoring record of 34 goals.

And left-winger Mert Tasdelen (16 goals/15 assists) and the versatile forward Michael Kleinschrodt (13/4) also played their part in the promotion to the Regional League. In addition to these experienced players, there are talents and home-grown players like Lukas Stoppel and Niklas Mohr (21) who made a great leap forward last season. Reinhardt will have to manage without full-back Elias Rahn (23) on Friday night as he broke his arm in the match against Walldorf.

One familiar face from the Bundesliga took up an important role at the club at the start of the current season: Julian Schieber is the new sporting director. The former U21 Germany international and player (including for Borussia Dortmund, Hertha Berlin and VfB Stuttgart) made a total of 167 Bundesliga appearances and he played in the Champions League final between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich in 2013 (1-2). Schieber worked for SG Sonnenhof Großaspach in 2022 and 2024 as first-team assistant coach and head coach of the U19 and U17 teams.

Problems

It remains to be seen if the lack of Regional League experience will actually lead to problems for the team this term. Playing at the higher level is a big challenge for SG Sonnenhof Großaspach. The ‘village club’ will face teams like Kickers Offenbach, Eintracht Trier, Stuttgarter Kickers and SV Sandhausen. “We have to improve in all areas,” said Reinhardt before the start of the season. Staying up is the target. The impressive start to the season does not change that.

Performers

The Großaspach goal machine is running like clockwork in the Regional League. And that is not solely due to the attack. The now injured full back Elias Rahn netted a brace in the 6-1 victory against Balingen. The in-form team are playing like a band of brothers. “We are strong and courageous on the ball,” said Reinhardt. “We can always score goals and then defend a lead with a united team performance. We have given the team a tough work ethic off the ball and a winner’s mentality. We have not completed this development yet.” Last weekend in Walldorf they demonstrated they could deal with setbacks when they went 1-0 down and had to deal with the injury to Rahn but were still able to turn the game round.