A critical season for WSV, as they needed to finish at least 10th in order to qualify for the new 3.Liga. Although they generally were never really in danger of not making the cut, there were a few worrisome moments. The Regionalliga was hard fought, so there was little seperation at the top.
WSV got off to a decent start, and could even dream of making the jump into the 2.Liga. This ambition proved to be part of the undoing, as head coach Wolfgang Jerat ran afoul with the fans and boss Friedhelm Runge. The club president decided to replace Jerat with Wolfgang Frank, and the club promptly stuttered, and never really got back in the hunt for the top spot. Frank's reward was himself getting ass-canned at season's end - despite getting WSV to the 3.Liga, the stated goal.
The highlight however was really the nice little Cup run. WSV started out by beating 2.Liga Aue on penalties, where GK Christian Maly turned out to be the hero. Then came a sensational 2-0 knockout of Bundesligist Hertha BSC. This lead to the dream opponent, Bayern München. It was clear that the decripit Zoo-Stadion was insufficient (especially given reduced capacity due to construction.) Instead, the match was moved to Schalke's Veltins Arena. A sold out crowd - a WSV record - watched WSV hold their own 2-2 at half, before getting overrun by superior talent. The receipts from the match and DFB payout was more than the entire regular season income, a nice sum.
For the players, the star of the show was Mahir Saglik, whose 27 Regionalliga goals was tops in just about any league. Of course, Saglik had an "out" option in his contract, which he promptly excercised to engineer a nice transfer to Bundesligist VfL Wolfsburg.
01 VfB Lübeck 28.07.2007 H 2:1 (1:0) 3,957 (Bölstler. Heimzmann) 02 RW Oberhausen 08.08.2007 A 1:0 (0:0) 6,580 (Lintjens) 03 Fortuna Düsseldorf 11.08.2007 H 0:1 (0:1) 10,341 04 Rot-Weiss Ahlen 18.08.2007 A 5:2 (3:1) 2,571 (Damm 2, Rietpietsch 2, Saglik) 05 Bor. Dortmund II 25.08.2007 H 1:1 (1:1) 4,042 (Damm) 06 Kickers Emden 01.09.2007 A 2:1 (1:0) 3,800 (Lintjens, Nachtigall (o.g.)) 07 VfL Wolfsburg II 05.09.2007 H 7:2 (3:0) 3,585 (Saglik 2, Dogan 2, Lintjens, Damm, Jerat) 08 Eintr. Braunschweig 08.09.2007 A 4:1 (2:0) 12,300 (Saglik 3, Damm) 09 SV Babelsberg 03 16.09.2007 H 4:0 (2:0) 6,000 (Stuckmann, Saglik, Damm, Dogan) 10 Rot-Weiß Erfurt 22.09.2007 A 1:5 (0:3) 7,012 (Lintjens) 11 1. FC Union Berlin 26.09.2007 H 4:3 (2:2) 4,438 (Saglik 2, Damm 2) 12 Rot-Weiss Essen 29.09.2007 A 0:1 (0:0) 12,057 13 Werder Bremen II 19.10.2007 H 0:2 (0:1) 4,248 14 Energie Cottbus II 27.10.2007 A 1:0 (0:0) 355 (Saglik) 15 Hamburger SV II 03.11.2007 H 0:2 (0:0) 3,400 16 Dynamo Dresden 10.11.2007 A 0:3 (0:1) 8,832 17 SC Verl 17.11.2007 H 1:0 (0:0) 3,248 (Saglik) 18 1. FC Magdeburg 24.11.2007 A 0:2 (0:1) 7,288 19 VfB Lübeck 01.12.2007 A 2:0 (0:0) 2,600 (Saglik, Lintjens) 20 RW Oberhausen 09.12.2007 H 2:0 (1:0) 6,412 (Saglik, Dogan) 21 Fortuna Düsseldorf 16.02.2008 A 0:2 (0:1) 14,550 22 Rot-Weiss Ahlen 23.02.2008 H 0:4 (0:1) 5,316 23 Bor. Dortmund II 01.03.2008 A 1:1 (1:1) 1,680 (Saglik) 24 Kickers Emden 08.03.2008 H 0:0 (0:0) 5,033 25 VfL Wolfsburg II 16.03.2008 A 2:1 (2:1) 500 (Damm, Saglik) 26 SV Babelsberg 03 29.03.2008 A 0:1 (0:0) 1,563 27 Rot-Weiß Erfurt 04.04.2008 H 3:0 (1:0) 4,494 (Saglik 2, Hammes) 28 Eintr. Braunschweig 09.04.2008 H 1:1 (0:0) 5,678 (Bölstler) 29 1. FC Union Berlin 12.04.2008 A 1:1 (0:1) 7,533 (Saglik) 30 Rot-Weiss Essen 19.04.2008 H 2:2 (0:1) 9,190 (Saglik, Damm) 31 Werder Bremen II 04.05.2008 A 1:2 (1:2) 750 (Saglik) 32 Energie Cottbus II 07.05.2008 H 4:3 (2:3) 3,192 (Tavarez, Damm, Saglik 2) 33 Hamburger SV II 10.05.2008 A 3:2 (0:2) 353 (Heinzmann 2, Saglik) 34 Dynamo Dresden 16.05.2008 H 1:1 (0:1) 6,621 (Saglik) 35 SC Verl 24.05.2008 A 3:0 (2:0) 800 (Heinzmann, Saglik 2) 36 1. FC Magdeburg 31.05.2008 H 1:2 (0:1) 5,548 (Saglik) DFB Cup 01 Erzgebirge Aue 05.08.2007 H 4:3 (1:1)pen 6,685 (Saglik) 02 Hertha BSC Berlin 31.10.2007 H 2:0 (0:0) 12,399 (Lintjens, Jerat) 03 Bayern München 29.01.2008 H 2:5 (2:2) 61,482 (Damm, Saglik) Scoring: 27 - Saglik (+2 Cup) 11 - Damm (+1 Cup) 5 - Lintjens (+1 Cup) 4 - Dogan, Heinzmann 2 - Bölstler, Jerat 1 - Rietpietsch, Jerat (+1 Cup), Stuckmann, Hammes, Tavarez, own goal Attendance: Home: 94,743 (avg: 5,263) High: 10,341 (Düsseldorf), Low: 3,192 (Cottbus II) Away: 91,124 (avg: 5,062) High: 14,550 (Düsseldorf), Low: 353 (Hamburger SV II) Cup: 80,566 (makes Home total: 175,309, avg: 8,348) Match Yel Red Goals Christian Maly 35 1 0 0 Michael Stuckmann 34 7 0 1 Manuel Bölstler 34 9 0 2 Mahir Saglik 34 7 0 27 (TUR) Tim Jerat 33 5 0 1 Michael Lejan 32 6 0 0 Tobias Damm 30 5 0 11 Mike Rietpietsch 27 4 1 2 Huzeyfe Dogan 27 7 0 4 Dennis Malura 26 5 0 0 Marco Neppe 25 6 0 0 Andre Wiwerink 24 1 0 0 Dirk Heinzmann 24 6 0 4 Daniel Voigt 21 7 1 0 (NL) Jan Hammes 20 1 0 1 (NL) Sven Lintjens 18 6 0 5 (NL) Lucas Oppermann 15 1 0 3 Victor Hugo Lorenzon 14 2 0 0 (ARG) Marc-Andre Narewsky 13 4 0 0 Jean-Louis Tavarez 12 2 0 1 (SEN) Dennis Schulp 9 1 0 0 Ferhat Ulker 4 0 0 0 Freddy Mombongo-Dues 4 0 0 0 (CON-DR) Sebastian Michalsky 1 0 0 0 Fathum Zaskoku 1 0 0 0 Andy Habl 1 0 0 0
