SV Wehen Wiesbaden (Germany)

SV Wehen Wiesbaden is a professional football club that was formed on January 1^st 1926 as SV Wehen 1926-Taunusstein following a meeting at the Zur Krone Guest House in Taunusstein.

The club started out playing in the local C-Klasse Wiesbaden league, building its first home ground at Wehener Halberg in 1933. The club was dissolved shortly after by the ruling Nazi Party before reforming on March 20th 1946 and becoming members of B-Klasse Wiesbaden.

The club remained at that level for several years, picking up local league and cup honours, before progressing to A-Klasse in 1965 as the team amassed 117 goals while only conceded 15 as the team set a national record.

SVW reached the Bezirksliga for the 1968-69 season, before being demoted back to A-Klasse in 1970-71. The rise of the club began following the election of Heinz Hankammer as President and major sponsor in 1979.

In 1983-84 the team once again joined the Bezirksliga before winning promotion to Oberliga Hessen in 1988-89. Wehen did well in their debut season; weighing in with a fifth place finish before finishing with a couple of lower to middle placed positions.

The 1993-94 season saw neighbours SV Wiesbaden withdraw from the league. This would prove to play a significant part in the history of SVW in later years. Promotion was won to Regionalliga Süd in 1993-94, but the clubs spell in the higher grade lasted just twelve months.

SV Wehen won the Oberliga Hessen title in 1996-97 to raise once again to Regionalliga Süd; with the Albanian striker Artur Maxhuni banging in the goals on their return before Richard Walz topped the charts the following season.

Wehen narrowly avoided relegation in 1999-00 as the club maintained their level three status. Sead Mehić became the latest goalscoring hero in 2002-03 as the club continued to finish in the top half of the table.

Wehen just missed out on promotion to 2. Bundesliga in 2004-05 as the team finished in third place under head coach Djuradj Vasic; with the team repeating the performance the season after. However, the club were not to be denied in 2006-07.

Christian Hock led the team to the Regionalliga Süd title, at which point the club moved to the Brita-Arena, in the grounds of Helmut-Schön-Sportpark on Berliner Straße in Wiesbaden. At the same time the club changed their title to SV Wehen Wiesbaden for their first ever 2. Bundesliga season.

After a season of consolidation under Hock and then Wolfgang Frank, the team were relegated in 2008-09 as Sandro Schwarz tried to rescue the campaign. Hans Werner Moser was appointed as the new coach in the summer of 2009.

Zlatko Janjić scored the goals for Wehen in the 3. Liga season of 2009-10 under new coach Gino Lettieri who arrived after the winter break. Leetieri was dismissed in February to be replaced by Peter Vollmann as the side narrowly avoided relegation in 2011-12.

Marc Kienle became head coach in October 2013. He helped the team build on a seventh place finish to end the 2013-14 campaign in fourth position. Hock returned for a second spell in charge in April 2015 after Wehen went on to finish in seventh place.

Torsten Fröhling was installed for the 2015-16 campaign as the team was led by skipper Kevin Pezzoni. Rüdiger Rehm replaced Fröhling in February 2017 as Manuel Schäffler’s goals led to a seventh place finish.

The goals of Manuel Schäffler and Stephan Andrist took Wiesbaden to fourth place in 2017-18 before Daniel-Kofi Kyereh joined the party in 2018-19 as the team finished third prior to defeating FC Ingolstadt 04 on away goals in the play-offs to win promotion to 2. Bundesliga.

The team struggled in their new surroundings in the drop zone in 2019-20 under coach Rüdiger Rehm despite the continual impressive form of Schäffler before being relegated back to 3. Liga at the end of the season.

SV Wehen Wiesbaden will play in 3. Liga in the 2020-21 season.


My visit

Germany 2 Iceland 2 (Friday 20^th October 2017) Women’s World Cup Qualifier Group E (att: 4,292)

I’d done my usual thorough search of all possible games in advance of my latest long weekend in Germany. I’d plumped for some pretty decent games, but was disappointed that I’d only Saturday offered the possibility of double match action.

The Soccerway website had often been my friend in the past and it proved to be again; although I didn’t dream for one moment that I’d get to two matches on the Friday. I hadn’t accounted for women’s football.

Aside from watching my niece Sally playing many years earlier, I hadn’t watched any female football action. Watching a World Cup Qualifier seemed a pretty good option to break my duck; especially as the sides were in the top two positions in Group E.

My latest long weekend trip to Germany was underway, on what would prove to be a tiring day. I’d set the alarm at 4am before taking an Uber taxi to Golders Green; from where the National Express coach took me to Stansted Airport.

My flight with Ryanair was cheap, but Hahn Airport turned out to be a long way from Frankfurt; where I was to stay for three nights. It was akin to calling Birmingham Airport, London.

That wouldn’t have been a problem, apart from the coach to Frankfurt was packed. There was a group of kids playing up all the way, while parents looked on obliviously. They got on my nerves rather quickly, in my tired state of mind.

Everything went swimmingly once I reached my destination and found the Golden Leaf Hotel. My room was ready early so I could have a siesta, shower and change before catching the number 11 tram at the bottom of the street.

The service took me to Ostendstraße; where I went downstairs to the SBahn. The S1 service took fifty minutes to Wiesbaden; the birthplace of John McEnroe, in time for the 4pm kick off. My travel ticket for the day cost me €16.30.

It was less than a ten minutes walk up the slope of Gustav-Stresemann-Ring before I arrived at the ticket office outside the BRITA-Arena. I was slightly taken aback that the terracing was closed and the cheapest seating ticket was €20.

The queue to get in via a frisk was unusually shorter for me. The majority of the attendance was made up of females of all ages. I noticed one or two people with what looked like A4 sized programmes, but I didn’t see any knocking about.

My seat was for the West Stand. Both sides had single tiered seated stands, with covered terracing behind both goals. It was all very neat and functional, with all facilities in the open air on a concourse surrounding the arena.

The most obvious difference I noticed between the women and men’s game was that the pace was far more sedate; but there was still plenty of skill on evidence. Early indications were that the hosts weren’t going to have things all their own way; and so it proved.

The Scandinavians went 1-0 up on fifteen minutes where a cross drifted into the German box and bounced. Keeper Laura Benkarth flapped as Elin Metta Jensen headed the ball, which ran loose for Dagný Brynjarsdóttir to tap into the open net.

It was one of those goals that you expect other teams to concede against Germany; rather than the other way round. The home side, under Coach Steffi Jones, went into the game with a twenty six game unbeaten run in qualifying games.

The few Icelanders in the crowd were most vocal; while the locals did their best to rouse their side. I was most impressed by the sheer hard graft and skill of the visitors, epitomised by Fanndís Friðriksdóttir who played just behind the forwards.

The home side began to pile on a bit of pressure, so it came as no real shock when Germany equalised just three minutes before the interval thanks to a fine header from Alexandra Popp. During the break I replenished myself with a bratwurst and beer.

I changed my view slightly after the break. There were many spare places, but viewing wasn’t easy with the TV gantry placed at the front of the seating. At least I could now stand and stretch without blocking any views.

The German team had obviously been told a few home truths as to their performance thus far, as they came out firing and saw another header hit the top of the crossbar before bouncing to safety.

There was no way the Icelandic team were going to be bossed, and they regained the lead straight afterwards when Jenson collected a low cross, and used fine skill to free herself from a defender before firing home. I applauded in loud appreciation.

Eleven minutes later I was laughing my head off and giving away any possible traces of being seen as a home fan or neutral as a long defence splitting pass found Brynjarsdóttir who scored past the hapless Benkarth.

While Iceland still created the occasional chance, they seemed happy to sit on a two goal lead. To give Germany credit, their team fought all the way until the end. They’d come close on a couple of occasions before pegging back the lead.

With just two minutes remaining substitute Lea Schüller was played in down the channel to slot the ball home past visiting custodian Guðbjörg Gunnarsdóttir, who was booked for time wasting as the game entered additional time.

The Icelanders held on despite a last couple of scares to deservedly win and leapfrog Germany to go top of the group. I’d been really impressed and got into the game more and more as it went on.

At full time I headed back down the hill to catch the S9 train back to Frankfurt Hauptbanhof, where I changed to the S6 towards Bad Vilbel for the evening kick off. My trip was off to an excellent start.