Alphabet Challenge | Part 54, Club 26 | East German Challenge In 2. Bundesliga

Unexpected cup success at Hannover 96 saw Trebor Mahtal tick off leg number 23 of 26 on his Alphabet Challenge. That left the veteran 89-year-old manager with just three letters remaining: D, K and X.

Unsurprisingly, given how troublesome these letters proved, no relevant jobs were immediately available upon standing down from Hannover. After turning down interview offers from Everton and Liverpool, the now 88-year-old Mahtal accepted offers to do some punditry for English, German and Spanish TV networks at EURO 2072. However, he cut those commitments short just before the semi-finals to hold talks regarding the potential of staying in Germany. And, after some short negotiations, he agreed a deal to take on a huge challenge in Eastern Germany.

Who Are Dynamo Dresden?

Sportgemeinschaft Dynamo Dresden e.V. is a professional club based in the city of Dresden, Saxony, in the east of Germany close to the Czechia and Poland borders. The club was were founded in April 1953 as an affiliation with the East German police force and quickly became one of the most successful clubs in East German football, winning eight league titles between 1953 and 1990. Dynamo played four seasons in the newly formed Bundesliga following the reunification of Germany, but has spent much of its time since between the second and fourth tiers. That trend has continued during this save, bar one season in Bundesliga as recently as 2070/71. But a poor season back in 2. Bundesliga saw Dynamo slip to a lowly 11th place last time out.

Dynamo still play at the 32,249-capacity DDV-Stadion, which was built in 2009. That’s supported by decent infrastructure of 18 youth facilities, 16 junior coaching and 15 youth recruitment but, oddly, only 7 training facilities. The club also has plenty of cash available, largely thanks to a big £40m of sales three summers ago, including a club record £12.7m of a striker to Norwich. And Mahtal had £17m available to spend with just £315k of a £700k wage budget being spent.

Winger Mbaye Sow was the best player at the club, along with Italian attacking midfielder Davide Altariva, left back and captain Fabian Felbinger, goalshy homegrown striker Tim Kurbjuweit, young right back Marco Bedeschi, Argentinian holding midfielder José Catalano, centre back Ibrahim Sarpei and Mahtal’s fellow Zambian goalkeeper Lazarous Phiri. They had a couple more prospects in midfielder Julian Hartwig and winger Lukas Winter. Mahtal had very little time to improve the squad, but did return to Hannover to loan in midfielder Oskar Hammer. Mahtal initially leaned towards a 4-2-3-1 and tested out a defensive 4-3-3 and the 3-4-3 that worked nicely at Hannover last season.

Mahtal Gets Started with his Fourth German Club

Mahtal was surprised to see the bookies fancied Dresden for a relegation battle, predicting them to finish 16th with 50/1 title odds. Relegated Freiburg are 1/10 favourites along with Nurnberg (11/3), Hansa Rostock (11/2), Rot-Weiss Essen and 1860 Munchen (6/1) and Hoffenheim (15/2).

2. Bundesliga began ludicrously early on 22 July, and a team nowhere near match sharpness lost 1-0 at Greuther Furth. They were slightly improved a week later on Mahtal’s home debut as Catalano’s penalty and Altariva’s sumptuous volley edged a 2-1 win over 10-man Hamburg. But a fairly shaky start continued as striker Rúben Correia nicked a 1-1 at Unterhaching before a dire 3-0 defeat at Paderborn and Correia’s brace earned a 2-2 at home to Nurnberg.

That stuttering start set the tone for a pretty mediocre campaign, in which Mahtal prioritised giving youngsters gametime and scouted the world to build for his second season. He oversaw a huge clearout in January, including Phiri, Altariva and Sow moving on for their minimum fee releases, and he rebuilt with promising replacements in strikers Espen Ronning and Spiro Baturina from Bodo/Glimt and Hajduk Split for a combined £4m and Czech midfielder David Boril and goalkeeper Jiri Machácek from Slavia and Sparta Prague for £4m and £3m.

Dresden showed signs of improvement towards the end of the season, including important wins at Rostock and at home to Osnabruck that removed any threats of relegation. And they eventually climbed to finish 10th on 46 points after 10 wins, a new club record 16 draws and 8 defeats. But Dresden games were far from entertaining, with them scoring 37 and conceding 36.

Dresden Rebuild Continues

Mahtal’s 90th year on the planet began by rebuilding his squad, including spending a new club record £8.25m on Cruz Azul’s aggressive centre back Juan Navarro. He was joined by some bargains, including attacking midfielder Mathías Miranda for £2m from Penarol, midfielders Valentín Rojas and Moussa Koné for £2m and £250k from All Boys and ASEC Mimosas, defenders Robin Ibishi and Tobias Grankvist for a combined £2.8m from Malmo and promising midfielder Stjepan Gusic for £400k from Dinamo Zagreb.

Mahtal’s transfer business saw the bookies boost Dresden’s chances, predicting a 12th-place finish with 50/1 title odds. Relegated Magdeburg are 1/5 favourites, followed by Freiburg 11/10, Rostock (9/2), Essen (6/1), Ingolstadt (13/2) and 1860 Munchen (8/1).

Mahtal’s second season at Dresden began with a Friday night trip to Paderborn, where debutant Miranda earned a 1-1. A week later, Ronning, who struggled last season with just 4 in 12, scored both in a 2-1 win at home to Darmstadt. And he surpassed last season’s tally by scoring the opener in a 4-0 thumping of Osnabruck and two more to edge a 4-3 thriller at Rostock. The strong start continued with a 0-0 at Mainz before Thai midfielder Suradej Inpinit scored the only goal at home to Unterhaching. An unfortunate situation saw both goalkeepers injured for a trip to leaders Freiburg and they lost 3-0. But a debut brace by striker Landing Coly earned the same result at Magdeburg to send Dynamo 4th after 11 games.

Can Dresden Maintain Their Promotion Push?

Dresden began 2074 with Ronning scoring the only goal at Darmstadt and Koné and Navarro downed Paderborn 2-0 before a nine-game unbeaten streak came grinding to a halt as they got dominated 2-0 at home to Rostock. They recovered led by Catalano, who’d forced his way back into the starting lineup, scoring twice at Osnabruck, before Ronning’s early header defeated 3rd-place 1860 1-0. Two weeks later, another crunch game saw them entertain 2nd-place Freiburg, and the striker scored again in a 2-2 that they really should have won but benefited both sides.

Indeed, Ronning again scored the only goal at home to fellow East German side Magdeburg and got the opener in a 2-1 win at Bochum to take Dresden 13 points clear of 4th place with five games remaining. Dresden blew their first shot at sealing promotion by losing 2-1 at home to struggling Kaiserslautern but, a week later, confirmed it thanks to Kurbjuweit’s late winner at Düsseldorf. They went on to win 2. Bundesliga for the second time in five years, setting a new league record points tally, surpassing Nurnberg’s 77 from 2073. Dresden topped the pile with 78 points after 24 wins, 6 draws and 4 defeats, scoring 59 and conceding 26.

Excitement As Dresden Return To Bundesliga

A sign of the potential Mahtal was beginning to develop was Navarro coming in 17th in NxGn with Miranda at 42nd. Their star man this season was Ronning with 16 goals in 35 games, along with Koné scoring 10 with 7 assists, but Mahtal knew they needed more contribution from the rest of the squad.

Mahtal, who turned 90 the day after the 2. Bundesliga campaign wrapped up, knew he’d need to do some business in the summer to prepare for the step up to Bundesliga. But, as the image above shows, he’d amassed plenty of potential and some exciting young talents.

Could Mahtal keep Dresden in Bundesliga in 2074/75? Join us on Monday to find out!