Season review: Freiburg surpassing themselves
SC Freiburg played a strong season 2012/2013 beyond all expectations. The club usually struggling with relegation or finishing right in the middle of nowhere in chart achieved a lot this year by securing their ticket for Europa league and just missed Champions League qualifiers on last matchday. Coach Christian Streich might be having problems though to maintain the level of success next year as many key players have left the club.
Coach Christian Streich made his young team play an extraordinary season.
The season 2012/2013 of SC Freiburg did not start as well as it ended. Only one victory, two draws and three defeats were on their balance sheet after six games. In the middle of first season leg Freiburg were on position 12 in chart, but then started a strong phase. Victories over Wolfsburg, Hannover, Stuttgart and Schalke followed and at winter break they were at position five already.
Only a few could had been expecting them up there in chart and everybody was waiting for them to crack, but they did not. Coach Christian Streich managed to form a young, aggressive team willing to and capable of playing strong and fast against almost every opponent in Bundesliga. Despite some setbacks like the 2-5 against Wolfsburg or the 1-5-defeat in Dortmund Freiburg continued to play good and in the end managed to secure playing in Europa League already heading into last matchday. There they had the chance of even playing in Champions League qualifiers next season. Against fourth placed Schalke they lost 1-2 which put an end to that hopes but the campaign with fifth place in Bundesliga and semi-finals in DFB Pokal was the second best in the history of the club.
Leavings might complicate next season
The success not only had positive consequences for Freiburg as five of their key players left the club. Max Kruse (towards Gladbach), Cedrick Makiadi (Bremen), Johannes Flum, Jan Rosenthal (both Frankfurt) and Daniel Caligiuri (Wolfsburg) all headed towards clubs that finished less good in chart than Freiburg. This might be an indication of Freiburg´s success only being a snapshot in time as they will have to prove their achievements next season with a slightly different team.
