At the start of the season, not much is really new for sonderhofen’s new coach wolfgang beischmidt. The 42-year-old banker knows the club from the ochsenfurt region from his time as club manager between 2005 and 2008. On the first matchday, he expects to face spielvereinigung gulchsheim, the team he coached the year before. Beischmidt, who once kicked for FC bayern munchen from the D-youth to the amateurs, and later for spvgg unterhaching, among others, until his wife brought him to the ochsenfurt area, where he now lives in gaukonigshofen, talked about the prospects and his sporting ambitions.
Question: at the start in sonderhofen, you’ll be facing your club from last year, spvgg gulchsheim. That’s a good start.
Wolfgang beischmidt: well, at some point in the round, you just run into them. It’s a funny coincidence that it’s on the very first matchday. Otherwise, I see this as a normal game. It is an important game because it is the very first game of the season, not because it is against gulchsheim.
You left SV sonderhofen in 2008 after three years in third place in the district league, shortly before promotion. Are there similar high in the foreseeable future once again possible?
Beischmidt: back then we were about to jump into the district league, with a completely different team than now. There are only three players left from that time – jochen muller, benni kremer and michael schejbal – otherwise it’s all young players. The goal is to bring consistency back in. At some point, promotion may be a topic again, but this year is not at all compelling. There are other clubs in the league that have more potential at the moment.
It’s a little unusual for a coach to return to a previous station . . .
Beischmidt: is that so?
That doesn’t happen too often.
Beischmidt: I don’t know. In sonderhofen I left then by mutual agreement. We had three beautiful years. Now the situation there is completely different. If it had been the same team, then I would not have come back. That would not make sense. I was attracted to the team because it is a young squad with real potential.
The old contacts were still allowed to play a role, or?
Beischmidt: I’ll say this now: sonderhofen was not unhappy with me at that time. All the time there was always contact with players, responsible persons, but it was not planned to come back for a long time. It just happened that way.
Don’t you have to lower your standards as a coach in the district league??
Beischmidt: I already got to know them in gulchsheim the year before. It is of course something different than in the district league and maybe also different than a few years ago in the district league with sonderhofen. Of course we have to lower our expectations, but I think not so much in terms of football quality. But rather in the surrounding. You have to cope with players who study, who work shifts. Football is not the center of life, but one of the many things that occupy people’s minds. That is the difference.
Can you come up with modern fubball like viererkette and so on? Or is that too difficult?
Beischmidt: you can do that. There are certainly some who play with chain. The question is whether the players have already learned it before. You could try it with a young team like sonderofen, but that would mean it would take a year or two to get to that point. You don’t have the time, you had to start in youth. I’m not a fan of wanting to play this or that as a coach. I always have to go by the squad, what it offers.
The year before sonderhofen finished fourth. The conditions could not be so bad this time either. What’s in it?
Beischmidt: for me, SV sonderhofen already had one of the better squads the year before. What is missing in comparison to iphofen, bayern kitzingen II, giebelstadt or gulchsheim, are experienced players who can decide a game on their own. Sonderhofen does not have that yet. We always have to play very well to win. Others win bad games because they have players who decide the game with one or two actions. That is what we lack at the moment.
The clubs you mentioned before were allowed to be the main competitors, the ones who are in the lead?
Beischmidt: well, i don’t see them as competitors, because we don’t count ourselves as championship favorites. Only iphofen and bayern kitzingen II were mentioned, that’s okay too. I believe that gulchsheim can play a good role under the circumstances. You have made good additions with the return of christian urbat and timo scheerer and player-coach dietmar gahm. If the three are fit, is the already good squad even stronger.
Last year, you joined spvgg gulchsheim for a short time, but then it was all over again after just one year. Why?
Beischmidt: actually i wanted to take a year off. The engagement came about because gulchsheim had no coach. After gulchsheim’s relegation, it was a difficult year, but one that still made me feel great. The club was satisfied and wanted me to stay. But I had already said early on that I wanted to change my orientation and not stay. They accepted that. Gulchsheim has caught up, I trust them this year a lot to the new recruits.
Do you want to go back to higher regions as a coach one day??
Beischmidt: i wouldn’t say that. The team already has a role to play. I had the opportunity to coach in the national league a few years ago and turned it down. I wouldn’t do it today either, because it’s hard to reconcile work and family life. Sonderhofen is very convenient for me, i live right next to it. It is important that both fit. The auand must be within the framework, so I did not like to train four times a week. But I can train there twice a week. And there’s a squad that’s ready to go.