Football Season Guide

Kaiserslautern will be playing second division football again this season after a 4-year absence. The club finished third in Liga 3 but was promoted after beating Dynamo Dresden in a two-legged play-off back in May. It was far from plain sailing to get back up as the season ended dramatically, Kaiserslautern looked nailed on for automatic promotion but lost form completely and was pipped by Eintracht Braunschweig. Marco Antwerp was replaced as coach by Dirk Schuster before the play-off and the rest is history. It has been a tough number of years for this sleeping giant but they have at least made the first step of their rebuilding mission. Schuster has been busy in the transfer market in the summer to try and at least keep them in the division. The departure of goalkeeper Matheo Raab to Hamburger was a blow but the shrewd signing of veteran Andreas Luthe from Union Berlin should make it easy not to miss the latter. Defensively Kaiserslautern could be vulnerable and may need more reinforcements before the window shuts. Erik Durm is a good signing at right-back and brings tons of experience but the centre-back may need strengthening. New boy Lars Bunning is still untested at this level. The creativity in midfield areas could also be lacking but going forward they could be threatening. Fan favourite Terence Boyd knows where the net is and new signing Ben Zolinski from Erzgebirge has good experience at this level. Wunderlich, Hanslik, and Hercher can also add goals from midfield.