Somewhat expectedly Dynamo Dresden endured a difficult campaign and they should count themselves lucky to avoid the drop after starting the season with just 3 wins in the opening 14 rounds. The fans were expectedly edgy right from very early in the season as after witnessing dramatic stoppage-time win in the season-opener in July they had to wait up until December to see the team’s second home win.
The fact that the team’s main striker Testroet got injured in round 1 and remained unavailable until March seriously disrupted the forward actions up until the winter break, with the other big casualty from early in the season being the rock of the back four Gonther, who was ruled out for a year back in September. This made Ballas even more important in defence where he was constantly having to play with different partners.
Dynamo mixed 4 wins with 4 defeats in their first 8 matches after the winter break, which was at least enough to keep Yellow and Blacks just above the relegation zone. The signing of striker Kone in January proved a success and he scored 7 goals in just 10 starts. The other major winter addition was that of centre-back Franke, finally Ballas was having a solid partner in defence, and it was probably these two transfer moves by coach Neuhaus that saved the team in the end.
Still the danger remained real right until the last week of the campaign, Dynamo won just one of their final eight matches, but edging the already relegated Kaiserslautern team 1:0 away from home in round 31 and then holding Erzgebirge to a heroic 0:0 away draw in round 33 proved just about enough to keep the team out of the drop zone come the end of the season.
