Heidenheim achieved an impressive top six finish, despite losing focus and motivation in the second part of the season and actually playing some poor football in 2017 when all hopes of promotion were lost.
Coach Schmidt decided to use the same players he trusted the previous campaign and this was probably what helped Heidenheim to look very well on the pitch early in the season when most other teams were trying to build their synchrony. Heidenheim lost just once in the opening ten rounds and, with Schnatterer, Kleindienst and Thomalla in optimum form early on, scoring goals proved easy. Unfortunately Thomalla found the back of the net in all of the first four matches of the team, but he entered a dark place after that and didn’t score more goals for the rest of the season.
Heidenheim failed to enter the top three in the autumn only because of their shaky away form and between rounds 11 and 16 Blue and Reds registered three consecutive home wins, which were unfortunately mixed with three away defeats. The form on the road was badly affected by the fact that, as early as October, one of the main centre-backs of the team Kevin Kraus suffered a season-ending knee injury. Still, come the winter break, Heidenheim were sitting just outside the top three and the arrival of Wahl on loan provided a cover for Kraus’ absence.
Unfortunately the other regular starter in the heart of the defence Wittek also suffered a serious injury just five games into 2017 and these two major upsets definitely influenced the displays in spring. With just one point collected from their first four home outings after the winter break and continuing poor away form Heidenheim very quickly lost hope to fight for promotion. The official end of the dream came in round 25 when Schmidt’s men suffered a painful 2:3 defeat against Eintracht Braunschweig.
This was the start of a three-game losing streak for Heidenheim and, despite the poor displays late in the season, the point tally was already good enough to guarantee the team a top six finish. Still, just 4 wins in the second half of the season, comparing to 8 defeats, must be showing coach Schmidt that, if he wants his team to take the decisive step towards going up a division, he will have to strengthen the squad this summer.
