2011–12 Fortuna Düsseldorf season

Fortuna Düsseldorf

2011–12 season
Manager	Norbert Meier
2. Bundesliga	3rd Promotion playoff winner
DFB-Pokal	3rd Round
Top goalscorer	League: Sascha Rösler (11) All: Sascha Rösler (14)
Highest home attendance	33.150 (v. VfL Bochum)
Lowest home attendance	21.240 (v. FC Ingolstadt)
Home colours Away colours Third colours
← 2010–11 2012–13 →

The 2011–12 Fortuna Düsseldorf season is the 117th season in club history. The season started on 18 July against VfL Bochum.

Review and events

Overview of season

Fortuna Düsseldorf became the most successful Herbstmeister ("Autumn champion") in 2. Bundesliga history after earning 41 points from 17 matches.^[1][2] The 41 points accumulated is the most in history since the three-point system was introduced in 1995.^[1] Düsseldorf lost their first six matches in 2010–11 season.^[2] since then, they've earned 94 points which is most out of all professional football clubs in Germany.^[2]

Hertha BSC vs. Fortuna Düsseldorf

The matches

Fortuna Düsseldorf won a spot in the promotion/relegation playoff against the Bundesliga's Hertha BSC.^[3]

First leg

Entering the playoff, Fortuna Düsseldorf had not played in the top flight for 15 seasons.^[4] They won the first leg against Hertha BSC 1–2 in Berlin's Olympic Stadium with goals from Thomas Bröker and an own goal from Hertha's Adrián Ramos.^[4]

Second leg

In the return leg in Düsseldorf, both teams drew 2–2;^[3][5] Fortuna Düsseldorf won on aggregate 4–3.^[3][5] The match's second half, however, was marred by trouble, first after Hertha supports threw flares onto the pitch^[6] after Fortuna scored its second goal of the night to go up 2–1. The other problem was when several Fortuna supporters ran onto the field with around one minute remaining in the match.^[3][6][7] It took 21 minutes to restore order^[8] and stoppage time ended up being 28 minutes by the time the final whistle blew. With Fortuna winning the two-legged affair, they secured a return to the Bundesliga after 15 seasons.^[7]

The appeal

Hertha BSC appealed the result of the match.^[9][10] The German Football Association (DFB) met on 18 May 2012 to discuss the incidents of the second leg.^[9][10] Campino, singer for Die Toten Hosen, called Hertha BSC's protest "indecent".^[11] The hearing at the DFB lasted for six hours.^[12] The panel's decision will not be known until a further meeting on Monday.^[12] It is expected to make a decision at 15.00 CET.^[12] The German Football Association stated that any possible disciplinary action against either club or any of the players will be taken at a later date.^[12] The players being investigated are Levan Kobiashvili, Christian Lell, Thomas Kraft and Andre Mijatović.^[12] Second leg referee Wolfgang Stark was a key witness at the first hearing.^[12] Fortuna canceled a planned trip to Mallorca due to the hearing on 21 May 2012.^[13]

Sports law expert Michael Lehner said that Hertha can hope for replay after the second leg of the promotion/relegation playoff.^[14] Lehner went on to state, "Is not the game has been properly placed on the principle of equal opportunity at the end there was a break in terms of game development," and, "The team of Hertha BSC through the fault of third parties a real opportunity has been deprived of the game even. get why there should be a replay from a legal point of view."^[14]

The sports court of the DFB ultimately rejected Hertha's appeal,^[15][16][17] with Hertha ordered to pay the cost of the proceedings.^[17] Hertha then appealed the decision of the DFB's sports court.^[15][16][17] The sports DFB court president Hans Eberhard Lorenz stated, "The appeal was unsuccessful, because no ground of opposition was to prove the referee has traded at any time conform to the rules, and the alleged Hertha BSC-sided weakness due to the interruption could not be proven..." He also stated that, "There was no Berlin players injured or assaulted or were needed to be replaced. Had this been the case, the objection would have been done."^[16] The Federal Court of the German Football Association confirmed the Sports Court decision.^[18] Hertha can appeal the decision to the Sports Court for Arbitration.^[18] After the final verdict, Hertha players went on vacation, while Fortuna players were not immediately released for vacation.^[19]

The disciplenary panel of the DFB decided that Fortuna must play their first home match of next season behind closed doors as a result of their fans running onto the field during the second leg of the promotion/relegation playoff.^[20] The club was also sanctioned with a six-figure fine.^[20]

Other incidents

Another incident, as reported by Die Welt the next day, was that Hertha players attacked second leg referee Wolfgang Stark.^[8] Stark pressed charges against an unknown player for assaulting him off the field.^[12] Hertha apologized for the conduct of some of the club's players.^[13] The decision on the misconduct of Kobiashvili, Lell, Kraft and Mijatović are due later this week.^[15][16] The four players are accused of verbally and physically harassing the referee.^[16][17] Fortuna's Andreas Lambertz is also being investigated.^[16][17] He celebrated with a torch in his hand after the match.^[16]

Match results

Legend

  Win   Draw   Loss

2. Bundesliga

Regular season

Match	Date	Time1	Venue	City	Opponent	Result2	Attendance	Fortuna Düsseldorf goalscorers	League Position	Source
1	18 July	20:15	Esprit Arena	Düsseldorf	VfL Bochum	2–0	33.150	Rösler  66' Bröker  88'	2	[MR 1][MR 2]
2	24 July	15:30	Energieteam Arena	Paderborn	SC Paderborn	1–1	11.014	Langeneke  42' (pen.)	3	[MR 3][MR 4]
3	5 August	18:00	Esprit Arena	Düsseldorf	FC Ingolstadt	4–1	21.240	Rösler  43' Bröker  50', 72' Fink  54'	1	[MR 5][MR 6]
4	15 August	20:15	Commerzbank-Arena	Frankfurt	Eintracht Frankfurt	1–1	42.000	Beister  54'	6	[MR 7][MR 8]
5	19 August	18:00	Esprit Arena	Düsseldorf	1860 Munich	3–1	28.300	Rösler  43' (pen.) Lambertz  46' Beister  67'	5	[MR 9][MR 10]
6	27 August	13:00	Tivoli	Aachen	Alemannia Aachen	0–0	23.864	No Scorer	7	[MR 11][MR 12]
7	10 September	13:00	Esprit Arena	Düsseldorf	Karlsruher SC	4–2	27.230	Langeneke  12' (pen.) Rösler  20' Bröker  67', 75'	3	[MR 13][MR 14]
8	16 September	18:00	Erzgebirgsstadion	Aue	Erzgebirge Aue	4–2	10.100	Langeneke  14' (pen.) Rösler  22' Lukimya  84' Juanan  89'	3	[MR 15][MR 16]
9	24 September	13:00	Esprit Arena	Düsseldorf	Energie Cottbus	4–2	25.450	Beister  4', 26' Rösler  17' Grimaldi  90'+3'	2	[MR 17][MR 18]
10	3 October	20:15	Eintracht-Stadion	Braunschweig	Eintracht Braunschweig	1–1	23.050	Langeneke  85' (pen.)	3	[MR 19][MR 20]
11	17 October	20:15	Millerntor-Stadion	Hamburg	FC St. Pauli	3–1	24.487	Lambertz  45'+1', 57' Beister  75'	3	[MR 21][MR 22]
12	21 October	18:00	Esprit Arena	Düsseldorf	Hansa Rostock	2–0	23.550	Langeneke  27' (pen.) Rösler  54'	3	[MR 23][MR 24]
13	30 October	13:30	Frankfurter Volksbank Stadion	Frankfurt	FSV Frankfurt	5–2	7.719	Rösler  16', 55' (pen.) Dum  66' Beister  82', 85'	1	[MR 25][MR 26]
14	4 November	18:00	Esprit Arena	Düsseldorf	Dynamo Dresden	2–1	32.300	Beister  20' Jovanović  90'+2'	1	[MR 27][MR 28]
15	19 November	13:30	Stadion An der Alten Försterei	Berlin	Union Berlin	0–0	18.432	No Scorer	2	[MR 29][MR 30]
16	28 November	20:15	Esprit Arena	Düsseldorf	Greuther Fürth	2–1	33.017	Fink  18' Langeneke  39' (pen.)	1	[MR 31][MR 32]
17	5 December	20:15	Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena	Duisburg	MSV Duisburg	2–0	23.117	Langeneke  57' (pen.) Rösler  59'	1	[MR 33][MR 34]
18	10 December	13:00	rewirpowerSTADION	Bochum	VfL Bochum	1–1	17.500	Rösler  74'	1	[MR 35][MR 36]
19	16 December	18:00	Esprit Arena	Düsseldorf	SC Paderborn	2–3	25.240	Juanan  56' Jovanović  75'	1	[MR 37][MR 38]

• 1.^ Match times before 30 October and after 24 March are played in Central European Summer Time. Match times from 30 October to 24 March are played in Central European Time.
• 2.^ Fortuna Düsseldorf goals listed first.

Promotion playoff

As third-place team, Fortuna Düsseldorf faces the 16th-placed 2011–12 Bundesliga side in a two-legged play-off. Hertha BSC finished in 16th place.^[21] The winner on aggregate score after both matches will earn a spot in the 2012–13 Bundesliga.

Dates and times of these matches were determined by the Deutsche Fußball-Liga as following:^[22]

DFB-Pokal

Hessen Kassel v Fortuna Düsseldorf

31 July First Round	Hessen Kassel	0–3	Fortuna Düsseldorf	Kassel
17:30 CEST		Match Report	25' Bröker  80' Rösler  80' Fink	Stadium: Auestadion Attendance: 14,850 Referee: Benjamin Cortus

Fortuna Düsseldorf v 1860 Munich

25 October Second Round	Fortuna Düsseldorf	3–0	1860 Munich	Düsseldorf
19:00 CEST	Benjamin  15' (o.g.) Rösler  86', 90'+1' (pen.)	Match Report		Stadium: Esprit Arena Attendance: 34,413 Referee: Jochen Drees

Fortuna Düsseldorf v Borussia Dortmund

20 December Round of 16	Fortuna Düsseldorf	0–0 (4–5 p)	Borussia Dortmund	Düsseldorf
20:30 CET		Report		Stadium: Esprit Arena Attendance: 54,000 Referee: Manuel Gräfe
		Penalties
	Jovanović Langeneke Lambertz Bröker Rösler		Hummels Błaszczykowski Kehl Gündoğan Perišić

Player information

Roster and statistics

As of 17 December 2011

Squad Season 2011–12 Sources:[23][24][25]
Player					2. Bundesliga		DFB-Pokal		Promotion playoff		Totals
Player	Nat.	Birthday	at Fortuna since	Previous club	Matches	Goals	Matches	Goal	Matches	Goals	Matches	Goals
Goalkeepers
Michael Ratajczak		000000001982-04-16-000016 April 1982	2007	Rot-Weiss Essen	17	0	2	0			19	0
Robert Almer		000000001984-03-20-000020 March 1984	2011	Austria Wien	3	0	0	0			3	0
Markus Krauss		000000001987-09-16-000016 September 1987	2011	VfB Stuttgart	0	0	0	0			0	0
Defenders
Jeron Hazaimeh		000000001992-02-13-000013 February 1992	2002	SV Wersten	0	0	0	0			0	0
Juanan		000000001987-04-27-000027 April 1987	2011	Real Madrid Castilla	11	2	1	0			12	2
Jens Langeneke		000000001977-03-29-000029 March 1977	2006	Rot Weiss Ahlen	19	7	1	0			20	7
Tobias Levels		000000001986-11-22-000022 November 1986	2011	Borussia Mönchengladbach	12	0	1	0			13	0
Assani Lukimya		000000001986-01-25-000025 January 1986	2010	Carl Zeiss Jena	19	1	2	0			21	1
Kai Schwertfeger		000000001988-09-08-00008 September 1988	1997	Mettmanner SC	0	0	0	0			0	0
Johannes van den Bergh		000000001986-11-21-000021 November 1986	2009	Borussia Mönchengladbach	19	0	2	0			21	0
Christian Weber		000000001983-09-15-000015 September 1983	2009	Larissa	8	0	2	0			10	0
Midfielders
Maximilian Beister		000000001990-09-06-00006 September 1990	2010	Hamburger SV	19	8	2	0			21	8
Adam Bodzek		000000001985-09-07-00007 September 1985	2011	MSV Duisburg	18	0	2	0			20	0
Sascha Dum		000000001986-07-03-00003 July 1986	2010	Energie Cottbus	14	1	2	0			16	1
Tugrul Erat		000000001992-06-17-000017 June 1992	2009	Union Nettetal	12	0	0	0			12	0
Oliver Fink		000000001982-06-06-00006 June 1982	2009	SpVgg Unterhaching	17	2	2	1			19	3
Andreas Lambertz		000000001984-10-15-000015 October 1984	2002	VfR Neuss	17	3	2	0			19	3
Jules Schwadorf		000000001992-10-19-000019 October 1992	2011	Bayer Leverkusen	0	0	0	0			0	0
Forwards
Villyan Bijev		000000001993-01-03-00003 January 1993	2011	Liverpool	0	0	0	0			0	0
Thomas Bröker		000000001985-01-22-000022 January 1985	2010	Rot Weiss Ahlen	17	5	2	1			19	6
Timo Furuholm		000000001987-10-11-000011 October 1987	2012	Inter Turku	2	0	0	0			2	0
Adriano Grimaldi		000000001991-04-05-00005 April 1991	2011	Mainz 05	7	1	2	0			9	1
Ken Ilsö		000000001986-12-02-00002 December 1986	2011	Midtjylland	13	0	0	0			13	0
Ranisav Jovanović		000000001980-11-05-00005 November 1980	2008	Mainz 05	5	1	0	0			6	2
Robbie Kruse		000000001988-10-05-00005 October 1988	2011	Melbourne Victory	11	0	1	0			12	0
Sascha Rösler		000000001977-10-28-000028 October 1977	2010	1860 Munich	18	11	2	3			20	14

Sources

Match reports

Other sources