Heidenheim were written off as a certain relegation candidate. Now they go to 1. FC Köln on Sunday at 17:30 Uhr with a real chance to pull themselves level on points with the pair above them if they win.
The change in mood has been driven by recent results and by one player who has grown into the fight. Hennes Behrens, 21, has become a regular starter at outside defender under Frank Schmidt, and the loanee from TSG Hoffenheim says the pressure is exactly what he needs. “Wenn es nicht mehr kribbelt, stimmt etwas nicht,” he said, adding that the tension in the battle to stay up helps and that it is good to know there is still something at stake.
Heidenheim’s survival chances improved after defeats for Wolfsburg and St. Pauli went their way, and that has turned Sunday’s trip into more than just another late-season fixture. The team is now within striking distance of the sides directly above it, a position that looked unlikely when the discussion around the club was centered on whether it could avoid being cut adrift entirely.
Behrens has had a part in that shift. In his first season on loan from Hoffenheim, a move that will send him back there initially at the end of the campaign, he has established himself under Schmidt and said his game has become more controlled. “Ja, ich bin klarer und stabiler geworden,” he said, while also admitting, “Am Anfang hatte ich noch zu viele einfache Ballverluste.”
That growth matters because Heidenheim have already shown they can live with elite opposition, even in the middle of a survival scramble. Their dramatic 3:3 draw at FC Bayern underlined that they are still capable of taking points from places few expected them to get anything at all. For a team that was long viewed as a sure-fire relegation case, that result, combined with what happened elsewhere, has changed the shape of the final stretch.
The tension Behrens described is now part of the calculation for Heidenheim as they head to Köln. A win would not end the battle, but it would tighten it immediately and keep a team that had been nearly written off in the race for another week.
