Matchday. "Metalist 1925" - "Waldhof". Match №4. Summer training 2025

On July 16 at 19:00 (18:00 local time). Austria, Kirchdorf in Tirol, "Leerberg-Arena" stadium. Control match №4. Summer training camp 2025.

Watch the match broadcast on the Metalist 1925 YouTube channel:

"Metalist 1925" quickly held the first three control matches in Austria, measuring forces with the Romanian "Botosani" (victory 2:0), Greek "Panathinaikos" (defeat 0:3) and with the champion of Azerbaijan "Karabakh" - Mladen Bartulovich's wards won 5:4 in a 120-minute match! 9 days have passed since then - the team managed to change the location in Austria and is now ready to start the German cycle. Because "Metalist 1925" will play three consecutive matches against German clubs. It will start against a club from the Third German League - "Waldhof". The general public may not know this team, but it has experience of performing at the highest level in its history, and in the all-time Bundesliga table, "Waldhof" occupies the 30th position. They, like "Metalist 1925", will start the season in early August, so the teams should be, theoretically, in the same conditions. Although today's opponents of the Kharkiv team have only played one control match. On July 12, the Mannheim derby took place against "Mannheim" (5th division) - the match ended with a draw 2:2. Today, "Waldhof" has two control matches at once: during the day they will play against "Bochum" (the next opponent of "Metalist 1925"), and then - our match.

Achievements: "Waldhof" has never won key German titles, but the team has spent almost two decades at the highest level of German football - in the 1940s, 1950s and late 1980s. And in 1939, "Waldhof" was a finalist of the German Cup. This tournament in recent years has been quite successful for teams from the Third League, where "Waldhof" is now playing, so you need to be very serious and attentive. The club has not been in the elite of German football for 35 years. He spent the 1990s in the Second Bundesliga, and then fell lower and lower. The 2000s and 2010s "Waldhof" spent in the fourth division of German football and even one year - in the fifth. And finally - for the past seven seasons, the "blue-blacks" have been playing in the Third League.

Geography: The club represents the city of Mannheim, located in the southwestern part of Germany. The third largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. The city's population is over 300,000 inhabitants, and the metropolis - about 2.5 million.

Head coach: The club is led by 35-year-old Austrian specialist Dominik Glavogger. As a player, he played at the amateur level in his homeland. Parallel to this, from the age of 19, he began working as a coach in children's football, then moved to youth football. He has coached youth teams of clubs such as "Holstein Kiel" and "Vitoria Guimaraes".

Transfermarkt: The well-known portal estimates the value of the current "Waldhof" squad at 5.5 million euros - almost 10 million euros less than the "Metalist 1925" squad. 7 players in the current team are listed as legionnaires. However, some of them were born in Germany. For example, Arianit Ferati - a 27-year-old native of Stuttgart has 2 matches for the national team of Kosovo, although at the youth level he went through all the stages of the German national team. He played 3 matches in the Bundesliga for "Stuttgart". "Transfermarkt" estimates Ferati as the most expensive player in the "Waldhof" squad - 450 thousand euros.

Also among the players, it is worth noting Terrence Boyd. The 34-year-old forward has 14 matches for the US national team, although he was born in Germany. He has experience playing in the Bundesliga, where he played for "Darmstadt". French winger Adama Diakhaby has experience playing in Ligue 1, the Premier League, and the Champions League. He joined the team this summer as a free agent, like 6 other new "Waldhof" players.