Dynamo Dresden are a club who was very unlucky after the reuinification of Germany. After being in the top three of the DDR Oberliga (the top tier of East German football) and having won it 8 times between 1952 and 1990, seven of those coming in the 70s and 80s, the dissolution of the League in 1991 didn't do the club many favours.

Of course, the history of the club is one of the most interesting stories around: No club has a more fascinating history than Dynamo Dresden which is in reality two clubs born in East Germany of the post war era.

The original Dynamo Dresden were born in one of the most war torn cities in East Germany in 1950 and quickly became one of the most dominant teams in the new East German Bundesliga. However, four years later the head of the Stassi (the East German secret police) was upset that Dresden had a number of teams in the East German first division, but none from Berlin. The answer was move Dynamo Dresden to Berlin and rename the side Dynamo Berlin and the team, under this name really were the dominant force of the GDR.

Dynamo Dresden was better positioned to make the move to a unified Bundesliga than many of their fellow East German sides, however they did not have the financial resources to compete with the former West German sides.

Problems on the field and financial mismanagement and fraud saw Dresden drop as low as the fourth tier of German football, before earning promotion to the Third Division this season.

All change at Dynamo



After a superb promotion from the German third tier, tragedy struck Dynamo Dresden as their manager, Austrian Peter Pacult, was charged with appalling assault charges and was forced to resign from his position in charge of the Saxony club. With the 2012/13 season fast approaching, the Dresden board had a swift decision and appointment to made, and then opted to plump for Dynamo Dresden legend Joe Schmidt, 63, to take control and he was immediately given the task of restoring the club to their former glories, a position which he helped get them to. Schmidt had scored an incredible 278 goals in 301 games for the club while also being one of the most prolific and most feared strikers in the world while donning the East German shirt, scoring 37 goals in his 51 appearances. Is he the man to take the club back to the big time?

Nice start Interesting choice of team too!

2013-08-07 19:04#126090 Louis O. : Nice start Interesting choice of team too!

it's almost too straightforward to play with a top league/english team- i know all of the players and end up buying the same players every time, at least this way the players are pretty alien!

2013-08-07 19:07#126091 TheNortherner :

2013-08-07 19:04#126090 Louis O. : Nice start Interesting choice of team too!

it's almost too straightforward to play with a top league/english team- i know all of the players and end up buying the same players every time, at least this way the players are pretty alien!

Yeah, I was thinking of doing a Dresden or Rostock story or at least a German lower league story so I will follow this one with interest

Pre Season + August

Far from a revolution at the gluckgas stadion (Dynamo Dresden's 30,000 plus stadium), Joe Schmidt's reign at the club started very quietly on the transfer front. After finding it very difficult to sell any of his players, even those with promise, he had to settle for looking through the free agents and loan listed players due to his small budget of less than £100k. Greek striker Ioannas Amanatidis, a player who has featured in German football in each of the last four decades, was the only change to the club's permanent squad as Schmidt sought to add a bit of know how into his new club. Many of the club's loan transfers were cleared out in a bid to bring in some more reinforcements, but Maximillian Meyer, Schalke's 16 year old wonderkid, didn't fancy the drop into German football's second tier and, along with Nottingham Forest's Radoslav Madejski turned down a season of first team football at the Dresden outfit.
The club, towards the end of August, announced a link with German giants Bayern Munich and Schmidt immediately placed a bid for Emre Can to grace the Dresden turf for a season, but the league refused to ratify the deal after terms had been agreed.

With this, Joe Schmidt announced to the press that he was not at all impressed with player's desire to follow the money and stated that he believed Madejski to be nothing more than a mercenary. A foul mouthed rant was also leaked to the press, with Schmidt saying that he couldn't believe that German football would not allow one of the countries better prospects in Can to join a club playing at a competitive level, saying he thought it would be far better for German football were these players available to join club's like his beloved Drseden on loan.

Having had a reputation while playing for being outspoken and having little respect for authority, Schmidt's reign is likely to be a colourful one with more than it's fair share of controversy.

Pre Season

Five pre season matches saw five pre season wins for the newly promoted side, and the best result by far was the shock 3-0 victory over Lazio, where the team raced into a two goal lead courtesy of Mickael Pote, and Greek 20 year old Giannis Papadopoulos put the cherry on the cake with an 84th minute third goal in Rome. Schmidt spoke to the press after the match and said that he believed both players would be pivotal players in the team's season, and then made the bold statement of believing his team could reach the top three positions at the business end of the season.

Is this sheer arrogance on the part of the vocal East German? Experts left, right and centre believed so, writing off the Saxony club's chances immediately, saying that a top half finish was the very best they could hope for.

August Fixtures

The so-called 'experts' were made to eat their words as Schmidt ate his pretzels with the unfancied Dynamo Dresden sitting pretty at the top of the table as the start of September came. The club had won three of it's opening four games, with a 3-1 opening day win at home to Union Berlin followed by an incredible 4-1 away win to Ingolstadt. A 4-1 away defeat to bookies' favourites for promotion Koln followed, but a 2-1 home victory to Regensburg saw the club begin September joint top of the table with St Pauli- granted, having played a game more than many teams sitting two points behind on seven. Pote and Papadopoulos both started the season in superb form in front of goal with both being on three goals.

More to come tomorrow with more sensational news from the Dresden adventure!!

September

After having a sterling start to his reign at Dynamo Dresden, Schmidt's impressive control over his players and their discipline proved vital as the club ended the month as it started- top of the pile! After the victory over Regensburg, the team reigned supreme in a 2-1 win away to Paderborn, with Filip Trojan and Amanatidis bagging the goals for the German second tier's surprise package. The back to back victories were followed by a 1-0 home defeat against a St Pauli team, a team who finished the first half with 10 men and the second with 9. The failure of his troops to get back into the game while they had the advantage of one or two extra players on the pitch saw Schmidt keep his players locked in the changing room afterwards and the red-tops reported that everything that the volatile East German could set his hands on was thrown around the room. The anger seemed to work immediately after a mid week 1-0 away win at 1860 Munich saw the team return into the top three of a very tight league table, with Tobias Kempe being the player to net for the Dresden outfit on this occasion. A 1-1 draw at home to Sandhausen followed, with Mickael Pote scoring an 88th minute equaliser for the team, and he also chipped in with a further three goals in the two victories which followed, a 3-1 away win to the fancied Kaiserslautern and then a superlative performance to earn a 2-0 win at home to Hertha Berlin who, granted, finished the game with only eight men on the field.

Off the field, Dynamo Dresden have been the benefactors of an early season takeover, with local businessmann Thomas Meier becoming the new Chairman, having bought the club from the previous owners. He immediately put his money where his mouth is and gave Schmidt a £1 million transfer budget and promised to bankroll the club's rise to the top of German and, hopefully, European football.

October

A large man takes his seat in the room, with barely room to breathe for anybody in it. Before he is asked any questions, he starts proceedings with a broad grin while saying 'I told you so'. Joe Schmidt has been hailed by many of the Dynamo Dresden faithful for bringing what they would not have ever believed possible this season, to be sitting top of the table after the best part of three months of the season.

As the press conference at the gluckgas stadion continued after the teams latest win, a 5-0 demolition of Bochum in the German cup at the end of August, he made it clear who he believed were the players he credits with the club's success so far this season. 'Pote, Papadopoulos and my superb goalkeeper, Benjamin Kirsten, have all been absolutely superb so far, and my shrewd signing of Amanatidis has seen us score many goals in the last twenty minutes of matches after he has been introduced'.

Indeed, he is right- these players have been pivotal so far. The other results of the month prior to the demolition of Bochum in the cup included an unfortunate 2-1 away defeat at Aalen (bottom of the table at the time?!), which saw the Greek wonder Papadopoulos score what turned out to be the goal of the month. He bettered these goalscoring exploits in another 5-0 mullering of Bochum, this time in the league where he scored a hat trick with winger Tobias Kempe bagging two goals. After this, a 5-1 away win against Aue saw the club break the 30 goal barrier in the last league game of October with Pote getting a hat trick, Anthony Losilla scoring one and Christian Fiel getting the fith.

This left the club sitting only 2 points behind pre season favourites St Pauli in the title race and left the experts eating their words.

In the transfer market, the newly wealthy Dynamo Dresden got busy, bringing in Rabiu Afolabi, a Nigerian central defender of 20 caps, on a free transfer while also confirming the arrivals of Alejandro Bedoya from Helsingborg on a free transfer upon the expiry of his contract from the start of December and Palmeiras' Ronny, a winger, arriving at the start of January on the same deal.

Some nice results, like the 5-1 and 5-0 over Aue and Bochum, can't say I'm not very impressed!

2013-08-08 19:28#126289 Louis O. : Some nice results, like the 5-1 and 5-0 over Aue and Bochum, can't say I'm not very impressed!

quite staggering results if you ask me, the tactics are clearly working wonderfully!

Nice updates, and well done on not picking a boring team, I manage in Egypt haha

2013-08-08 19:31#126293 Lucas_C : Nice updates, and well done on not picking a boring team, I manage in Egypt haha

I imagine egypt is a very interesting one!