March in Germany’s 2. Bundesliga ended with exactly the kind of correction this league always throws at you. The late fixtures mattered: TuSEM Essen took a point off leaders SG BBM Bietigheim, HSC 2000 Coburg beat VfL Lübeck-Schwartau 40:34, and TV Großwallstadt added another survival-weighted win with 29:27 at HC Oppenweiler/Backnang. That means this is the updated March ranking, not the earlier version. And still, even after those final edits, the headline did not change. March was not about the table. It was about who felt strongest, hardest and most convincing inside the month itself. Hagen stayed there.
Movement of the month
- Hagen stay at No. 1. Four March league games, four wins, and the month never really loosened its grip on them. Pierre Busch even ended up among the official player-of-the-month nominees after a near-perfect stretch.
- Essen changed their story late. The month no longer reads as “close but empty” after the 33:33 against Bietigheim. Nils Homscheid hit 12 from 12 and Finn Knaack’s late save preserved a point that felt far bigger than one.
- Coburg and Großwallstadt were the late risers. Coburg stopped the slide with a 40:34 home win over Lübeck-Schwartau, while Großwallstadt backed up the Essen win with another pressure result in Oppenweiler.
- Lübeck-Schwartau and Elbflorenz lost traction at the wrong time. Lübeck finished March with another defeat, and Elbflorenz closed the month with painful losses in Lübbecke and Nordhorn that changed the tone of their promotion push.
1: VfL Eintracht Hagen
Current league standing: 5
December ranking: 13
This is still the team of the month. Not because the month was flashy, but because it was complete. They won four different kinds of games: 32:28 at Essen, 37:34 against Hüttenberg, 42:27 against Oppenweiler/Backnang, and 34:32 away at Ludwigshafen. That is not one hot night. That is a month with range.
Pierre Busch kept popping up wherever March became decisive. The official player-of-the-month shortlist credits him with 33 goals in four matches, 18 from the line, an 89.19% throwing rate and an average HPI of 90, while local Hagen coverage singled out his perfect 10-from-10 against Oppenweiler/Backnang. Hagen did not just win in March. They had a right edge to them.
2: HBW Balingen-Weilstetten
Current league standing: 2
December ranking: 7
Three March league games, three wins, and they looked like a side that understood exactly what promotion months are supposed to feel like. The statement piece was still Nordhorn: six goals down in the second half, then back in control by the finish. After that came a professional home win over Ludwigshafen and a mature 32:24 away result in Ferndorf.
The local reading around Balingen’s month is strong. Against Nordhorn, Sascha Pfattheicher finished with 10 goals, Elias Huber had 9 assists and Daniel Rebmann produced 10 saves. In Ferndorf, the same Rebmann was again highlighted for his first-half work, with local reporting putting him at a 40% save rate before the break. That is what a promotion-profile month looks like.
3: SG BBM Bietigheim
Current league standing: 1
December ranking: 6
Bietigheim remain top three for March, but the final Sunday draw in Essen changed the shade of the paragraph. Before that late game, the month looked almost too clean: 32:26 against Nordhorn, 31:24 in Ludwigshafen, 39:28 over Ferndorf. Then Essen forced them to work for survival, not dominance. That matters.
I still keep them this high because the body of the month is strong, and Jonathan Fischer’s March was once again elite: the official player-of-the-month shortlist gives him 19 goals in four matches at 76% efficiency. But the late 33:33 in Essen removed the feeling of invulnerability. March was powerful, not flawless.
4: TuS N-Lübbecke
Current league standing: 10
December ranking: 9
No team changed the emotional feel of its season more sharply in March. The month turns on one image: 16:8 down against Elbflorenz, then 34:31 winners. That is not just a comeback, that is a mood shift. When they then beat Lübeck-Schwartau and followed it with 27:24 against Dessau, the month became real.
This was not a top-three month because the overall ceiling was still lower than Hagen, Balingen and Bietigheim. But it was one of the clearest upward months in the league. Lübbecke did not just collect points. They altered the temperature around themselves.
5: HSG Krefeld Niederrhein
Current league standing: 17
December ranking: 16
Krefeld are still the clearest example of why monthly power rankings and league tables are different sports. March was strong: win over Oppenweiler/Backnang, win over Großwallstadt, narrow loss in Dessau, then the 37:34 derby win over Dormagen. That is a proper month, whatever the season table still says.
And there was a clear March face to it. Falk Kolodziej scored 11 in the derby, and both the club report and local Krefeld coverage framed the match as an emotional season peak in front of 5,176 spectators. Krefeld did not solve their season in March, but they unquestionably changed the conversation around it.
6: 1. VfL Potsdam
Current league standing: 4
December ranking: 3
Potsdam had a good month, but not a month with the same force as the five above them. They won 27:26 in Coburg, hammered Nordhorn 34:23, and then lost 27:30 in Hüttenberg. That leaves them in a good place, just not a dominant one.
What keeps them this high is the quality of that Nordhorn performance. Local Potsdam coverage called it their best performance of the year, and that is about right. The problem is that the month ended with a brake, not a push.
7: TSV Bayer Dormagen
Current league standing: 13
December ranking: 11
Dormagen were one of the hardest teams to place. Their month had real bite to it: 49 goals at Oppenweiler/Backnang, then a tight 30:29 over Hüttenberg. But it also had two losses that matter in this kind of ranking: 33:37 at Ludwigshafen and 34:37 in the derby at Krefeld.
So this is where I land: dangerous month, but not clean enough for the top six. The 49 in Oppenweiler remains one of the month’s loudest single results, and the club itself framed it as a real statement. But the month still had too much swing in it.
8: HC Elbflorenz 2006
Current league standing: 3
December ranking: 2
This is still the team I am cooler on than the table would be. Yes, they won in Lübeck and beat Coburg at home. But the defining March images were harsher: the eight-goal lead blown in Lübbecke, then the late 31:32 in Nordhorn. That is not a promotion-sprint month. That is a month with a wobble in it.
Sebastian Greß remained central to everything good they did. The official March shortlist credits him with 23 goals and 28 assists in four matches, which tells you how much offensive traffic still runs through him. But the local Dresden coverage around the Lübbecke loss made the bigger point: this was a genuine setback in the race.
9: Dessau-Roßlauer HV 06
Current league standing: 7
December ranking: 14
Dessau had one of the quietly strongest months in the league. They won in Ferndorf, edged Krefeld 32:31, and only lost away in N-Lübbecke. No noise, no theatre, just points and control.
That is why I keep them above Nordhorn and Hüttenberg. March was not spectacular, but it was efficient. In a league like this, that matters a lot.
10: HSG Nordhorn-Lingen
Current league standing: 6
December ranking: 1
The record says 1-3, which usually drags you lower than this. The reason they stay top ten is context. They lost to Bietigheim, Balingen and Potsdam, then ended the month by beating Elbflorenz 32:31 in one of the strongest single wins of the round.
The club’s own report on that Elbflorenz game made clear how stretched Nordhorn were physically and positionally, which made the result feel even bigger. So yes, the month was rough. But it was rough against serious opposition, and the late answer was good enough to keep them in this zone.
11: TV 05/07 Hüttenberg
Current league standing: 9
December ranking: 10
Hüttenberg’s month was narrow rather than poor. They lost by three in Hagen, by two at home to Lübeck-Schwartau, by one in Dormagen, then beat Potsdam 30:27. That is not a dead month. That is a month of almosts, followed by one sharp correction.
The Potsdam win stopped the month from sliding lower. Without it, Hüttenberg would have dropped several places.
12: TV Großwallstadt
Current league standing: 12
December ranking: 15
This is one of the places the late games changed. Before the final Sunday, Großwallstadt were sitting in the lower-middle muddle. After the 29:27 at Oppenweiler/Backnang, backed by the earlier 34:33 over Essen, the month became far more respectable.
And there is a verified individual engine there. The official March shortlist gives Ben Connar Battermann 31 goals and 20 assists across four games, and TVG’s own Oppenweiler match report reflects the same type of influence in a scrappy road win. Two wins in four do not make them a top-half March team, but they definitely lifted themselves.
13: HSC 2000 Coburg
Current league standing: 8
December ranking: 5
Coburg are another side lifted by the final March correction. Without the Lübeck-Schwartau game, the month looked thin. With it, the whole tone changes. A 40:34 home win, first victory after four defeats, and suddenly the month has oxygen again.
Mikael Helmersson’s return was central. Both official and local Coburg coverage point straight at him: 12 goals, comeback influence, and a badly needed offensive spark in front of a record crowd for Coburg’s current second-division season. That late match absolutely changed their March paragraph.
14: Eulen Ludwigshafen
Current league standing: 14
December ranking: 8
The Eulen stay above the bottom cluster because the month still contained something valuable: the 37:33 home win over Dormagen. After that, the schedule was cruel: Bietigheim, Balingen, Hagen. They lost all three, but not all of those defeats felt empty.
The club’s own reporting after the Hagen game leaned into that feeling of a big fight left unrewarded, and that is fair. March was not efficient enough, but it was not soft either.
15: TuSEM Essen
Current league standing: 16
December ranking: 12
This section changed the most. The first version of the article no longer works after the Bietigheim draw. March still gave Essen no win, but it gave them something much better than a flat 0-point month: a genuine late statement against the leaders.
And this is where the names matter. The official league report gave Nils Homscheid 12 goals at 100% and highlighted Finn Knaack’s strong night, while local Essen coverage made the final save the key image of the point. That does not suddenly make March good. But it does make it alive.
16: VfL Lübeck-Schwartau
Current league standing: 11
December ranking: 4
Lübeck-Schwartau drop after the final March update. They beat Hüttenberg early in the month, but then lost to Elbflorenz, N-Lübbecke and Coburg. That is a 1-3 March, and the late Coburg defeat made the month too thin to keep them higher.
Their own club communication around the last two weeks of March emphasised exactly what the eye test suggested: a team showing fight, but stretched by personnel issues. That earns some sympathy, not a higher ranking.
17: TuS Ferndorf
Current league standing: 15
December ranking: 17
Ferndorf started March brilliantly enough with a 31:27 win at Großwallstadt, but the rest of the month pulled them down hard. They lost to Dessau, were heavily beaten in Bietigheim, and then lost 24:32 at home to Balingen.
The local Siegerland wording after the Balingen match was blunt: another clear defeat, this time at home. That says a lot about how the month ended for them.
18: HC Oppenweiler/Backnang
Current league standing: 18
December ranking: 18
They stay last, but the paragraph has to be fairer now. Yes, the month was brutal overall: 25 conceded in Krefeld, 49 against Dormagen, 27 against Hagen, then another loss to Großwallstadt. But the final one was different. That 27:29 was competitive, and the club stressed that it came with six absences.
So they remain 18th in the March ranking, but the last game at least gave the month a more respectable final note than the table alone suggests.
Team of the month: VfL Eintracht Hagen
Four wins, four different scripts, no need to complicate it.
Player of the month: Connar Battermann
31 goals and 20 assists in four March games is elite production, and unlike a penalty-dominated scoring month, Battermann’s impact came much more from open play, shot creation and all-round offensive control.
Storyline of the month: The survival fight stopped being background noise
Krefeld gave themselves real life, Essen punched above their status late, Großwallstadt found breathing room, and Coburg killed a bad slide before it grew into something uglier.
Author: Hen Livgot
Hen Livgot is a handball expert and licensed professional players’ agent