The Osnabrück coach has his side challenging for promotion to the German second-tier. But he knows Americans have to earn respect in European football
Unlikely relegation contenders have become a feature of recent Bundesliga campaigns. Jürgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund side flirting with the trapdoor during the 2014-15 season is one dramatic example while Werder Bremen and Hamburger SV, down in the trenches during the current campaign, are also in trouble. The former USA international Joe Enochs watches these pressure cooker scenarios from his perch near the top of Germany’s third division with relish.
To be fair, Enoch’s own resume includes a few of them. VfL Osnabrück, the club he represented for the majority of his playing career, were a yo-yo club for most of the 12 years he spent wearing the club’s purple and white. A small provincial outfit located in the northwest of the country, in his time the club known as Lila-Weiß—the Lilywhites—regularly flitted between the second and third divisions (they have yet to reach the top tier in their history).
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