Third division club Rot-Weiss Essen lost against Verl 1:3 and dropped to 16th place. Christoph Dabrowski assesses the defeat.

After two home wins in a row, Rot-Weiss Essen were expected to pull off a hat-trick on Wednesday evening. However, this plan did not work out: SC Verl conquered Hafenstraße once again and won 3:1 (0:0) in Essen. The team from East Westphalia thus remains RWE’s bogey team.

The game’s talking point was the red card shown to Julian Eitschberger in the 32nd minute. What had happened? Eitschberger made a tactical foul on Berkan Taz and was initially shown a yellow card. While Verl’s number 10 was being treated (and then had to be substituted), referee Nico Fuchs revised his decision and corrected it to a straight red. From then on, Essen had to play for 60 minutes with ten men.

“The red card naturally changes the game. But I think we defended well up until halftime and didn’t allow much. In the second half, our goal was to play to keep a clean sheet and to put a pin in the game. Unfortunately, we conceded a goal just 30 seconds later. The boys gave it their all, but with the third goal, the game was over. It was a bitter evening for us,” said head coach Christoph Dabrowski after the game.

Overall, however, the visitors deserved to win because Verl was more committed and more active, even when they were outnumbered. RWE played far too passively in the opening stages and completely left the game to their opponents. Dabrowski was also dissatisfied with the performance in the first 30 minutes: “We actually wanted to go into the game with more spirit, but we had few situations that could have caused danger.”
For Rot-Weiss Essen, it was the second game in the English week. Finally, there is another long journey on the program. On Saturday (October 26, 2 p.m.), the Red & Whites will play in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

For the first time since November 2006, the third division team will be visiting Hansa Rostock in a battle of the basement dwellers. The team, which was relegated from the second division, is currently in 18th place and is also lagging behind its own expectations.