22-goal man – “For us, the game against VfB Bottrop is a final”

Schwarz-Weiß Alstaden are back on the road to success after a crisis in the middle of the first half of the season. SWA recently won four times in a row. Now comes VfB Bottrop.

4:2 against Sportfreunde Königshardt, 1:0 at SC 1920 Oberhausen, 12:1 at GSV Viktoria Suderwick and 5:0 against VfL Rhede: Schwarz-Weiß Alstaden are in very good shape at the end of 2023.

That also applies to 22-goal man Raphael Steinmetz. The Oberhausen player-coach is – once again – top of the scoring charts in the Lower Rhine District League Group 5.

“Oh, that’s not important to me. The team’s success takes priority. We’ve got our act together in recent weeks. We also had a bad phase of only five points in seven matches. That cost us a lot. Let’s see if we can put that right again,” says Steinmetz.

After the 5:0 win against Rhede – Steinmetz: “We actually have to win the game by double digits” – the end of the year against VfB Bottrop follows on Friday (December 15, 7.30 pm). Bottrop, who won the first leg 4:0 against Alstaden, are nine points ahead of Schwarz-Weiß.

I can already promise VfB a hot dance. We also have our Christmas party on Saturday. Nobody wants to sit there with a stupid face. We can decide for ourselves on Friday evening how good the atmosphere will be on Saturday.

Raphael Steinmetz

Steinmetz emphasizes the importance of this duel: “Friday’s game against VfB Bottrop is a final for us. If we win, we’ll be back in business and can attack again in 2024. If we lose, then that’s it for this season.” He added: “I can already promise VfB a hot dance. We also have our Christmas party on Saturday. Nobody wants to sit there with a stupid face. We can decide for ourselves on Friday evening how good the atmosphere will be on Saturday.”

Steinmetz was not on the pitch in the first leg at Bottrop’s Jahnstadion, so he is all the more eager for revenge. Steinmetz: “That was our worst performance of the season. We let ourselves be shown up to a certain extent. Now we want to show VfB at our sports facility that we’re not actually that bad. “