VfB Bottrop went into the winter break with 38 points from its first 16 games. But captain and key player Kudret Kanoglu is not satisfied.
At the start of the season, VfB Bottrop went from victory to victory and quite a few people thought that promotion to the Landesliga would be a foregone conclusion for coach Can Ucar’s team.
However, the 2-0 derby defeat at Fortuna Bottrop on matchday 7 was followed by a dip in the team’s spirits. The team went on to win five in a row, but the atmosphere was somewhat poisoned. As a result, Ucar left and Volker Hohmann came in as the new coach.
In the end, there were only two wins from the last five matches before the winter break. 38 points from 16 games sounds good, but not for captain Kudret Kanoglu.
Kudret Kanoglu on…
… VfB Bottrop’s first half of the season: “With the quality we have, we left far too much to chance. We should have scored more points. We got off to a good start and things were going very well – until the defeat at Fortuna. After that, nothing was the same as at the start of the season. But we still drew the games. That was simply the result of the high quality in the squad. But in the end, we were very happy that the winter break came. There are teams that are in the flow and could play through. And then there are teams that urgently need a break. That applies to us. The tank is empty and we have to fill it up again.”
… the best moment of the first half of the season: “There were three great moments for me personally: Firstly, the birth of my daughter during the summer break, then the test match against Rot-Weiss Essen and finally the 4:2 derby win at SV Rhenania Bottrop on matchday 13.”
… the worst moment in the first half of the season: “Yes, there were two: the 2-0 defeat at Fortuna Bottrop and the 2-2 draw against SuS 09 Dinslaken. We were leading 2:0, had everything under control and ended up drawing 2:2. Of course, that felt like a defeat.”
… the goals for 2024: “We want to recover, train well, get in shape and simply bring our great quality to the pitch. If we can do that, we’ll also achieve the goal we’ve set ourselves internally. I’m delighted that my brother Samet Kanoglu will be helping us with this from now on. “
“Points Table” src=“https://forecasting-sports.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-01-03-000913.png” width=“502” height=“569” /☻