Third-division club Rot-Weiss Essen is facing an important phase of the season. Coach Christoph Dabrowski is convinced that his team will improve again.
Rot-Weiss Essen had pronounced two goals before the start of the season. To stay in the 3rd division and to win the Lower Rhine Cup. On Tuesday evening, the Essen team played in the Lower Rhine Cup semi-final at the Regional League promoted 1. FC Bocholt.
To get one step closer to winning the cup, RWE had to win in Bocholt. Essen achieved this goal, but the favourites just got off lightly with a 6:5 victory after penalties.
In the cup, only advancing counts, but the performance raised questions. Head coach Christoph Dabrowski criticised the lack of “body language” in the second half and extra time after the final whistle. The fact that the readiness is not right in a game where a place in the final and a derby against Rot-Weiß Oberhausen are at stake worries the fans.
Because important and trend-setting games are on the agenda. Now the focus is completely on league action in the next two months.
Due to three defeats from the last four games, the lead over the first relegation place is “only” five points. In order to increase the gap again, the Dabrowski eleven urgently needs points.
The reckoning will take place after 38 match days. I’ve never been fooled by the table. It was clear that there was a long way to go until the last matchday. It’s part of the process of a season that you sometimes have a phase where the results aren’t so good.
Christoph Dabrowski.
The coach talks about the current trend: “It’s not easy to explain. We were not at our limit performance-wise in Saarbrücken and against Wehen Wiesbaden. Those were high hurdles, no question, but every single player should have stepped up a gear. The score will be settled after 38 match days. I’ve never been fooled by the standings. It was clear that there was a long way to go until the last matchday. It’s part of the process of a season that you sometimes have a phase where the results aren’t so good. We have to find means and solutions to move things back in the other direction as a team.”
In the next three matches, Rot-Weiss will face three teams from the top third of the table, SC Freiburg U23 (01 April), Dynamo Dresden (08 April) and SV Waldhof Mannheim (16 April). It is a demanding programme, but in the first half of the season RWE picked up seven points from the games.
Dabrowski is calling for his team to once again demonstrate the basic virtues: “We want to be a team that defends extremely well, is difficult to play against and poses problems for the opponent. Then we’ll have a basis for pinpricks, scoring goals through our dangerous standards and forcing luck. It doesn’t matter against which opponent we play. We have proven often enough that we are capable of showing a reaction. But that won’t come on its own – we have to do something about it. “
