Third division football club Rot-Weiss Essen fought their way to a 2-2 (0-1) draw at MSV Duisburg. Coach Christoph Dabrowski saw two different halves.
Most of the players at Rot-Weiss Essen are only used to a full house from games at home on Hafenstraße. But on this Friday evening everything was different. The team promoted to the third division travelled to MSV Duisburg for the first league derby in over 15 years – to a sold-out Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena. 28,200 fans were there, more spectators had not been possible for safety reasons.
For RWE, it was the first game after the 1:5 defeat against fellow promoted team SV Elversberg. In Duisburg, coach Christoph Dabrowski’s team showed the right reaction in the second half and levelled a 0:2 deficit into a 2:2 draw. However, until goal scorer Simon Engelmann scored the second goal (66th), it looked like the second defeat. The Esseners were often only the second winner in the duels against robust Duisburg and were also not consistent enough offensively. However, the substitutions of Engelmann, Thomas Eisfeld and Co. then initiated the turnaround. Only four minutes after Engelmann’s goal, newcomer Lawrence Ennali (70th) sealed the derby draw.
In the second half, also due to the changes, we finally arrived in the 3rd division. We can build on that. We showed an unconditional mentality there.
Christoph Dabrowski.
The coach was pleased with his team’s morale, but was not satisfied with their performance in the first half: “Unfortunately, we conceded another early goal. That’s when a bit of the feeling from the Elversberg game came back into our heads. After that, our play was very faulty and we hardly had any composure or clear actions. Nevertheless, the game was open. But the way we came back after conceding the second goal is how we have to perform in the league. In the second half, also due to the changes, we finally arrived in the 3rd Division. We can build on that. We showed an unconditional mentality there,” explained Dabrowski.
Even in the early stages of the season, the first English week is on the agenda for the third division teams. Next Tuesday (9 August, 7 pm), Dabrowski’s team will host Viktoria Köln at the Hafenstraße stadium and four days later (13 August, 2 pm) RWE will play host to Borussia Dortmund’s U23s at Signal-Iduna-Park.