Regionalligist Alemannia Aachen opens the season with a home match against Wuppertaler SV. We spoke to coach Helge Hohl in the run-up to the game.
On Friday evening (7:30 p.m.), the time has finally come. The eagerly awaited opening match in the Regionalliga West between Alemannia Aachen and Wuppertaler SV will then kick off.
The euphoria is extremely high. Already on Thursday, Aachen announced that more than 22,000 tickets had been sold for this traditional duel. One thing is clear: it will be the biggest crowd in an opening match in the Regionalliga West.
Forecasting spoke to Aachen coach Helge Hohl (31) before the match:
Helge Hohl, the preparation is coming to an end. How does the coach sum up the intensive last few weeks?
Overall, we are satisfied with the preparation. We had to integrate a lot of newcomers and get to know each other in the first phase. In addition, we wanted to quickly convey the idea of how we want to play soccer next season. We managed to do that quite well. I don’t want to overstate the test match results – both in a positive and negative direction. Every team is at a different stage during preparation and sets different priorities. For me, the content of the preparation is more important than the results. On the first match day, we will then see where we are at.
The anticipation is enormous in the team and in the immediate environment. You only have to look at the number of spectators. The whole city is euphoric. We want to try and take this momentum with us. It should inspire us and not inhibit us.
Helge Hohl.
Alemannia Aachen opens the season with a home match on Friday evening against Wuppertaler SV. More than 22,000 tickets have already been sold for this traditional duel – equivalent to the attendance record for an opening match in the Regionalliga West. How great is the anticipation for this match?
There’s a lot of anticipation among the team and in the immediate vicinity. You only have to look at the number of spectators. The whole city is euphoric. We want to try and take this momentum with us. It should inspire us and not inhibit us. We’re all looking forward to the first game and to being able to open the season. The only thing that has dampened our anticipation a bit recently has been the injuries to Cas Peters and Jan-Luca Rumpf. But since we have a good and broad squad, we still get that for the first match day very well absorbed.
Wuppertaler SV was one of the top teams in the league in the last two seasons. What kind of opponent are you preparing for?
WSV had a very, very good team last season. Of course, they lost two excellent players in Güler and Stiepermann, but they were able to compensate for these departures well with some new additions. We expect a strong opponent who also has very ambitious goals and wants to move up. Wuppertal plays with a three-man backline, which we are prepared for. Small things will be decisive in this game. It will be a very intense, hard-fought game.
Alemannia Aachen has been named the number one championship contender by many experts and league rivals. How is the team dealing with that?
It’s quite nice that many experts and league rivals have made us championship contenders, but ultimately we can’t buy anything for it. We know that we have to work very hard for everything from the first matchday. Other teams have made no secret of their ambitions. The circle of favorites is relatively large. They include Wuppertal, Rödinghausen and Oberhausen – and I think the U23 teams from Gladbach and Schalke will also play a good role.