After relegation from the A-Junioren Bundesliga, Rot-Weiss Essen’s U19s face new challenges in the Niederrheinliga. For example, the time penalty rule.

Particularly in view of the fact that Rot-Weiss Essen will be back in Germany’s top junior division next year due to the reforms in the A and B junior game, regardless of the outcome of the Niederrheinliga, one might have assumed that Simon Hohenberg’s team would approach the year in the Niederrheinliga without any particular ambitions.

But the opposite is the case. After the disappointing relegation from the A-Junioren Bundesliga and a somewhat bumpy start to the season with four points from three games, the U19s of Rot-Weiss Essen have recently celebrated two victories in a row and seem to have fully arrived in the new season.

According to coach Hohenberg, the reason for the slight initial difficulties was in particular the fact that his team had to play differently in the lower division. “For the training of the boys, this is a brutal year. We are now simply challenged in completely different aspects in our game and, above all, have to do a lot more with the ball than we did in the Bundesliga. “

Let’s not fool ourselves, we are Rot-Weiss Essen, our ambition is to play in the top league.

Simon Hohenberg

He doesn’t think the intermediate step in the Niederrheinliga is a waste of time. “Let’s not fool ourselves, we are Rot-Weiss Essen, our ambition is to play in the highest league. But I think it’s still a very exciting training focus now,” the 36-year-old reports. “It is by no means the case that the team is not challenged here. I think it’s always easier to just play against the ball than to find solutions with the ball. We are gradually adapting to this and I believe that this challenge is good for the boys,” says the coach.

In the new division, not only tactical but also technical unknowns await the Essen team. In the Niederrheinliga, for example, there is a time penalty rule – an idea that is also being discussed again and again for the professional sector and which Hohenberg does not find bad at all.

“I also noticed that for the first time in this game. The referee can send off a player with a yellow card for a few minutes before the yellow card is shown. Since I like to finish a game with eleven players on both sides, I don’t think that’s so bad as a preliminary step,” he says.

Of course, he is already looking forward to the coming season in the new game mode – even without the time penalty system.