Simon Hohenberg, coach of the RWE U19 team, looks back on the game against Schonnebeck and ahead to the next few weeks in the Lower Rhine League.

The U19 team of Rot-Weiss Essen was able to maintain its lead in the U19 Niederrheinliga table with a 4-1 win against the U19 team of Spvg Schonnebeck.

After the final whistle, coach Simon Hohenberg attested that his team did not perform well. However, the youth coach was also able to take positives from the game. His team scored three of the four goals from set pieces: two from corners and one from a free kick.

“That’s an area we’ve been focusing on extremely hard in recent months. These were some of the first set-piece goals we’ve scored in the season. We definitely had a negative record. So I’m really pleased that we scored three,” Hohenberg summed up after the game.

Thanks to this newfound strength, the result at the end of the 90 minutes was so clear. A result that was by no means clear against strong Schonnebeck. Because on the Essen side, some of the regular players were missing. Ahmed Etri, who was still on the bench with the professionals on Saturday, fell ill, as did Mehmet Can Demirci. Berkant Gedikli, who only returned from the Turkish national team the day before the game, was also missing.

But Hohenberg also saw the positive side here: “We’re not complaining. Other guys played and showed themselves. We played with seven players born in the same year in the starting lineup, which is also quite something. We are completely relaxed about it.”

After the difficult game against Schonnebeck, RWE will face the next tough duel against the league’s fourth-placed team from Unterrath (Sunday, February 25, 11 a.m.) in the next matchday. In mid-March, the game against TSV Meerbusch, which is second in the table with the same number of points, could be a decisive match for the championship (Sunday, March 17, 11 a.m.).

But Hohenberg doesn’t want to look that far ahead yet: “I don’t see it as the deciding game of the season yet. Unterrath was already a tough nut to crack in the first leg and extremely difficult for us to beat. They’re a very unpleasant opponent. Then comes the Lower Rhine Cup, then St. Tönis and then Meerbusch. I’m not that far ahead in my thoughts yet.”

Rather, the 37-year-old wants to concentrate on the next game and on himself: “We would do well to stay focused, analyze the game and add a few more percent next week.”