22-goal man – “For us, the game against VfB Bottrop is a final”

Black-and-white Alstaden is back on the road to success after a crisis in the middle of the first half of the season. SWA has won four times in a row. Now VfB Bottrop is coming.

4:2 against Sportfreunde Königshardt, 1:0 at SC 1920 Oberhausen, 12:1 at GSV Viktoria Suderwick and 5:0 against VfL Rhede: Schwarz-Weiß Alstaden is in very good shape at the end of 2023.

The same applies to 22-goal man Raphael Steinmetz. The player-coach from Oberhausen is – once again – leading the scoring charts in the Bezirksliga Group 5 in the Lower Rhine region.

“Oh, that’s not important to me at all. The team’s success is the priority. We’ve picked ourselves up in the last few weeks. We also had a bad patch of only five points in seven games. That cost us a lot. Let’s see if we can fix that again,” says Steinmetz.

After the 5-0 win against Rhede – Steinmetz: “Actually, we have to win the game by double digits” – the final game of the year against VfB Bottrop will take place on Friday (December 15, 7:30 p.m.). Bottrop, which won the first leg 4-0 against Alstaden, is nine points ahead of Schwarz-Weiß.

I can already promise VfB a hot dance. We also have our Christmas party on Saturday. Nobody wants to sit there with a stupid face. We can determine how good the atmosphere will be on Saturday on Friday evening.

Raphael Steinmetz

Steinmetz emphasizes the importance of this duel: “The game on Friday against VfB Bottrop is a final for us. If we win, we’re back in the game and can attack again in 2024. If we lose, that’s it for this season.” He adds: “I can already promise VfB a hot dance. We also have our Christmas party on Saturday. Nobody wants to sit there with a stupid face. We can determine how good the atmosphere will be on Saturday ourselves on Friday evening.”

Steinmetz did not play in the first leg at the Jahnstadion in Bottrop, so he is all the more eager for revenge. Steinmetz: “That was our worst performance of the season. We let ourselves be shown up to a point. Now we want to show VfB at our sports facility that we’re actually not that bad.”