In the Regionalliga West, SSVg Velbert is suddenly in the race to stay up. Bogdan Komorowski is hoping for points against Fortuna Köln and gives an insight into the personnel situation.

SSVg Velbert has fought its way back from an almost hopeless situation in the Regionalliga West. Not only have they managed to escape the bottom of the table, they are also (excluding postponed games) one point behind a non-relegation spot. When Bogdan Komorowski took over as coach at SSVg Velbert, it looked as if the club would be planning for the Oberliga Niederrhein again. But in the second half of the season, Velbert won two to five games – curiously, all 1-0 away wins (at Wuppertaler SV, Borussia Mönchengladbach’s U23 team, FC Gütersloh, and Bonner SC).

In the meantime, faith has returned to the IMS Arena, which, however, has been anything but a fortress recently. Now, of all teams, league leaders Fortuna Cologne are coming to Velbert (Friday, March 13, 7:30 p.m.). Tristan Duschke, who has returned to the team, can also help boost the points tally. Forecasting spoke to Komorowski about this and more. Bogdan Komorowski, four 1-0 away wins, four defeats at home. How can you explain the discrepancy? It always comes down to the little things in soccer. But we definitely have the potential to do better at home. We’re working on that.

It’s a floodlit game on Friday evening, the league leaders are coming – conditions couldn’t be better. We have nothing to lose.

Bogdan Komorowski

Now the league leaders Fortuna Cologne are coming to Velbert. What gives you confidence ahead of the game?

We’re coming off the back of a win, which definitely gives us confidence. We’ve also stabilized and developed well since I started here. It’s a floodlit game on Friday evening, the league leaders are coming – you can’t ask for better conditions. We’ve got nothing to lose.

Tristan Duschke, a key player, recently returned to the squad. Has that made a difference?

Tristan is a very positive guy. Every coach wants to have a player like that in their team. We have great unity in the team and are of course happy about every player who can help us in the fight to stay up.

You’ve had to contend with a lot of injuries, suspensions, and the like. What is the current personnel situation?

There are always changes over the course of the season, that’s normal. We still have our final training session, then we’ll see. As things stand, everyone except the long-term injured players are fit to play.