ETB Schwarz-Weiß Essen lost its home game against VfB 03 Hilden 2–4 (1–2). That’s what Björn Matzel said.
After a win and a draw, Matzel, serving as the Schwarz-Weiß interim coach, suffered a 2–4 (1–2) loss against VfB 03 Hilden. The hosts’ defense allowed too many chances and was fortunate that Hilden failed to convert many clear opportunities into additional goals. ETB’s next match is already this coming Friday, when they face a tough away game against league-leading Ratingen 04/19, coached by former ETB coach Damian Apfeld.
The Black-and-Whites started the match strongly and had a great chance to take a 1-0 lead in the 10th minute when VfB goalkeeper Yannic Lenze brought down Essen’s Elefterios Theocharis in the penalty area, resulting in a penalty kick for the hosts. Maurice Haar stepped up to take it, but Lenze guessed the right corner and made a fine save.
17 minutes later, the visitors took a 1-0 lead when former ETB player Mohamed Cissé fired an unstoppable shot into the right corner (27th minute). A quarter of an hour later, Hilden was already up 2-0 when striker Pascal Weber was able to slot the ball home unchallenged from four meters out (42nd minute). Just as the halftime whistle blew, however, the Black-and-Whites managed to cut the deficit to 1–2. After a pass from Marcello Romano, Youssef Kamboua scored with a first-time shot from 17 meters into the left corner (45’+1).
In the 67th minute, Hilden restored their two-goal lead: After ETB—despite several attempts—failed to clear the ball from their own penalty area, Maximilian Wagener was perfectly positioned at the far post and headed the ball in from close range to make it 1–3. Immediately afterward, however, the home team pulled one back to make it 2–3 and could once again hope for a point. Following a pass from Elefterios Theocharis, Youssef Kamboua fired a low shot from eight meters into the left corner, scoring his second goal of the day (69th minute). The Black-and-Whites gave it their all until the very end, but were fortunate that VfB squandered several good scoring chances, allowing them to keep hoping for the equalizer. In stoppage time, substitute Luke Kawabe capitalized on a counterattack and found the back of the net to make the final score 2–4 (90′ +4).
“The game would have played out completely differently if we’d converted our penalty or capitalized on one of our good scoring chances in the first 20 minutes. We had some good combinations, were aggressive, and were really in the game. Then our play leveled off a bit and Hilden came back stronger. We were rightfully trailing at halftime. In the second half, we tried everything again, but we always had trouble defending against Hilden because they have brutal quality up front. We couldn’t get a foothold, and I had the impression that every Hilden attack was dangerous. You have to assess the game fairly, and the better scoring chances were on Hilden’s side today. If we’d conceded one or two more goals, we wouldn’t have any reason to complain. The difference in quality up front was the deciding factor today,” Matzel concluded.
