Lower Rhine Oberliga club KFC Uerdingen kicks off the second half of the season on Saturday. However, the last few test matches before the restart revealed a few shortcomings.
The second half of the Oberliga Niederrhein season begins this coming weekend. KFC Uerdingen, currently third in the table, will kick off the second half of the season with an away game at Sportfreunde Baumberg on Saturday (January 31, 4 p.m.).
In recent days, the Krefeld-based team played two test matches to prepare as well as possible for the rest of the season. However, these did not go according to coach Julian Stöhr’s liking, as there were two defeats against Westphalian Oberliga teams TSG Sprockhövel (0-3) and Westfalia Rhynern (2-3).
It seems that Stöhr and his coaching team still have a lot of work to do before the league starts. “No, it definitely wasn’t what we had in mind – both in terms of results and in terms of play. I actually thought we were on the right track after the tournament in Hordel,” said the 35-year-old, taking a critical look at the preparations in an interview with the club media. He added: “Okay, we had heavy legs because we trained a lot, had a few injuries and others had to play a lot as a result. After all, we had five games in twelve days. You have to take that into account. But especially in terms of decision-making and passing quality, we were absolutely not good.”
To make matters worse, injury misfortune has also struck KFC at this unfortunate time. Adam Tolba will be out for some time with a muscle injury. Pierre Rogasik and winter signing Ulrich Bapoh are ill. Noah Tomson and Dave Fotso Youmssi are injured and it’s unclear whether they will be available on Saturday. “People are generally more susceptible to injury in winter. But we can’t complain in that regard,” said Stöhr, who sees no reason for concern. “In the first half of the season, we had virtually no injuries compared to other teams. And if we can maintain that level in terms of injuries, I’ll be very satisfied. I hope that most of the guys will be ready to play on Saturday.”
