Things are currently going well for newly promoted Dostlukspor Bottrop in the Bezirksliga. Coach Can Ucar takes stock of the season so far and looks ahead to the upcoming district cup match.

With 19 points from the first 14 matchdays, Dostlukspor Bottrop sits in a solid tenth place in the Bezirksliga Niederrhein 6 and hasn’t lost in five matches. Coach Can Ucar is generally satisfied with this, but is also convinced that more was possible.

After all, the Bottrop team has by far the most draws in the league. And if it were up to Ucar, some of those could have gone in his team’s favor. “We’re a bit dissatisfied with all the draws, because we were often close to a win. But we have a young squad with very little Bezirksliga experience, which is why we can be satisfied with that,” says Ucar, who is now hoping for a quiet season in the middle of the table: “We have relatively little to do with relegation, and the gap to the top is very large. We’ll probably end up neither at the bottom nor at the top.”

Dostlukspor’s next match is on Wednesday, November 19, at 7:30 p.m., in the district cup against VfB Bottrop, the current leader of the Landesliga Niederrhein 2. Ucar’s team hopes to pull off an upset there, even though the coach is aware of how difficult the task will be.

“This will be a very interesting challenge. It’s the first competitive match we’re playing against a team from a higher division. We’re really looking forward to it, and it has to be said that VfB is probably the strongest club in Bottrop right now,” Ucar says, looking ahead.

In some games, I had to substitute myself in; that wasn’t exactly my master plan.

Can Ucar

For the coach, however, it’s also a special game for another reason: Ucar has a history with VfB, but doesn’t want to dwell on it ahead of the match: “If I said it’s a game like any other, I’d be lying. I know the club and the players; I’m still friends with many of them.”

After the cup match, three more league games await the Bottrop team. The coach is hoping to pick up a point or two there before his team heads back to training camp in Turkey for the winter break. “It would be nice if we could pick up some more points there. Especially against RWE II, that would be a success, because they’re in the public eye. That would make headlines,” reports Ucar.

The head coach is concerned about the squad’s situation, and has been all season long. “We already had a lot of players out during preseason. Often 15 injured or absent—we’ve suffered because of that. And things don’t look much better for the upcoming matches, but we’re used to it,” explains Ucar, who adds: “In some games, I had to sub myself in—that wasn’t exactly my master plan.”