SV Westfalia Rhynern earned a 1:1 draw at Spielvereinigung Erkenschwick. New head coach Kamil Bednarski hit the mark with his minimalist approach.
On matchday 14 of the Oberliga Westfalen, Spielvereinigung Erkenschwick and SV Westfalia Rhynern played out an open exchange of blows. After 90 intense and at times heated minutes, the two teams drew 1:1 (0:1).
There was a debut to celebrate on the touchline: Kamil Bednarski made his coaching debut for the visiting team from Hamm-Rhynern. The 38-year-old most recently worked for Borussia Dortmund as a scout and opponent analyst. Three days ago, the ex-RWE professional was finally introduced as Michael Kaminski’s successor at the lower mid-table club.
“I haven’t really had time to settle in yet. Three days ago I was still sitting on the couch, now I’m sitting at the press conference,” joked the coach. He deliberately chose a minimalist approach for his first game in charge at Rhynern: “I only gave my team two or three things to do in the first few days. In the hope that they would do it really well. My team implemented that.”
It didn’t take long before Bednarski was allowed to celebrate for the first time: After a foul by Erkenschwick goalkeeper Rafael Hester against Akhim Seber in his own penalty area, the referee decided to award the visitors a penalty and send off the keeper. Mazlum Bulut then converted the penalty to give Rhynern a 1:0 lead (7′).
“It started the way you want it to: red card for the opposition, penalty converted, outnumbered. We perhaps should have been a bit braver afterwards to make more use of the superior numbers,” summed up coach Bednarski.
His opposite number, Erkenschwick head coach Magnus Niemöller, didn’t want to question the harsh decision: “There is the issue of double punishment, but in this situation we can’t complain about the additional sending off. We did a good job when we were outnumbered.”
One curiosity follows the next
After 18 minutes, Westfalia goalkeeper Alexander Hahnemann also had to leave the pitch due to an injury – it’s probably not often that goalkeepers have been replaced so early in a match. But it was not to be the last curiosity: Rhynern attacker Lucas Arenz was tactically fouled twice in the space of three minutes and was shown the red card (29′). After that, it was ten against ten. “The course of the game was really crazy,” commented Bednarski.
After the break, the coach would have liked his team to take a different approach: “In the first 20 minutes, we were deep and lost too many balls due to Erkenschwick’s counter-pressing. I would have liked to have seen us defend higher. “
Coach Niemöller was happy with the “Schwicker” attacking play in the second half: “We put all our eggs in one basket and made a lot of good runs in attack – only the final pass was missing. We were finally able to capitalize on one of the many set-piece situations.” After a corner kick, central defender Christoph Kasak headed home the equalizer to make it 1:1 (66′).
Things got hectic again in the final quarter of an hour. Both teams wanted to get the win on their side. “The attacks could have ended with a lucky punch in either direction,” analyzed Bednarski, who can ultimately live with the 1:1 final result on his debut: “Overall, the draw is fair. I’m very happy with the result.”
Next week, Westfalia Rhynern will host Sportfreunde Siegen (19.11., 14:30). Erkenschwick face a tough task the day before in the Westphalia Cup: A visit to SC Preußen Münster (18.11., 13:00).
