On Thursday, the RWE U19s beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 5:1 to reach the final of the U19 Lower Rhine Cup. Now the focus is on the season finale in the league.
After reaching the final of the U19 Lower Rhine Cup, the euphoria at Rot-Weiss Essen was hard to contain. Thanks to a dominant 5:1 victory, RWE prevailed against Borussia Mönchengladbach. On Sunday, the focus will now return to the season finale of the U19 Lower Rhine League.
Coach Simon Hohenberg is aware of the danger of over-euphoria: “It will be a brutally tricky task. I’ve told the boys to enjoy it right now. We’ll take Friday off and then train again on Saturday morning,” he said after the semi-final on Thursday.
On Sunday (10.30 a.m.), Rot-Weiss will travel to Arminia Klosterhardt. Arminia are still battling against relegation, while Essen could only be crowned champions with a little help.
Essen are currently second in the table, two points behind TSV Meerbusch, who travel to fourth-placed SpVg Schonnebeck. Hohenberg is aware of the difficulty of his own game.
Hohenberg expects a difficult task on a narrow pitch
“It will be a brutally difficult task. It might sound strange at first because we won against Gladbach today. It’s a tight pitch, the atmosphere will be heated and there will be a lot of spectators.”
The style of play of the upcoming opponent will also be different: “For them, it’s about staying in the league and they will probably play quite deep. We will have to find solutions.”
According to Hohenberg, this task will be very difficult, especially so soon after the cup match against Gladbach: “Of course, we’ve now had an intense 90 minutes. The boys have left everything on the pitch to the maximum. We will certainly bring in three or four fresh players,” he announced.
Should RWE win the duel, Meerbusch would need a victory to defend first place.
Squad planning for next season completed
Due to the DFB reform for the junior leagues in the coming season, RWE already know where they will be heading in the upcoming season: to the new DFB youth league. This is another reason why the squad planning has already been completed.
“We are through with our squad planning. We could theoretically still change something in one position, but we don’t have to,” said Hohenberg. This is one of the reasons why the team can now fully focus on the upcoming task on Sunday.
The match against Arminia Klosterhardt kicks off on Sunday at 11.00 a.m.