Third-division club Rot-Weiss Essen visits FC Ingolstadt on Saturday. Last weekend, the focus was on the annual general meeting.
After five league victories in a row, the Rot-Weiss Essen players didn’t have a game last weekend – due to the international break. Head coach Christoph Dabrowski gave three days off training before the ball started rolling again at Hafenstrasse last Sunday.
Before the training session, however, the players, coaching team and all those responsible were together at the extraordinary annual general meeting at Messe Essen. Unlike the aborted AGM in June, this event was a success.
As the team said their goodbyes, the 460 or so RWE members in attendance celebrated with chants of “away win” in anticipation of the upcoming third division match at FC Ingolstadt (November 25, 2 p.m.). It was an all-round successful and positive day for Rot-Weiss Essen.
Dabrowski had a similar view. A few days later, the ex-professional explained at the press conference on Thursday: “The team was really greeted and seen off with applause. Everything the managers had to say sounded very good. It all made sense. It was all very positive. Nevertheless, I didn’t get the feeling that the boys were on a high during the subsequent training session because they were celebrated so frenetically. Quite the opposite. After three days off, the boys simply wanted to play soccer again and spend time together. It will continue to push the lads to get such encouragement. “
All in all, we’ve trained well, we’ve fully reached our load parameters and the team is optimally prepared to go into the game on Saturday.
Christoph Dabrowski
Two days after the AGM, the U21 international match between Germany and Poland took place at the Hafenstrasse stadium on Tuesday evening. When asked whether this match disrupted his own routines, Dabrowski replied:
“Only on Monday did this game have an impact. We actually wanted to do a double session, but we had to clear the dressing room in the afternoon. That’s why we trained at 8.45am. It was a very long session on the pitch, so we also integrated our strength training. Tuesday was a day off, but that was also the plan. We no longer had access to the stadium. Overall, we trained properly, got into our full training parameters and the team is optimally prepared to go into the game on Saturday. “