MSV Duisburg continues to ride the wave of success in the final stretch of the year. After the derby victory in Uerdingen, the Zebras are first-half champions. This is how the coach assesses the situation.
Six points ahead of second place, the 14th unbeaten competitive game in a row, the next fan invasion, and autumn champions in the Regionalliga West. There are hardly any more superlatives to describe MSV Duisburg these days. Despite a disappointing first half, the Zebras once again emerged victorious at the sold-out Grotenburg stadium against KFC Uerdingen, winning 2-1 after 90 minutes of battle.
A double strike from Patrick Sussek (69th minute) and Jan-Simon Symalla (73rd minute) sent the 5,500 Meiderich fans, who had taken over the entire opposite stand, into ecstasy. Nazzareno Ciccarelli had put Krefeld ahead with a dream goal after 26 minutes.
Dietmar Hirsch did not want to go into too much tactical detail in his analysis. “Uerdingen simply played with much more passion in the first half. We made too many wrong decisions, were lethargic, didn’t win the challenges and didn’t communicate enough,” said the coach, who felt his team deserved to be behind.
Without making any changes, his team showed the right response after the restart and didn’t allow any more chances apart from one big opportunity after the equalizer. “It was all about mentality. Things got a bit louder at half-time. We had to take the fight to them and that’s what we did. We showed a completely different side to ourselves and the right attitude, we fought back and played with much more purpose towards goal,” praised Hirsch.
When asked about the winter championship, the 52-year-old was understandably cautious and emphasized the mentality of his team. “We’ve already achieved a lot, but you don’t get promoted as autumn champions. Everyone knew from the start that we were the ones being hunted because, as MSV Duisburg, we supposedly have the best, most expensive, and most attractive squad,” joked Hirsch.
His players are coping well with the situation. Nevertheless, the coach is warning his team ahead of their next home game against their closest rivals from Lotte on Saturday: “We’re not going to let ourselves get rattled. But the boys are united, and that makes a coach proud, of course.”