SpVgg Erkenschwick has already won the Midnight Cup six times. This time it didn’t work out. Magnus Niemöller’s team lost in the final.

SpVgg Erkenschwick is the previous record winner of the Herten Midnight Cup. This time, however, coach Magnus Niemöller’s team had to relinquish the winner’s trophy.

In a dramatic final at the Rosa-Parks-Schule sports hall in Herten, the Oberliga team lost 3:2 to state league side SSV Buer after a penalty shoot-out. At the end of the game, the score was 2:2. Dramatic: all the shooters from both clubs missed one after the other. It was only with the last attempt that SSV Buer scored and brought the trophy home to Gelsenkirchen.

“Both teams dominated the Bauunternehmung Fromme Group A . They were also the best teams in the tournament and deserved to reach the final,” said tournament organizer Thorsten Gringel from host SpVgg Herten. “Funnily enough, the two teams had already faced each other in the opening match,” said Gringel. “It ended 2:2 then too”.

It was the same last year. Back then, Erkenschwick and TuS Sinsen, who won IKK Classic Group B on Friday but were eliminated by SV Dorsten-Hardt in the main round, opened the tournament with the first match and then closed it with the final. The “Schwicker” won the tournament back then. Erkenschwick, who had competed without their top scorer Stefan Oerterer, thus missed out on defending their title against the club from Buer, who had already been dubbed the secret favorites.

The second Oberliga team SV Schermbeck 2000 won its preliminary round group Stadtwerke Herten C, but then surprisingly failed in the main round against FC Marl 2011.

Sold-out house – very fair tournament

According to Gringel, all matches were fair and there were only two red cards against goalkeepers for coming too far out of their box and playing the ball with their hands.

After a short vacation, Gringel wants to get back to work on next year’s kick with Staffel & Engbert Midnight Cup. “The hall was completely sold out again with 1,000 spectators. There was a great atmosphere at the Player’s Party afterwards. The spectacle continued well into the night. At some point, we even had to kick the last ones out,” revealed Gringel, who was completely satisfied with how the tournament went.