On the 23rd matchday of the Oberliga Niederrhein, ETB Schwarz-Weiß Essen lost 0:1 (0:1) against Sportfreunde Baumberg despite a strong performance.
ETB Schwarz-Weiß Essen’s winning streak of three consecutive victories came to an end on matchday 23 of the Oberliga Niederrhein against Sportfreunde Baumberg. Head coach Damian Apfeld’s team lost the top match 0:1 (0:1) against the league leaders.
ETB were the better team against Baumberg for the entire 90 minutes and missed many good chances, especially in the first half, and that took its revenge. In the 38th minute, Baumberg’s Batuhan Özden took heart and tried a shot from distance. The ball bounced off the post against Essen goalkeeper Ryan Valentine and from there into the goal. At the press conference afterwards, Apfeld dubbed the unfortunate but match-deciding goal “poop goal of the month”.
“The better team doesn’t always win. The past 90 minutes have taught us that,” explained Apfeld. Although Baumberg were not dangerous most of the time, the Essen coach praised Sportfreunde’s defensive performance: “I simply have to highlight Baumberg’s defensive performance. The entire chain defended superbly and was very disciplined,” continued Apfeld. “Apart from the goal and a shot from 17 meters into the arms of our keeper in the second half, Baumberg didn’t make any offensive impact during the entire 90 minutes.”
The coach also explained that he did not blame his players despite the defeat and that his team “gave it their all”. The defeat leaves ETB in fifth place in the table for the time being.
But the dream of promotion to the regional league lives on. As it is not yet clear whether Baumberg will be granted a license for promotion, second place may be enough for the qualifying round. Ratingen 04/19 are currently in second place and the gap to ETB is seven points. Midfield strategist Guiliano Zimmerling wants to continue attacking with his team in the coming weeks.
“There are eleven games left and anything can happen. We will continue to give our all and definitely not give up. We’ll settle the score at the end. We don’t know at this point whether it will be enough, but we’ll do everything we can,” explained the 21-year-old Zimmerling.
ETB will host relegation-threatened Mülheimer FC next matchday (March 24, 3:30 p.m.) and will then have the chance to get back on the road to success. All further information on the matchday can be found here