First against fifth. Jahn Regensburg against RWE. This is how Jahn coach Joe Enochs sees the situation ahead of the top game.

Jahn Regensburg is the clear leader in the 3rd division table. After the away win at MSV Duisburg (1:0), the next team from the Ruhr area, Rot-Weiss Essen, is now to be taken on.

The first leg in Essen ended in a 0-0 draw, which seems somehow typical, as Jahn has the best defense in the league. Before the home game against RWE on Saturday (2 p.m.), Regensburg coach Joe Enochs explained the situation regarding his team’s personnel: “Unfortunately, Erik Tallig has seriously injured his knee. Eric Hottmann and Felix Gebhardt are still out with injuries. Oscar Schönfelder has muscular problems after the Duisburg game and is questionable for Saturday. Christian Viet is on the right track. Although he has not yet trained with the team, he will start partial training again today. It remains to be seen whether it will be enough for Saturday. Kelvin Onuigwe was back on the pitch after his illness and took part in parts of the training.”

Therefore, the coach can more or less rely on the squad that also won against the Zebras. With eleven points separating the team from the relegation places, Enochs’ biggest task is likely to be ensuring that his team does not relax.

With regard to the opponents from Essen, he emphasized at the pre-match press conference: “If you look at the first leg again, you can see that we will face a good opponent. They have a lot of power and are strong in the game. They lost against TSV 1860 away from home during the week, but without the regular players Vinko Šapina and goalkeeper Jakob Golz. They will probably be back in action on Saturday. Essen will be looking to impose their game on us and we have been warned to focus on ourselves. We want to start aggressively again and attack from the ball wins. If we don’t do that in a disciplined manner, we will have problems against any opponent in this league.”

We saw in the first leg that Essen made it very difficult for us. We had to survive many critical phases

Joe Enochs

As was the case in Essen, when it was a 0-0 game on equal terms, Essen would like to manage that again before the top games in Regensburg, against Ulm and in Dresden.

Enochs is clear: “We can only be successful if we perform to our full potential. The first leg showed that Essen made it very difficult for us. We had to survive many critical phases.”