Rot-Weiss Essen II marched confidently through Kreisliga A. The coming Bezirksliga season will not be quite so easy for RWE II and Kevin Grund.
At the end of the season, former professional Kevin Grund and Rot-Weiss Essen II had 84 points and a goal difference of 174:29. RWE II finished the Kreisliga A season undefeated and earned promotion to the Bezirksliga.
“Our clear goal last season was promotion, and we achieved that comfortably in the end. We can all be satisfied that we are continuing to push the second team forward,” explained Grund.
On Sunday (July 6), RWE II played its first test matches in the Sport-Duwe-Cup. However, with four points, the team was eliminated in the preliminary round. For the 37-year-old former professional, this is no cause for concern.
“We’ve been training for exactly one week and I have to say honestly that it was a very tough week. We were all exhausted from the strenuous training sessions. So it’s okay that we didn’t make it through to the next round. The focus was on integrating the new players and being able to compete against teams from higher leagues.”
New to the RWE II team are: Luiz-Simon Kreisköther (SG Schönebeck), Leonard Jegus (SG Wattenscheid), Artin Kordi (Schonnebeck U19), Mehmet Demirci (TVD Velbert), Ilias Mpalntoumis (Adler Union U19), Arda Islam (SW Essen U19), and Rawley Watson Ford (SC Wiedenbrück U19).
RWE II has five players leaving the club: Mirco Selle is moving to Fortuna Bredeney, Andy Tatuhey, Jeffry Tatuhey, and Marcel Rosbach have announced the end of their careers, and Maurice Möller is still without a club. Grund is largely satisfied with the squad planning. “We have brought in a lot of young players. They bring the necessary cheekiness and flair to the team. On the other hand, we have experienced players like Marcel Platzek and myself. Our job will be to help the younger players and lead the way with our experience.“
Former professional Grund, who played for MSV Duisburg and Rot-Weiss Essen, among others, is also aware that the upcoming district league season will not be easy. ”The season will definitely be more difficult. There are some really good teams that play very disciplined and have been playing together in the same line-up for a long time. We’ll have a tough time in one or two games.“
Nevertheless, he has a goal with the third division club’s second team: ”I’m always honest. If I said our goal was to stay up, that wouldn’t be honest. Our goal is to compete at the top. It’s not our goal to finish first, but our aim will be to have a good season. At the end of the day, we’ll see where we finish.”