Uwe Koschinat looks back on the year 2025. Even the negative points had something positive for Rot-Weiss Essen.

When Uwe Koschinat spoke at the last press conference before a competitive match in 2025, he too realized how quickly the year had passed. So it was the ideal time to look back.

The biggest insight is, of course, positive and obvious: under his leadership, Rot-Weiss Essen has transformed itself from a relegation candidate to a promotion contender within a year. But there were also individual moments along the way.

When asked about the low points, Koschinat immediately thought of the Niederrhein Cup exit. Why? “Because it gnaws at me incredibly. First of all, it was a derby that you can’t lose. Secondly, the way it came about in terms of performance was not okay, and we were kicked out of a great competition.”

Koschinat spoke of other emotional defeats, but the positive memories outweighed them this year. He mentioned the Lower Rhine Cup victory, the fact that the team earned a total of 70 points in the year (73 after the victory against Ulm), and the DFB Cup defeat against Borussia Dortmund, in which RWE sold themselves dearly.

However, he wanted to highlight the 3-1 victory at Jahn Regensburg in September. “Because we introduced a new strategy with a change of system and that showed that we can also play very well with a back four.” This was followed by a 1-1 draw against VfL Osnabrück and a 3-0 home win against Hansa Rostock. “We picked up seven points in the English week. That was important because it gave the team the inner acceptance that we are not dependent on the system.”

However, the low points seem to be particularly important for development. Or rather, what is learned in these moments. “Sometimes the negative has a positive side. I’ve mentioned a few times that I won’t forget the images from my first impressions of Rot-Weiss Essen,” said Koschinat, recalling: “The performances were so disappointing that there was not only criticism, but also ridicule. I think this story taught us one thing: that the team has to stick together very closely. That it only works if we can maintain our inner strength and shut out the outside world, even in difficult phases. That’s very, very important in a big club like RWE.”