In the second round of the Lower Rhine Cup, a big surprise was in the air for a long time. 1. FC Monheim led well into the final phase. Then RWO turned it around.
Rot-Weiß Oberhausen made it into the quarterfinals of the Lower Rhine Cup by the skin of its teeth. They came from behind 2-0 down early on against Landesliga side 1. FC Monheim to win 4-2 late on. RWO scored the four goals in the last ten minutes to advance.
1. FC Monheim were robbed of the reward they deserved. The team played well for 90 minutes and put in a great performance. After the final whistle, coach Dennis Ruess was extremely disappointed: “It’s bitter for us. We play a great game and there’s no reward at all. That’s the worst thing that could happen. I’m sorry for the boys. But I had already blocked out the game beforehand, it was a bonus game. Nevertheless, we almost continued on our way.”
Afterwards, the long-standing Monheim coach was particularly critical of the reaction of the visiting team: “It’s blatant to me that a team lets itself be celebrated like that. They play two classes higher and more professionally. We played 48 hours ago. RWO announced in the press beforehand that they would play with a full lineup. And in the end, I have to say, when it’s 3-0 after 11 minutes, no one can complain. I say: the better team didn’t win in the end.”
And the referee, Jonah Besong, who had a difficult job to do as there were many tricky decisions to make, also received criticism from the underdog’s coach after the final whistle: ”I appreciate the referee, but the fifty-fifty decisions went against us. We had to get a clear penalty and otherwise the decisions were made in favor of the tall rather than the small. I was not happy with the performance.”
While the Monheimers’ disappointment could hardly be put into words, on the other side, a more than relieved Jörn Nowak was delighted: ”Based on the course of the game, it is certainly very, very lucky. I think it’s really good that the guys kept their cool. We had a few chances to catch up in the first half. As the game went on, we built up more pressure. I said we had to keep at it. We managed to do that. The fact that we managed to turn it around in regulation time is all the better.”
But Nowak also paid tribute to his opponents after this spectacular evening in the cup: “I said it before the game. You only have to look at the team. They have quality. We don’t need to talk about the Oberliga with some of the guys, they can also play in the Regionalliga. They caught us off guard and that shouldn’t happen to us. We can’t start the game so naively.”
It’s a sign of quality to score four goals so late in the game
Moritz Stoppelkamp
Oberhausen’s star player Moritz Stoppelkamp got the team back into the game. The playmaker’s wonderful free-kick in the 85th minute heralded the turnaround. Stoppelkamp summed up: “The opposition didn’t do badly and we were caught napping twice. That’s how we conceded the same goal twice and we’re lucky we didn’t concede a third. But we have had plenty of opportunities to turn the game around. Then we came back late through my set-piece. It’s a sign of quality to score four goals so late on.”
RWO will continue at home against the U23 team of FC Schalke 04 at the weekend (Sunday, October 29, 2 p.m.). Monheim will face VSF Amern in the Landesliga (Sunday, October 29, 3 p.m.).