The best offense in the league, regional league leader as a newly promoted team: The season could hardly be going better for Sportfreunde Lotte. Bocholt will be at Lotter Kreuz on Saturday (19.10, 2 p.m.).
Sportfreunde Lotte, newly promoted from the Oberliga, are somewhat surprisingly in first place in the Regionalliga West after eleven match days. Successful coach Fabian Lübbers also did not expect such a bombastic start. “That’s what you want, of course. But the fact that a newly promoted team has 26 points after eleven games is quite extraordinary.”
Lübbers added: “That speaks for the quality we have in the team and above all for the hard work the boys do week after week. We are of course happy, but it would be presumptuous to say that we expected this.”
The key to success is the squad’s breadth and the hunger for success, especially from those who don’t always get to play from the start. “You can see that, for example, when we bring players on, like Niklas Determann did last week, who scored a goal. This is not the first time that all the boys are hungry, including those on the bench. It is not easy for them. Nevertheless, they give it their all every week in training and make it extremely difficult for us as a coaching team to choose a starting eleven,” praised the 32-year-old.
In view of the current performances and the position in the table, Lübbers is confident: “We want to get the most out of it. We always said it would be nice if we played in the DFB Cup again next season. On the one hand we have the Westphalia Cup and on the other hand the league, where you can qualify as the best Westphalian representative. We want to continue to hold on to this goal.”
And Lotte is on the right track here: the next Westphalian league competitor, SV Rödinghausen, was recently defeated 3-2 and is nine points behind the sports friends from Lotte. On Saturday they will face 1. FC Bocholt, who are travelling to Lotter Kreuz with the wind in their sails after a 5:1 away win over Wuppertaler SV.
Bocholt knows the situation Lotte is in. Last season, the Münsterland team became autumn champions as a newly promoted team before having to give up the lead in the second half of the season. The shaky start has now led to a change of coach: Sunay Acar is taking over from Björn Mehnert.
“Of course, that makes preparation a little more difficult for us as a coaching team,” admits Lübbers. “It wasn’t for nothing that they became runners-up last season. If you look at the last few games, things have become much more stable. Twelve goals scored in three games clearly show what quality they have in attack. On the other hand, they have also conceded nine goals in the three games. That is our approach to hurting the opponent there too.”