One week before the start of the new season, Rot-Weiß Oberhausen could not get beyond a 1-1 draw against SV Straelen. Coach Jörn Nowak was anything but satisfied.
Things can happen so quickly in football. On Wednesday, regional league team Rot-Weiß Oberhausen showed a strong performance in a test match against German runner-up Borussia Dortmund and gave the Champions League participants a tough fight (2:3).
Now, one week before the first league match in Wiedenbrück, the first division team SV Straelen was a guest at the Stadion Niederrhein. RWO played an extremely flawed game and could not get beyond a 1-1 draw.
After a glaring mistake in the build-up play, the guests were able to take an early lead through Tom Hirsch (6th). Manfredas Ruzgis was able to equalise shortly afterwards (9th), but the Cloverleafs did not find their way into the game and made a series of hair-raising mistakes.
Coach Jörn Nowak was correspondingly annoyed after the game. “Compared to the game against Dortmund, we experienced exactly the opposite and saw how it doesn’t work. We didn’t implement any of the things we set out to do and didn’t get into the routines right from the start. “
The RWO coach then took some of the responsibility himself for the weak performance, especially in the first half. “We tried a few things again and were very offensive with five clear offensive players because we wanted to see that. But especially with the first half we can’t be satisfied at all. We made far too many mistakes, lost far too many balls, were badly positioned and allowed a lot of counterattacks. I didn’t really intend to change four times at half-time.”
The 37-year-old was somewhat more satisfied with the second 45 minutes. “After the break, we had more control of the game, but we didn’t create any big chances. Overall, however, we will not overestimate this game any more than we did against Dortmund. It was also a typical game after a big highlight. That has happened more often in football. Nevertheless, we would have liked to take the momentum with us.”
The Oberhausen side have one more test match before Regionalliga West kicks off next Saturday. RWO take on SV Sonsbeck next Tuesday (6.30pm).
When asked what needs to be improved before the first league appearance at SC Wiedenbrück, Nowak had a clear answer ready: “Everything. At least after what we saw against Straelen, but that’s not a benchmark either, because it’s not what I’ve seen from the team in recent weeks. There is still a lot of room for improvement in all areas, but we don’t want to set our sights too high now. We’ll see next week whether this was perhaps an important shot across the bow. But if we can come out of a game like that stronger as a team, then it might even have a positive effect. “
