Herzenbruch shoots selfies, Denker scores twice in the final – but player of the tournament at the NRW Traditionsmasters is one of the “old guys”.
Of course, Felix Herzenbruch had to fulfill most of the selfie and autograph requests. During the final of the NRW-Traditionsmasters, however, another name resounded from the red and white fan block in the Mülheim sports hall: “Er-win Koen! Er-win Koen!” The Dutch left-footer was one of the older members of the rather young RWE tradition team, which won all its matches and secured the cup with its second victory over FC Schalke. And even though his time was longer ago than that of Herzenbruch, Brauer and Grund, Koen is still a fan favorite in Essen.
“We have a slightly younger team at the start. The youngsters are good for us,” said Koen, who was named best player of the tournament in the end. “I scored one goal, it should have been a few more,” said the former Regionalliga top scorer with a laugh, shortly after he had reached the final with RWE.
It was clear early on that Koen would wear the Essen jersey again in Mülheim: “I like driving an hour and a half from Holland every year to play in this tournament when you’re welcomed by the fans like this. We were just talking about the fact that it’s been twenty years since I played for Rot-Weiss. The fact that it’s still like this is just awesome.”
Between 2000 and 2005, he played his way into the hearts of the fans in 145 appearances, and the bond with Essen remains strong to this day, even though he went on to play for Aachen and Paderborn. Around four to five times a year, he still attends appointments, gives interviews or is a guest in RWE’s VIP room. “It’s always nice to go to Hafenstrasse. You’re never forgotten if you’ve done something there. “
“NRW-Traditionsmasters 2024 January 07, 2024” src=“https://forecasting-sports.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/1.674_norm.jpg” width=“680” height=“454” /☻
After beating FC Schalke 7:2 in the opening game in Mülheim, the team from Essen went on to beat Mülheim Allstars 6:1 and Wuppertaler SV 5:2, before beating RWO 3:0 in the semi-finals. Schalke and VfL Bochum faced each other in the second semi-final, and Koen naturally knew how it had to go: “The fans naturally want Schalke – let’s see how it turns out.”
Schalke arrived and Koen immediately sensed from the first minute on the sidelines that the Royal Blues did not want to be shot down again. Thomas Denker and Marwin Studtrucker gave RWE the lead, Michael Ohnesorge reduced the deficit for Schalke. Denker made everything clear in the final minute – the Red & Whites lived up to the compliments and (advance) praise from the competition
You have to go for promotion, but it will be very difficult, the first two are gone
Erwin Koen
The RWE fans were able to celebrate the first title of the year and can now turn their focus away from Koen & Co. and onto Christoph Dabrowski’s team. Erwin Koen is doing the same – and of course he knows how RWE fans are wired: “You have to go for promotion, but that will be very difficult, the first two are gone. I wouldn’t put it past them, but first and foremost you have to keep your feet on the ground. Otherwise everyone will go crazy.”
RWE played with: Lukas Raeder, Nils Kretschmar, Felix Herzenbruch, David Czyszczon, Kevin Grund, Marwin Studtrucker, TImo Brauer, Dennis Brinkmann, Thomas Denker, Michael Lorenz, Erwin Koen