The SF Niederwenigern have won the 28th Essen Indoor City Championship. They beat the defending champions 4:1 in the final.
The 28th Essen Indoor City Championship is in the history books. In the final, SF Niederwenigern from the Landesliga Group 2 surprisingly beat the defending champions SpVg Schonnebeck 4:1. After the final whistle, the players were overjoyed.
At the award ceremony, center forward Florian Machtemes accepted the trophy and then celebrated the success with his teammates. Sportfreunde last won the indoor city championship in the 2014/2015 season.
“It’s a great feeling. We clearly won the final 4:1 against the big favorites from Schonnebeck, even if the game itself wasn’t that clear-cut. In the first few games, success wasn’t necessarily on the cards, but then it got better and better and we were able to really enjoy the tournament,” explained Machtemes after winning the cup.
In the group stage, Sportfreunde left ETB Schwarz-Weiß Essen, SG Essen-Schönebeck and Vogelheimer SV behind them to reach the final as group winners. The regional league team knew in advance that there was something to be gained from this tournament.
In the hall, anything is possible and that makes it all the more awesome
Florian Machtemes
“It’s always extremely difficult in Essen. If you have a bad game, you don’t win the group in the final round. However, we were already flirting with the title because we also won the tournament in Hattingen. Anything is possible in the hall and that makes it all the more exciting,” revealed Machtemes.
Dominik Enz also played a big part in his team’s tournament victory with his strong performances in the hall, and it wasn’t just in the hall that things went well for the attacker. Enz scored 18 goals in 16 games in the first half of the national league.
“We haven’t lifted the trophy since 2015 and there’s always a bit of a feeling that we don’t really belong due to our local location. Nevertheless, we played ourselves into a frenzy and also won in Essen after Hattingen. We always believed in ourselves and overcame the odd difficult situation in the tournament. It’s absolutely fantastic and we’re delighted to bring the trophy to Hattingen,” explained the goal scorer.