Great joy in Oberhausen! FC Sterkrade 72 is in the district cup final and is looking forward to the Lower Rhine Cup for the 2024/2025 season.
VfB Bottrop, Sterkrade-Nord, Spvvg. Sterkrade 06/07: two top district league teams and a regional league team were the previous “victims” of FC Sterkrade 72 in the Oberhausen-Bottrop district cup.
The Kreisliga-A table leader has been in the final since Tuesday evening (December 12, 2023)! 72 won 6-4 in the Sterkrader derby in front of 250 spectators against Spielvereinigung, the leaders of the Bezirksliga Group 5 in the Lower Rhine region.
The final will be at the end of May or beginning of June against another top team from the Bezirksliga: SV Rhenania Bottrop.
“We did what we do best. We summoned up pure passion and earned our place in the final. We also had enough chances to decide the game in 90 or 120 minutes. But winning on penalties is another level of emotion,” said 72-year-old successful coach Patrick Wojwod the next day.
The score was 1:1 after 120 minutes, before Jannis Heins, Angelo Gerbeshi, David Fojcik, Lars van Gelder and Damian Ford all converted their penalties in a shoot-out to secure a 6:4 victory for FC Sterkrade. “We’re something like 1. FC Saarbrücken in the district cup (laughs),” said Wojwod.
Wojwod’s third final – top of the regional league
On the Facebook page of FC Sterkrade 72, the club’s leaders have already commented on the 2024/2025 Lower Rhine Cup. By reaching the final of the district cup, the A-league team has already qualified for the attractive regional cup.
“We are already dreaming of MSV Duisburg, Rot-Weiss Essen or Rot Weiss Oberhausen. Our boys and head coach Patrick Wojwod have achieved a great end to the year by reaching the final. We are now going on a well-deserved break with a really positive feeling. Then we will go full steam ahead towards our goal of promotion to the district league!”
Incidentally, this is the third district cup final in the last five years for coach Wojwod. He won the trophy twice with VfB Bottrop – against Fortuna and Rhenania Bottrop. As we all know, all good things come in threes.
And then there is the battle for promotion to the district league. FC Sterkrade 72 (45 points) and Arminia Lirich (43 points) are in a neck-and-neck race. FC 72 has had to give up points twice this season, while Sterkrade has lost to Arminia Lirich twice. And yet Wojwod’s team is still in the lead. “We want to be in front at the end too. That’s our goal,” he emphasizes. Perhaps there will be the district cup victory on top of that.