Hectic days lie behind Rot-Weiss Oberhausen. We talked to interim coach Mike Terranova and top scorer Moritz Stoppelkamp about the past days and weeks.
“It was a difficult situation for the club, of course,” said Moritz Stoppelkamp after the 3-0 away win at SSVg Velbert. An open letter from the fans demanding the dismissal of the coach, a short-notice supervisory board meeting and the final dismissal of the coach Jörn Nowak. Rot-Weiß Oberhausen has not only attracted attention with sporting events in the recent past.
It is certainly not an easy task, especially for the young players, to then fully concentrate on their business. “You could see on Friday that there was a bit of support missing. The less experienced players in particular wonder whether it is because of them or not. It was a strange atmosphere,” emphasized Stoppelkamp.
Mike Terranova, who is taking over the bench on an interim basis, also agrees with his protégé: “There has been a lot of talk about this particular person. That’s never good for a team.”
The situation surrounding Jörn Nowak has been analyzed particularly explicitly in recent days. Veteran Stoppelkamp describes his view of the events that led to the suspension of his former coach: “First of all, it wasn’t all bad. We’ve only lost three times this season, but we’ve drawn too many games. That shouldn’t have happened, especially at home against teams in the lower half of the table.”
In the end, I think everyone knows that Jörn’s leave of absence was not only for sporting reasons.
Moritz Stoppelkamp
Furthermore: “This meant that the pressure kept growing. I think that Jörn Nowak didn’t have an easy time here from the start. In the end, I think everyone knows that Jörn’s leave of absence wasn’t just for sporting reasons. We as a team have to ignore that anyway. The people in charge then decided to release him. That’s how business is sometimes. In any case, I wish Jörn Nowak all the best, because things will continue for him too.”
On the pitch, the Kleeblätter definitely reacted in the right way. A commanding three points were bagged against the bottom team in the table. ‘It was extremely important that after all this unrest, it was now back to football,’ Terranova emphasized to RS.
After the game, the fans, who had been loudly vocal throughout the game, really fired up the players for the upcoming top game against league leaders Aachen. The Oberhausen team will definitely need the support at the Tivoli stadium. Stoppelkamp and his teammates want to take the momentum from Velbert with them and “continue to score”.