FC Erzgebirge Aue can look back on a decent start to the season with four points. But the Veilchen almost paid dearly for the 1:1 at RWE. Keyword: Change mistakes.
FC Erzgebirge Aue were pleased to earn a point at Rot-Weiss Essen on Sunday evening.
“The 1-1 was hard-fought. It’s never easy to play and win in Essen. That’s why we are happy to take the point,” Pavel Dotchev told Forecasting the day after.
RS picked up the phone again on Monday to talk to the Auer coach about a situation in the 86th minute. And, beforehand: Dotchev showed greatness and was honest. He admitted a mistake.
Because as RS observed from the stands, the visitors from Aue had actually prepared three changes in the 86th minute. Korbinian Burger came on for Niko Vukancic and Erik Majetschak replaced Marco Schikora. Fortunately – from Aue’s point of view – Joshua Schwirten, who had also been getting ready, did not enter the pitch. Because before that, Aue had already changed three times – Kilian Jakob for Linus Rosenlöcher (43rd), Maximilian Thiel for Boris Tashchy (73rd) and Steffen Meuer for Sean Seitz (73rd).
As a reminder: Five changes are allowed. The planned substitution of Schwirten for Marcel Bär would have been the sixth change and thus Erzgebirge Aue would have violated the regulations. But in the end, that did not happen. After a short but very heated discussion on the Aue bench, Schwirten sat down again.
“There was a short irritation with us in the 86th minute. That’s true. And I also have to admit that was my thought error. I was irritated. I saw it as the last chance for a change and wanted to substitute the exhausted Marcel Bär for the fresh Joshua Schwirten. But in that situation I was in a tunnel and didn’t have the change from the first half in my head,” says the 57-year-old Dotchev.
The record-breaking coach of the 3rd Division also revealed: “Substitute Steffen Nkansah and two or three other people on our staff came running up to me and then stopped me from making a change. That went well and taught us, and of course me, a lesson for the future. “