“This scene perfectly summed up our poor second half”

SSVg Velbert will finish last in the Regionalliga West table in 2023. There are, of course, reasons for this.

Last season, 2022/2023, the Sport- und Spielvereinigung Velbert marched through the Oberliga Niederrhein and had a large lead over second place. The promotion to the regional league was secured early on.

Once they had arrived one level higher, they also got off to a good start. SV Lippstadt was defeated on the first matchday. But after that, only one win and five draws were to follow before the winter break. Ten defeats stand in contrast to this result: 18th place in the table.

The gap to the safety line is already seven points. The Velbert team still have the catch-up game against Rot-Weiß Oberhausen in the bag. But even coach Dimitrios Pappas knows that avoiding relegation will be very difficult.

Dimitrios Pappas on……

the first half of the season for SSVg Velbert: “Things could have gone better and, of course, they should have. Unfortunately, we had a lot of bad luck. We had no luck in our play and stupid individual mistakes were the norm. The low point came in the Lower Rhine Cup quarter-finals. Being knocked out of the cup in Ratingen hurt us all a lot.”

… the best moment of the last round? “The win against SV Lippstadt on the first match day. That was a nice start to the season. Of course, the derby win against Wuppertal is also one of the few positive experiences of the previous round.”…

the worst moment of the half-season? “The Ahlen game was definitely very bitter. We just had to score the goals and win. We missed a lot of clear chances. The game against Gütersloh also belongs in this category. In the second half, we shot from two meters against the post and on the next counterattack, we conceded the goal on the other side. This scene summed up our poor first half of the season well.”

… the goals for 2024: “We need to score more points than in the first half of the season. And even that wouldn’t be enough, it wouldn’t be enough. We have to play a really good round. We can do that. To do that, we need to prepare well and get off to a good start. We start work again on January 3.”