FC Schalke 04’s U23s are guests at Rot-Weiß Oberhausen on Sunday. A real top match.

Rot-Weiß Oberhausen has lost only one of eleven games so far in the current Regionalliga West season and is in seventh place. At the same time, RWO still has a game in hand over the competition.

FC Schalke 04’s second team comes to Oberhausen in fourth place in the table. S04 II has picked up a whopping 13 points from its last five matches and has established itself as the league’s top team.

Forecasting spoke to Schalke II coach Jakob Fimpel ahead of the Revier duel (Sunday, October 29, RS-Liveticker) in the Regionalliga West.

Jakob Fimpel, you’re off to Rot-Weiß Oberhausen on Sunday. What kind of game do you expect at the Niederrhein stadium?

I was already expecting Oberhausen to be in the upper echelon and to have a say in the promotion. We’re looking forward to a great regional league game in a super atmosphere.

What has led to the S04 U23 being one of the top teams after a third of the season?

We’ve simply been scoring well recently. We’ve done that well and also confidently in recent weeks. We’ve simply been better recently than at the start of the season.

In retrospect, was the goal spectacle in the 6:3 win in Mönchengladbach something of a chest burster this season?

I don’t know if that was the chest burster. We’ve also played well before, like against Wuppertal and in Aachen. And when you see where Düren and Bocholt are now, you have to say that we didn’t have an easy starting program.

A third of the season is now over. Will the goals perhaps be corrected now? The top is close together and, after all, there are only five points between us and first place.

We don’t need to set ourselves new goals, because they will be realized. We always have partial goals that we set ourselves internally. We have these in mind and can work through the individual points week by week.

Who do you think will ultimately win the title and the associated promotion?

I think that all the teams that were on the cards before the season are still in the running. Of course, there are two surprise teams in Düren and Bocholt. But if you’re up there after twelve games, it’s no longer a surprise. These two teams could well be in the mix right to the end.