Chase duel in the Regionalliga Südwest: Kickers Offenbach welcomes SV Elversberg. OFC coach Ristic wants to polish up the meager top game record.
Offenbach – The table of the football regional league Southwest confirms Joachim Wagner right. At least partially. “There is no over-team. Our squad is top-manned in all positions and doesn’t have to hide from any team in this league, ”the President of Kickers Offenbach recently said. An over-team is not yet in sight. The surprise team of FSV Frankfurt (17 games, 35 points) has after a little more than a third of the season only two points ahead of SC Freiburg II and TSV Steinbach Haiger (both 16/33), who each played one less game. And the OFC in sixth place (16/29) is still promising in the race.
Kickers Offenbach: OFC doesn’t have to hide from any team
However: The Kickers have so far only partially proven that they don’t have to hide from any team in the league, as Wagner emphasizes. The OFC scored 26 of its 29 points against teams that are currently in the lower half of the table. The balance sheet from duels with teams from the “top eleven” reads, however, much more modest. The Kickers have already met six of these teams and scored only three points – against Freiburg (2./2:2), Steinbach (3./1:1) and VfB Stuttgart II (10./2:2). Against SSV Ulm 1846 (4th / 0:1), TSG Balingen (7th / 0:1) and VfR Aalen (11th / 0:2), however, it set defeats.
On Wednesday (7 p.m.) there will now be a chance at home in a duel with direct table neighbors SV Elversberg (5th, 17 games, 30 points) to polish up these statistics. However, while the kickers were deprived of the chance to take the momentum from the 4-1 win at the bottom TSV Eintracht Stadtallendorf with them due to the weather-related cancellation of the game at FC Homburg (new date: 10 February, 5 p.m.), the Saarlanders travel stronger to Offenbach after finishing their winless series on Saturday. After only five points from six games (five draws, one defeat), Elversberg clearly prevailed 4-0 against SG Sonnenhof Großaspach. The sports association still lags behind expectations, including its own. After all, the financially potent ex-third division team was named as a top favorite for the title and the associated promotion by 19 of the 22 coaches before the season.
Kickers Offenbach: OFC wants the next win
The last time both teams met on March 9, 2020, in the last game before the end of the season at that time. OFC won 2-0 – thanks to a brace from Marco Schikora (now FSV Zwickau). A lot has changed since then. Of the 14 players who played for Kickers back then, ten still belong to the squad. Realistic chances of being in the starting line-up on Wednesday, however, only have two: defender Sebastian Zieliecki and offensive man Serkan Firat.
And something has also changed in the coaching bench. Angelo Barletta, who was in charge last March, was replaced shortly before the turn of the year by Sreto Ristic, who after his successful debut in Stadtallendorf now wants to match Elversberg. Especially since there is a good friend on the other side. Under Horst Steffen, the coach of the Saarlanders, Ristic was co-trainer for the then third division clubs Stuttgarer Kickers, Preußen Münster and Chemnitzer FC. Now the student meets his former teacher for the first time. “We complemented each other very well, both professionally and personally,” said Ristic once about the time together with the 51-year-old. At that time Steffen added: “Sreto shows a different style than I do.” But she “always looked good on both of them”. In addition, Ristic has always been “a good advisor”, “who sets impulses in the units from which all sides can benefit.”By Christian Düncher)
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