The all-new Rhein-Main Rockets from Offenbach have modestly started the new season of the Football Oberliga. The star of the mostly rookie team is the coach.
Offenbach – First the compulsory break caused by the corona, then the voluntary withdrawal from the game, followed by the rebuilding of the club: when the Rhein-Main Rockets football team from Offenbach played their first game at the Fulda Saints on Sunday (3 p.m.) with the season opener The game has been completed for around a year and a half, and nothing will be the same as it was when we last played in the Oberliga.
“It’s not just the jerseys that are new for us, but almost everything,” says Thorsten Kruppka from the board. Only in the club management there were hardly any changes. “There are still five players from the old team.” The squad consists of 85 percent “rookies”, i.e. beginners. The coaching staff around the young head coach Alexander Feistl is also “completely new”. “He is a stroke of luck for us and should be recruited. But he stayed with us because he has conditions here that sometimes don’t exist in Frankfurt.” The Rockets still don’t have any changing rooms on the Frankenstraße site in Bürgel, but they do have one that is floodlit and suitable for football training ground. Another rarity will be added soon. According to Kruppka, the “rockets” will receive a ball throwing machine: “As far as I know, only three clubs in Germany have one.”
In the Oberliga you are still “the weakest link”, emphasizes the official. He sees the Wetzlar Wolves as the top favorites in the group of five. Fulda is “not bad”, the Hadamar Black Goats are “in our category” and the Hanau Hornets “still have the bonus that they conjure up Americans somewhere”.
Nevertheless, the goal is to win both derbies against Hanau. Basically, the motto is “Learn, learn, learn,” says Kruppka. “We can only surprise.” That also applies to the game on Saturday in Fulda. “We hope for a lot of fun and joy and few injuries. Our goal is to get two touchdowns. Every single one would be a feeling of happiness for us.”
According to Kruppka, the cohesion is right: “These are all Offenbach boys and they put their hearts into it. But the star is Feistl.” The development work the young coach has done in the past few months is “incredible,” says the Rockets official. The praised coach is modest. “A strange and extraordinary time lies behind us,” he says, referring to the long break and the great upheaval. “The goals are modest. Many experience for the first time the feeling of being on the pitch, wearing gear and being part of a complex puzzle.”
By Christian Düncher
#RheinMain #Rockets #touchdown #feeling #happiness
