Football-DFB Cup: difficult task for Energie Cottbus

The start of the season was successful in FC Energie Cottbus. Four points from the first two games with a team that again plays a handsome football – President Sebastian Lemke should be satisfied. After all, he only issued the relegation as a goal before the season. “We would like to establish our club in the long term in professional football and set up future -proof,” he told the “kicker”.

Many fans see FC Energie in the 3rd league as a fellow favorite on the climb, after all, Cottbus ended the previous season in the 4th place. Lemke nevertheless called this expectation “absurd”. After all, the truth also includes that Cottbus played a very bad second half of the season and had to hand in two important regular players with Maximilian Kraus and Nico Bretschneider in summer. The team was supplemented primarily by players from the regional leaves or those who no longer played a role in their clubs. For three of them, things are going better in Cottbus: central defender NYAMEKYE AWITWIE-Grant came from Stuttgart Kickers, Leon Butler from SV Sandhausen and Leon Guware from a season with only four missions at FC Ingolstadt. At FC Energie, they have always been in the starting eleven.

Good start of the season

The first appearances are likely to have fueled the hopes of the fans in Lusatia. In the end, the opening game against the 1st FC Saarbrücken was only a draw, but Cottbus was the significantly better team against the third place of last season. Butler and Guwara in particular left a good impression and put on a goal. Key player Tolgay Cigerci was even better: “We could have scored six goals today,” said the double goal scorer after the game. In the end it was only three. Shortly before the end, energy collected the equalizer.

Coach Claus-Dieter Wollitz later accused his players a lack of “class” and saw this as the reason why the 3-1 lead was still awarded: “Our team consists of failed and players from undermined leagues,” said the 60-year-old. Nevertheless, he also said it was “good football” from his team. The problem? “We have to call it up 38 games,” said Wollitz.

In the second game things went better. The difficult away game at the promoted 1. FC Schweinfurt 05 won the Lausitzer 2-0. However, the big shortcoming in the game of Cottbus showed again: the exploitation of opportunities. Only in added time did Tim Capulka hit the opening goal after energy was already in double overnight due to two references to the Schweinfurt side. In his team, Wollitz was still missing “the balom” in order to capitalize on such situations earlier. His team still has a lot of work ahead of him.

Bielefeld model

On Saturday, the Cottbusers have to better use their chances. In the first round of the DFB Cup you will meet Hannover 96-and are clear outsiders. The second division team has started the season even better than FC Energie started, has won its previous two games and has not yet admitted a goal. Under their new coach Christian Titz, the Lower Saxony plays a demanding ball possession football, combined with aggressive start -up behavior against the ball. With a total of 16 new additions, the team was strengthened in summer.

One thing could give hope to the Cottbusers: a look at the previous cup season. Because with Arminia Bielefeld, a third division club also managed to beat overpowering competitors – and marched through to the final. The fans will not dream in Cottbus that big. But the Bielefeld fans did not do that-and their team defeated much larger caliber. The trophy, this is known, finally writes its own laws.