All about the next opponent: Interview with Regensburg fan Moiners | OneFootball

The next DFB-Pokal match is coming up, and once again, VfB faces a second-divi­si­on team, this time SSV Jahn Regens­burg. What’s the situa­ti­on with rele­ga­ti­on-threa­ten­ed Regens­burg? Moi­n­ers gives us the details.

With the Red Stri­pe: How has the sea­son gone so far? Are fans deep­ly dis­ap­poin­ted, or was a tough sea­son expec­ted?

Moi­n­ers: Well, logi­cal­ly, we’re very dis­ap­poin­ted. Ever­yo­ne expec­ted a very tough sea­son, espe­ci­al­ly in such a strong second divi­si­on, but the­re was still some hope that we’d at least stay in the con­ver­sa­ti­on when it comes to avo­i­ding rele­ga­ti­on.

Pro­mo­ti­on coach Joe Enochs has alre­a­dy been let go. Is it going any bet­ter with Andre­as Patz?

I love Joe Enochs as a per­son, but it was logi­cal that he couldn’t stay after tho­se per­for­man­ces. Howe­ver, I don’t under­stand why they thought it was a good idea to make Enochs’ assistant the new head coach. Sure, we won the first two matches after he took over, but it’s the same soul­less foot­ball we’ve been play­ing for a year under Enochs.

The DFB-Pokal is going bet­ter. You’ve alre­a­dy bea­ten VfL Bochum and Greu­ther Fürth and made it to the Round of 16 for the first time sin­ce 2020. Is that at least some con­so­la­ti­on?

Of cour­se, it’s at least a bright spot in an other­wi­se crap­py sea­son. The cup has its own rules, and may­be this fairy­ta­le can con­ti­nue. Wei­den isn’t in the com­pe­ti­ti­on any­mo­re, so just give us Inter Milan next!

How did fans react to dra­wing Stutt­gart in the cup?

Mixed fee­lings. Per­so­nal­ly, I would’ve loved a near­by away game (more than that wouldn’t have been pos­si­ble for work reasons—thanks, DFB sche­du­ling non­sen­se!). But you can’t com­plain about a home game against a team like Stutt­gart. I’m par­ti­cu­lar­ly exci­ted becau­se of the fri­end­ship with the Kickers and the rival­ry with VfB and Reut­lin­gen that comes with it.

How did the fan fri­end­ship with the Stutt­gar­ter Kickers come about?

The fri­end­ship bet­ween SVK (Stutt­gar­ter Kickers) and SSV (Jahn Regens­burg) has offi­ci­al­ly exis­ted sin­ce 2005, but the histo­ry goes back much fur­ther. The Regens­burg fan club RWB 81 (Rot Weiß Bavaria—originally a Bay­ern fan club that later split off and for­med its own group around Jahn) had con­nec­tions with the “Blue Boys” in the late 1990s. During a match bet­ween the two teams (then in the Regio­nal­li­ga Süd), both groups met for a few beers and invi­ted mem­bers of the ultra groups BB95 and UR01. This led to clo­ser con­nec­tions and even­tual­ly a true fri­end­ship. That fri­end­ship also brought ties with the blue-and-white sup­port­ers from Linz, who have been fri­ends with the Kickers sin­ce the ear­ly 1990s.

Does the match against VfB car­ry extra signi­fi­can­ce becau­se of this?

Abso­lut­e­ly. It’s going to be a hea­ted game—on and off the pitch. Let’s not kid our­sel­ves; the sup­port­er sce­nes of the two clubs are worlds apart, so cau­ti­on is always advi­sed. I’m loo­king for­ward to a fiery match with chants and ban­ter, but hop­eful­ly no inci­dents that affect regu­lar fans. That’s why I can only say: Regens­burg sup­port­ers, keep an eye on your belon­gings, espe­ci­al­ly if they’re from the fan shop.

Who is your Regens­burg play­er of the sea­son? Who should VfB watch out for?

It’s hard to name a stand­out play­er who hasn’t been poor, but we still have a few bright spots. In goal, we have Felix Geb­hardt, an abso­lut­e­ly top-class kee­per. He’s made a few mista­kes in recent weeks, but if you fol­lo­wed the third divi­si­on last year, you know what a beast he is. Among the out­field play­ers, I’d high­light Leo­pold Wurm and Lou­is Breu­nig. Wurm is only 18 years old but deli­vers solid per­for­man­ces week after week, and I’m con­fi­dent he’ll keep it up. Breu­nig works tire­less­ly every match and is often our most important defen­der. Last­ly, we need to talk about Domi­nik Kother. Rumor has it he had talks with top clubs but ulti­m­ate­ly stay­ed with Jahn. No one under­stands why he hasn’t been play­ing much lately—he has so much poten­ti­al.

How would you descri­be Regensburg’s style of play? What are the team’s strengths and weak­ne­s­ses?

That’s a gre­at ques­ti­on. I don’t think you can descri­be our style at the moment. It’s most­ly unin­spi­red and spi­rit­less foot­ball. Our squad is built for the third divi­si­on and not­hing more. The defen­se gives ever­y­thing week after week, but it’s use­l­ess when our big­gest weak­ne­ss is the attack. We don’t have a sin­gle stri­ker at second-divi­si­on level. Chris­ti­an Kühl­wet­ter was hyped as our savi­or, but I think it couldn’t have tur­ned out worse. Our set pie­ces are on a simi­lar level—no ide­as, just poor. But I’m hap­py to be pro­ven wrong.

Your pre­dic­tion and fee­ling for the game?

I’m going into this game wit­hout any real expec­ta­ti­ons. I don’t think anyo­ne tru­ly belie­ves in a win, but as we know, any­thing is pos­si­ble in the cup. Rea­li­sti­cal­ly, I’d say a 0–3 loss to VfB, but I’m hoping for a last-minu­te 2–1 win­ner for the Sport- und Schwimm­ver­ein.

Note: This inter­view was trans­la­ted from Ger­man via ChatGPT

Pic­tu­re: © Jas­min Walter/Getty Images