Head coach Heiko Herrlich will split up his squad on Tuesday. One half – probably the players who played most of the game in the 4-1 win at Hoffenheim on Saturday – will complete two training sessions tomorrow at 10.30 and 15.30 while the rest will get match practice over 90 minutes in the friendly.
Oberhausen, currently managed by former second division pro Mike Terranova (41), are currently seventh in the fourth tier of German football. RWO, like Bayer 04 founded in 1904, enjoyed their most successful period in the club's history in 1969 under coach Adi Preißler, who passed away 15 years ago, when they gained promotion to the Bundesliga where they stayed for four seasons. Their top player at the time was Lothar Kobluhn with the midfielder ending up as top goalscorer in the Bundesliga in 1970/71 with 24 goals to his credit. However, Kobluhn was only presented with the trophy by Kicker 37 years later in 2008 – the reason for the delay was Oberhausen's involvement in the Bundesliga scandal of 1971. Kobluhn also earned his place in the annals of German football when playing at Kaiserslautern on 10 October 1971. He was the first Bundesliga player to be shown the newly introduced red card when he was sent off.
Rot-Weiß were in the second division from 1983 to 1988, 1998 to 2005 and 2008 to 2011. Oberhausen are now in the Regional League West for the sixth season in succession. Coach Terranova played and scored for RWO in the first round of the DFB Cup against Bayer 04 in 2008. The Werkself eventually managed to win 3-2 in extra time with goals from Renato Augusto, Theofanis Gekas and Patrick Helmes.
