Women: Game against Essen on equal terms

After a good start to the season with ten points from six games resulting in fifth place in the table, the Werkself Women are looking to continue in that vein at Essen and further secure the position in the top of the table. Essen have not made a good start to the new term. Last season’s cup finalists have only won two games so far with all the other matches ending in defeat.

“Essen have a young team that can play good football, they want to have a go, are dynamic and also try to play on the front foot against good opponents,” said Achim Feifel. SGS went through a period of transition in the summer with twelve players coming and going. Among the departures were the four Germany internationals Marina Hegering, Lea Schüller, Lena Oberdorf and Turid Knaak plus Nina Brüggemann who signed for Leverkusen in the summer after five years playing for Essen. SGS Essen have opted to sign younger players and now have the youngest squad in the league on average.

opponents difficult to predict

“Our opponents are difficult to predict,” added Feifel, who is expecting a game on equal terms, “so we primarily want to look after our own game. We have to show our strengths on the pitch as we did against Frankfurt.”

After the double fixture week, the coach allowed his players chance to recover their strength ahead of the last match before the international break. The intensity of the sessions was varied for the players with the heaviest workloads – players who have had less time on the pitch were given more to do. On Thursday, everybody – with the exception of long-term injuries plus Sylwia Matysik (muscular problem) – returned to full training.

Due to the high infection rate in the city of Essen, Sunday’s game will be played behind closed doors. That conforms to the coronavirus prevention order issued by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.