A Home-strong Underdog | Rot-Weiss Essen in Check

“Mission Berlin” is underway!

Finally, it’s time. On Saturday, August 17, RB Leipzig will play the First Round of the DFB Pokal. At 3:30PM (CEST) the Red Bulls will be guests at Rot-Weiss Essen.

The Third Division team has already played two league matches this season and is therefore already finding its form. Two Essen players scored twice in the opening match. Coach Christoph Dabrowski‘s team is not be underestimated, especially when they have home pitch advantage on the Hafenstrasse in Essen, even if some key players left the club in the summer.

Current form, their squad, how they started the season: Welcome to our opponent’s check-up!

Nusa. Squad. DFB Pokal.

Rouven Schröder on RBL’s latest

“Hafenstrasse is always tough”

After RBL was able to bring the DFB Pokal back to Leipzig in 2022 and 2023, the last time around saw the end of our Pokal in the second round (0-1 at VfL Wolfsburg). Now we want to go back to our winning ways and the objective for this Saturday is clear: “This competition is simply special, especially for RB Leipzig. In Rot-Weiss Essen we will face an ambitious opponent in the first round, but of course our aim is to move into the second round,” said Sports Director Rouven Schröder.

The Red Bulls are the clear favorites in their first ever duel with RWE, but the Pokal has its own rules, as we all know. Especially against a club from the Third Division that is difficult to play against and relies on its home strength. “I played there myself. Hafenstrasse always gets very involved. We can expect an intense game. We don’t take anything for granted, we prepare conscientiously and know what awaits us there. It will be loud in the stands. We’re facing a real tough test.”, said Schröder.

But one thing is also clear: We want to reach the Pokal Final in Berlin for the fourth time in five years!

How are RWE doing?

Rot-Weiss Essen started the 2024/25 season with a defeat at home against Alemannia Aachen (112) and a 3:1 away win against Hannover 96‘s Under 23 team. Striker Leonardo Vonic scored in both games, while left-footer Lucas Brumme scored a brace in Hannover.

Before that, there had two wins (5-0 against SGS Essen, 4-1 against SW Essen), one draw (0:0 against TSG Hoffenheim‘s Under 23) and one defeat in four preparation games. However, Essen held up surprisingly well for a long time against the reigning Bundesliga and DFB Pokal winners Bayer 04 Leverkusen in a narrow 1-2 defeat.

Last year, the 2022 returnees to professional football from the Regionalliga West, finished seventh in the Third Division with 59 points, just four points behind third place. They were particularly strong at home, with RWE collecting 38 points (12 wins) in 19 games in the stadium on Hafenstrasse (nearly 20,000 spectators).

Squad

Transfer market

After a good season last year, RW Essen had to let several key players go in the summer. Marvin Obuz, top scorer with seven goals and nine assists, moved to Second Division side, 1. FC Köln. Central defender Felix Götze, 2014 World Cup hero Mario Götze‘s brother, also jumped one division by joining SC Paderborn. Captain Vinko Sapina and Cedric Harenbrock (8 goals) said goodbye, moving to Dynamo Dresden and Hansa Rostock respectively.

But the replacements brought in are well known figures in their own regard. Attacking player Ahmet Arslan (2022/23 Third Division’s top scorer with Dynamo Dresden) came from 1.FC Magdeburg. Striker Manuel Wintzheimer (over 100 appearances in the Bundesliga 2) was loaned from 1. FC Nuremberg. Other reinforcements are likely to include defenders Tobias Kraulich (Dynamo Dresden) and Michael Schultz (Viktoria Köln), as well as winger Robbie D’Haese (winger, KV Oostende).

Key players

Jakob Golz, son of former Bundesliga goalkeeper Richard Golz, one of the best goalkeepers in the Third Division. The 25-year-old has been playing in the Ruhr area since 2019 and has been the clear number one for the past two years.
Jose-Enrique Rios Alonso is also a constant performer, having recently made 37 appearances. The German-Spaniard is a shoo-in in the starting eleven both in central defence and on the rightback.
Leonardo Vonic is RWE’s biggest goal threat. The 21-year-old came to Essen last summer from the Nuremberg youth divisions, and in his first Third Division season the centre-forward scored 9 goals and provided four assists. Vonic has already shown to be in good form in Essen’s opening match.

Unavailable players

Unavailable in the Essen squad are Moussa Doumbouya (centre forward, groin injury), Robbie D’Haese (right winger, torn muscle) and Tom Moustier (central midfield, metatarsal fracture).
Here you can find out which RBL players won’t be available for the visit to Essen.

Manager

Christoph Dabrowski has been in charge on RWE since the 2022/23 season. The 46-year-old German-Pole previously worked as head coach at Hannover 96 in the Bundesliga 2, after rising up to the senior team from being youth coach and assistant coach.

As a player, Dabrowski played in 273 Bundesliga matches (Bochum, Hanover, Bremen, Bielefeld), and won the DFB Pokal in 1999 with Werder Bremen.

As a newly promoted team, he managed to stay in the Third Division with RWE in the 2022/23 season, finishing 15th.

RWE in the DFB Pokal

The Essen team has already shown that they can surprise in the Pokal and make life difficult for any opponent. Only last season, RWE had Hamburger SV on the brink of defeat, only losing 4-3 after extra time.

In 2020/21, Essen even made it to the quarter-finals, beating Bayer 04 Leverkusen (2-1) and Fortuna Düsseldorf (1-0), among others. Before that, however, in recent time they had never made it pass the first round, even if the margins were always narrow.

By the way: Rot-Weiß Essen even won the DFB Pokal in 1955.

Where will Rot-Weiss Essen vs. RB Leipzig be shown?

As broadcast partners of the DFB Pokal, ESPN+ will be showing the match in the US.

The match can also be followed in our RBL-App free of charge.

And of course, we¡ll be live right from the start on our social media accounts on Twitter, Facebookand Instagram, as well as on our WhatsApp-Channel.