Away at Oberhausen: BVB play first friendly of the new season | OneFootball

Top-flight football has not been seen in Oberhausen for a long time now. The Red-Whites have called the Regionalliga home for 14 years now. So Borussia Dortmund’s visit on Saturday (July 18, 5 p.m.) comes at just the right time.

BVB’s last appearance away here was only three years ago. In the summer of 2023, 8,300 spectators watched the Bundesliga side edge a narrow 3-2 win. Samuel Bamba (22/now at VfL Bochum) scored the winner only in the final minute. Marco Reus (37/LA Galaxy) and Antonios Papadopoulos (26/FC Lugano) also got on the scoresheet.

RWO has big plans. “We want to better the result from last time and are hoping for a five-figure crowd,” chairman Marcus Uhlig (55) said, looking forward to Borussia’s visit. The occasion for the brief trip is the 100th birthday of Stadion Niederrhein.

The Cloverleaves’ Bundesliga years lie far in the past. They earned promotion to the top flight in 1969 and managed to stay there for four seasons. After relegation in 1973, however, they were unable to make a comeback. The club spent a long time bouncing between the second and third tiers. The darkest period began in 1988 with the withdrawal of its license and a disastrous season in the Oberliga Nordrhein, which ended with one win, two draws and 33 defeats, leaving the team bottom of the table. The following year in the Verbandsliga almost ended with a drop into the Landesliga.

Narrowly missed promotion

RWO slowly recovered and returned to the 2. Bundesliga in 1998. In 2003/04, under Jörn Andersen (63), they came close to winning promotion to the Bundesliga. But the team ran out of steam in the final stretch and slipped back to fifth place.

Since 2012, the Ruhr club has been stuck in the Regionalliga. In 2018/19 and 2025/26, Oberhausen finished second. Viktoria Köln and Fortuna Köln, respectively, proved too strong.

Photo: Getty Images

This season, the chances look good, because no West-based club was relegated from the 3. Liga. RWO opens the new campaign on July 31 (7 p.m.) with an away match against Bonner SC. “We want to give everything against this high-class Bundesliga side. It will be a difficult but also special task for all of us. Personally, I’m already really looking forward to this duel and can hardly wait for kick-off,” Oberhausen pro Nils Winter (32) said on the club website. “It’s an absolute highlight because, in my view, BVB are one of the top three teams in Germany,” added teammate Yannik Möker (26).

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.