Asano meets clever and humorless
Bochum clinches its first victory, Darmstadt sees red again
November 3rd, 2023, 10:28 p.m
It’s a terrible football game, a battle of attrition between two relegation candidates and in the end VfL Bochum laughs. At SV Darmstadt 98, the Ruhrpott team won their first three points of the season. The people of Darmstadt are experiencing their second frustrating game within a week.
Relief from the Germany scare: VfL Bochum has freed itself from its crisis with a hard-fought away win. Coach Thomas Letsch’s team somewhat happily won the low-level basement duel at Darmstadt 98 2-1 (1-0) and celebrated their first win of the season at the start of the tenth matchday. With now eight points, VfL’s previous draw kings even climbed over the line.
At the time of the successful rescue mission last year, Bochum only had four points. Takuma Asano, who was successful at the World Cup against the DFB team, provided the liberating blow with a brace (25th, 54th). Despite Fabian Nürnberger’s equalizer (43′), the Lilies suffered their third defeat in a row and could slip deep into the relegation zone with seven points at the weekend. Fabian Holland was sent off due to an emergency stop (69′).
Letsch put a lot of pressure on his team before the basement duel after five draws so far. “We have to make sure we get victories as quickly as possible,” demanded the 55-year-old: “We won’t achieve our goals just with a draw.” Nevertheless, his team started very passively, leaving Darmstadt the ball. In this early period of pressure, Tim Skarke hit the post with a volley from 17 meters (10th).
Darmstadt is sleeping, Asano is awake
Despite the 8-0 defeat in Munich, the Lilies acted surprisingly confidently and were initially significantly more bilious and more confident on the ball than VfL. Bernardo made a desperate block against Luca Pfeiffer (19th). But then Jannik Müller and Marcel Schuhen were at first sleepy on the other side during Bochum’s first penalty area action and then disagreed. Asano cleverly splashed in between them and artfully tipped the ball into the goal with his outer instep.
With the hit out of nowhere, the balance of power changed. Bochum now delivered the fight as promised, threw themselves into every duel – and won many of them. In terms of football, a lot of things remained patchy on both sides, with the teams largely neutralizing each other in midfield. Then Nürnberger headed straight into the corner after Luca Pfeiffer’s lay-off.
After the substitution, Asano suddenly found himself free in the penalty area after a bad pass with his shoes and shot humorlessly into the far corner from a half-right position. The Lilies showed a good reaction and immediately took command – Manuel Riemann made strong saves against Skarke (61′) and Nürnberger (68′). After Holland was sent off, Darmstadt continued to try everything, Nürnberger hit the post (85th).