Giant victories to stay up
VfL Bochum shakes BVB and the league
By Tobias Nordmann, Bochum
May 1, 2022 at 8:34 am
The area is experiencing one of the most spectacular derbies in recent years. In the end, VfL Bochum triumphed and celebrated their relegation miracle, while Dortmund and three-time goal scorer Erling Haaland picked up the receipt in front of the south stand.
VfL Bochum celebrates its football miracle. In the neighborhood. In Dortmund. At Borussia. The promoted team wins 4:3 (2:2) in second place in the Bundesliga and celebrates staying up in the league on matchday 32. A crazy story served up in a crazy game. After eight minutes, VfL led 2-0. Sebastian Polter and Gerrit Holtmann shocked the sold-out Westfalenstadion with 81,365 spectators. With your head and with your art. Erling Haaland turned the game around. He sunk two hand penalties and shot himself profitably once. When everything seemed to be going as the power of these clubs had predicted, substitute Jürgen Locadia placed the next double shock in the loudest temple in the country with a very smooth move and Milos Pantovic (per hand penalty).
The Westfalenstadion was boiling. It boiled on the “wrong” side though. On the North Stand. There, where the fans of Bochum were crowded, at least 8000 had received tickets for the longingly missed little Revierderby. In the south, on the other hand, where the black and yellow wall is, first silence, then whistles. That caused resentment “I can understand people’s anger, but the boys didn’t deserve to be insulted,” said BVB coach Marco Rose on “Sky”. “One thing is to lose the game, the other is to be booed,” said BVB professional Julian Brandt. “The two goals conceded at the end were extremely unfortunate.”
BVB, who were not in full possession of their strength in terms of personnel, had made a fool of themselves against the poisonous dwarf next door. The Borussia footballers had added another bitter affliction to their fickle season. The Dortmunders have nothing to fear anymore, however, as the runner-up can only be taken away from them by Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig. And so BVB falters from this season, again with the hope that everything will be better in the next season. Probably without goal giant Haaland, who had to deal with the death of his advisor Mino Raiola this Saturday afternoon, and a change in personnel.
The builder is in demand
fence party.
(Photo: IMAGO/Nordphoto)
It could also exist at VfL. But the motives are completely different. In year one without the eternal sports director Michael Zorc, BVB needs fresh energy for new successes, guys with mentality and strength, guys who really want this club. Bochum, on the other hand, will need new people because some players may have grown a bit too big for VfL this season. Central defenders Maxim Leitsch and Armel Bella-Kotschap, for example. Or Milos Pantovic, the art shot expert. Or Holtmann, who is no longer just fast, but also scores goals and provides assists. And then there are loan players like Elvis Rexhbecaj (from VfL Wolfsburg) who are leaders – but also expensive. A lot of work for master builder Sebastian Schindzielorz, who had already managed to strengthen the promoted team well this season and, among other things, to compensate for the bitter departure of Robert Zulj, the outstanding playmaker. However, the work should be even more challenging this summer.
How Union? Or like Bielefeld?
thoughts for tomorrow. Not for today. That was reserved for a blue and white dance into May. Totally uninhibited, totally euphoric. Like coach Thomas Reis. In the seconds before the final whistle, he was only able to hide his laughter with a lot of body control. And as the whistle of redemption. The whistle for the “miracle”, when they had always proclaimed relegation, sounded after 94 minutes, because it broke out of him. He ran to the fans with clenched fists and the rest of Bochum followed. A party that captain Anthony Losilla, the team’s biggest phenomenon, followed shirtless in the block. Just like goalkeeper Manuel Riemann, also one of the legends of this team. The 34-year-old, who had previously kept VfL in the game with outstanding saves against Marco Reus and Haaland, had the supporters hand him sunglasses and the megaphone, then they say together: “We are number one in the pot”, while next door, at the Westfalenhallen, the beats of the Mayday were gently pounding warmly for the restart.
Judging by the results against BVB (first half of the season 1-1) – and FC Schalke 04’s second division affiliation – that’s a correct assessment. Measured against the demands, the achievements of the past and the radiance of the clubs, however, not. Dortmund finally wants to challenge FC Bayern again and ensure magical nights in Europe, while Bochum wants to establish itself in the league. There is plenty of evidence in the history of the House of Lords of how difficult that becomes in a second season. Arminia Bielefeld delivers the latest. Union Berlin explains how things can be different. With a good plan, the team is playing for Europe again in their third season. And is number one in the capital.
Elvis Rexhbecaj enriched VfL with his passionate game.
(Photo: IMAGO/Nordphoto)
But the wonders of others are of no interest to anyone in the bars and drinking halls between Castroper Strasse and the Bermuda Triangle. Here they tell the stories of their protagonists. From Coach Reis, who inherited Robin Dutt in September 2019, about whom one wondered for a long time and then only marveled at him. Until the Corona break in spring 2020, there was a big question mark over his work. Then an even bigger exclamation mark. He had formed a collective out of a cadre of individuals and small groups. And he had come up with a clever idea. With fast wings and a compact center. This idea accelerated the pace of the game. The speed of the resurrection of the club, which had rusted in the second division and still hung on the longing of the long outdated myth of actually being “undelegated”.
Suddenly everything went and goes with rice. Corona championship, promotion, relegation. At the great territorial rival. A particularly delicious tasting triumph – which is officially poured over. “It’s the culmination of the season. If you make it clear by winning at BVB – that will be celebrated,” promised Reis and let the journey of the past two and a half years pass him by again: “When I came back to Bochum, the club was there in a difficult situation. We found our way back together and showed that you have to stick together to achieve something. It will take me a few days to realize that. I’m just proud to be able to coach this team.”
A greed eats into the team
Reis, who played 199 games for the “vonne Castroper” club and was active as a trainer for the VfL youth team before he switched to the U19s at VfL Wolfsburg, gave the team of complicated characters a common feeling. Just as the miners of the region once carried it underground. Sometimes hard on each other, but always honest. Verbally robust, physically gripping. Like the ultra-ambitious goalkeeper Riemann or captain Losilla, who played in the Bundesliga for the first time at the age of 36 and did it in an outstanding way. These two giants of mentality and the strict coach Reis, who met and drove out negligence or excessive fantasies of his players with time-outs on the bench, had eaten up a greed in this team that not only overwhelmed BVB, but also in February FC Bayern (4:2). In the first half of the season, Munich had shown VfL the right way on the unfamiliar first division terrain. After a smashing 7-0, when Bochum had already been relegated, this team got stuck in the upper house. Reis again relied more on a courageous pressing, on lightning-fast switching football via Riemann, who with his opening of the game is an amazing weapon in the action of the promoted team. Reis relied on greed and hardship.
The team earned good results, self-confidence – and then a frenzy that wrote several smaller and larger heroic stories. In the league. In the cup. There are stories of dream solos (Holtmann already on match day 2), of 50 and more meter goals (Pantovic), of gigantic saves and converted penalties (Riemann), of passionate fighters like Christian Gamboa or the comeback of long written-off football uniques like the penalty area tanker Sebastian Polter as well as thrilling victories and an unshakable stand-up mentality after minor setbacks like recently against SC Freiburg and FC Augsburg.
On April 30, 2022, VfL will no longer commute between the worlds. He remains a first division soccer team, powerful, loud and proud that evening. Proud of (his) little football miracle between the A40, the ever congested social equator of the Ruhr area, and the Krummede, the old prison. Herbert Grönemeyer sang in the pubs, in the gardens and in the apartments. The city’s anthem. United as “you and your VfL…”