Football Germany is looking at VfL Bochum. For the third time this season, VfL gave up a lead in injury time at home in the Ruhr Stadium. Now people in Bochum no longer talk about a “coincidence” – and are afraid that history will become a pattern.
“I screwed up!” Bochum’s coach Thomas Letsch didn’t dwell on it for long after the third low blow in the Ruhr Stadium at home in stoppage time. An admission that deserves respect because it is anything but self-evident in the tough and rarely honest Bundesliga business – but in the end it was almost inevitable. The majority of the home fans and independent observers of VfL Bochum’s game against FC Augsburg on Saturday acknowledged his substitutions and tactical changes with shaking their heads and great incomprehension.
In the end, the VfL coach’s decisions indirectly led to the Fuggerstadt team’s 1-1 equalizer in the 90th + 1 minute with a penalty after a previous handball by Bochum’s Ivan Ordets. Coach Letsch correctly classified his mistake after the game: “Looking back, it would have been better to stick to our structure and put the opponent under pressure further up front. I certainly wouldn’t do that again now. That’s why I’m not taking these three “The points I won were entirely my fault because the decisions I made were too defensive.”
“Certainly not a coincidence”
“I will learn a lot, a lot from the game,” he added and then had to talk about a topic that is now of great concern to more than just football fans in Bochum. For the third time this season, VfL managed to squander a lead in added time at their home Ruhrstadion. After the encounters against the teams from FSV Mainz 05 and SV Werder Bremen, FC Augsburg also managed to give Bochum a lucky punch in the minutes after regular time and take home a point. With their obvious vice, the nation’s stoppage-time idiots repeatedly deprive themselves of victory and three deserved points.
But while coach Thomas Letsch (“That’s definitely a weakness that we have to work on”) doesn’t yet believe that the acute problem will become a regular occurrence, his midfielder Patrick Osterhage speaks plainly: “In the end we can’t fix it anymore Blame it on chance when it happens for the third time.” And the sports director of VfL Bochum, Marc Lettau, also recognizes a pattern in the accumulation of the same events: “It’s a story that repeats itself. It’s certainly not a coincidence and so absolutely not satisfactory.” There is now a fear going around in Bochum that the issue will take on a life of its own and become a permanent problem.
The Bochum team is still trying to sort things out in the simplest way possible – as Patrick Osterhage says: “Make chances, play better, keep the ball and get more control of the game. Then we can play a game like that over them “Make time and win” – but VfL seems to have lost some of their true faith after their third low blow in a very short space of time. Solving the problem by simply scoring more goals yourself is not that easy given Bochum’s serious weakness in finishing. And so at VfL they not only mourn the missed opportunities on the field, but also the six points given away in stoppage time – which would mean the Bochum team are currently in eighth place in the Bundesliga table and are already very close to their goal of staying in the league.
The neighborhood role model
Maybe VfL coach Thomas Letsch should take an object lesson from a local club. The Rot-Weiss Essen team scored their fifth goal after the 90th minute in Saturday’s 4-3 win against SC Freiburg II. The Essen team are always wide awake, especially in the last minutes of the game. How the RWE professionals do it would certainly be interesting for the people of Bochum to know. But maybe it’s just the case that, unlike the VfL players, they have nothing to lose in these situations.
The fans in Bochum are now hoping that Thomas Letsch, as he himself announced, has learned a lot from the game and that the stoppage-time idiots will soon become the Bundesliga’s new non-relegation heroes. Nine more points, in addition to the 21 already scored, should most likely be enough to achieve the goal of staying in the league this season. The fans won’t care how they get picked up in the end. And there is actually reason for hope: the two low blows against Mainz and Bremen did not throw the team off track. One can therefore assume that VfL Bochum will also be able to cope with the third blow in the aftermath. Even if it still hurts the VfL soul at the moment.