Celebrate the “indestructible”.
Bochum coach dances “weird” and wonders
05/14/2023, 07:28 am
VfL Bochum had not won six games in a row in the Bundesliga. In the vital game for survival against FC Augsburg, the knot bursts on the third to last matchday. What could bring the team from Bavaria again in great trouble.
Thomas Letsch was surprised himself. “I danced?” asked the VfL Bochum coach, looking at his celebration after scoring a goal in the 3-2 (1-1) win over FC Augsburg. Apparently Letsch wasn’t even aware of how much he let out his joy. “It’s about staying up. Whether you play in the 1st or 2nd Bundesliga makes a huge difference. Something falls off,” he explained: “But next time I’ll hold back. If my dancing is so weird, leave it ‘ that be me.”
Letsch also revealed how great the tension was before what felt like the final against FCA. He “deliberately did not watch the Friday game of the competitor Hertha BSC at 1. FC Köln. I preferred to go to the cinema so that I didn’t notice anything.” His choice fell on “Air: The Big Throw”, a film about basketball superstar Michael Jordan: “It was good,” Letsch said with a laugh.
“I didn’t want to do that to myself again”
But the weekend showed mercilessly how tight it is in the table basement of the Bundesliga. During the Berlin tour in Cologne, Bochum slipped to last place in the live table – Letsch was spared this customer, he only found out the final result of 2: 5 from Hertha’s point of view. Thanks to their own victory on Saturday, the Bochum team jumped up to 15th place for at least one day and are six points ahead of Hertha two games before the end of the season.
Letsch assured him that he would definitely watch the Berlin game in Cologne to prepare for opponents. He didn’t want to watch live because of the experience of the previous week. On Friday evening he saw how rivals Schalke 04 won 3-2 in Mainz with a penalty in the twelfth minute of added time. “And then I slept catastrophically,” said the coach: “I didn’t want to do that to myself again.”
“And again we showed a reaction”
What he can rely on at the moment is the resilience of his team. The people of Bochum aren’t yet “the ones who can’t be descented” like they were in the 1980s, but they’re definitely the indestructible at the moment. “Throughout the season, the team doesn’t let themselves be thrown off track by setbacks,” said Letsch with satisfaction. When he came on, his team had a point after seven games. Even after the 2-0 home defeat against Schalke in early March, “we were already written off by everyone,” the coach recalled. And after the 2-0 loss in Mönchengladbach last week after a poor performance and then six games without a win, there was a mood of doom again. “And again we showed a reaction.”
Although the win was well deserved, there was also some luck involved. A blitz goal by Christopher Antwi-Adjei after 91 seconds, an own goal by Augsburg captain Jeffrey Gouweleeuw (60′) and a deflected shot by Bochum captain Anthony Losillla (62′) provided the goals. “But that little bit of luck never comes by itself,” emphasized Letsch: “We’ve worked for it.” All the dams broke in the tiers. Even before the kick-off, the fans had fired up their team for this duel with an impressive choreography.
Ausgsburg coach Enrico Maaßen, on the other hand, was “upset” that the early rescue despite Arne Maier’s 1-1 lead (29th) and Kelvin Yeboah’s first Bundesliga goal (85th), the nephew of former Bundesliga top scorer Anthony Yeboah, failed. “We knew: If we take something with us, that’s it,” said Maassen: “But we didn’t do enough to be able to make claims. And now with Dortmund and Gladbach we still have two real boards.”