No brilliant ideas: Heidenheim and Bochum with a clean sheet
A lot of fighting, but no goals: promoted 1. FC Heidenheim and VfL Bochum drew 0-0 after 90 tough minutes.
Heidenheim thus fulfilled coach Frank Schmidt's mission of taking home something worthwhile against their direct rivals from the bottom of the Bundesliga table.
The newcomers maintained 13th place in the table with eleven points - ten of which they picked up at home. It was the seventh draw of the season for VfL, who are further down the table.
"I'm expecting an opponent who will step on the gas right from the start," said VfL coach Thomas Letsch ahead of the 953rd match in Bundesliga history. And the 55-year-old was correct in his assumption, as Eren Dinkci had the first chance for the home side in a surprisingly fast-paced opening phase. However, the Werder Bremen loanee hit the outside of the net after two minutes. But VfL did not hide either. Jonas Föhrenbach saved from Takuma Asano (9') and after half an hour, the Japanese player was too stubborn. Kevin Stöger also missed from distance (23').
Heidenheim often make the wrong decisions
"We need an extremely strong will and good, quick decisions," said FCH coach Frank Schmidt, who made one change to his starting XI. There was no denying the will of his charges. However, the Heidenheim side often made the wrong decisions when moving forward: Sometimes the dangerous ball was not played deep, but on the wing. Sometimes the attacking players preferred to venture into the center instead of playing to the better-positioned player next to them.
The fight continued after the break. It was not until eight minutes after the restart that the FCH goal became dangerous for the first time. Kevin Müller prevented Patrick Osterhage from going behind with a flying save (53') and at the other end Manuel Riemann saved from Tim Kleindienst, who together with Eren Dinkci and Jan-Niklas Beste had scored 15 of the 17 goals so far this season.
Things now became more heated. Cristian Gamboa clashed with referee Felix Zwayer and was shown a yellow card for his complaint. But the goalkeepers also had more work to do: Müller denied the lively Asano and Riemann made things particularly tense. He was unable to keep out a shot from substitute Nikola Dovedan, forcing the goalkeeper to make another save. He prevented the late goal just in time. Shortly before the end, Kleindienst then missed the winning goal after a mistake by Erhan Masovi in front of Riemann.
Source: www.dpa.com
