"VfL Bochum astounds with ruthlessness"
VfL Bochum is at risk of being relegated to the 2nd Bundesliga. Their performance against Werder Bremen was dismal, culminating in a 4-1 loss and rightly placing them in relegation. The team's morale is low, and both players and managers have been self-critical.
Bochum found themselves in a strong position but lost it all during their match against Bremen. They needed one point to remain in the first division, but Bochum was as far from that as a snail is from breaking the 100-meter world record. From the very beginning, nothing clicked for Heiko Butscher's team. The score was 0-1 after six minutes and 1-4 by the end of the match. If not for Manuel Riemann's strong saves, the game could have been even worse for Bochum. Marco Friedl (6th), Anthony Jung (78th), Jens Stage (80th), and Romano Schmid (87th) scored for Bremen in front of 42,100 spectators. Christopher Antwi-Adjei scored for Bochum (85th).
This dismal performance left Bochum on the brink of relegation. Mainz, who were having a strong comeback, won against VfL Wolfsburg (3-1), while Union Berlin also moved out of the relegation zone. Bochum narrowly avoided becoming the Bundesliga club with the worst fall in fifty-five years. The Alte Försterei shook as they barely missed the setback. VfL's players were angry with themselves after the game.
Butscher was disappointed but not for long. "We need to regroup and focus on the game against Fortuna Düsseldorf," he said. "We have to get back into the right mindset and get back to work quickly." His Head of Sport, Marc Lettau, agreed, expressing disappointment and disbelief that the team had failed to deliver as they usually did.
The poor performance in Bremen did not represent Bochum's soccer abilities; instead, it was due to the stress the team was under. Captain Anthony Losilla confirmed this by acknowledging that they simply failed to perform well. He urged his team to stay positive, saying that the team with a better mentality will survive. Stöger, too, promised that Bochum will rebound from this situation. He claimed that the team has shown resilience in the past, especially during difficult moments.
Neither Butscher nor Lettau considered this embarrassing game to be representative of Bochum's soccer skills. Stöger alluded to the possibility of a "cleansing thunderstorm" following this loss, as the team had experienced it before after two wins against Hoffenheim and Union Berlin. The upcoming match against Fortuna Düsseldorf was a do-or-die encounter, with the first leg at home in Ruhrstadion followed by the final showdown in Düsseldorf's state capital.
Butscher spoke of the need to regroup and refocus, promising that there would be no more soul-searching. Instead, their focus would be on soccer again. And with that, the team returned to Bochum with the knowledge that they couldn't afford to lose anymore. On Thursday, they faced Fortuna Düsseldorf in the relegation play-off, with one game at home and another in Düsseldorf.
The potential demotion to the second division is likely to be one of VfL's most preventable in the club's history. If the referee had blown the whistle in the 90th minute this season, the team would have been on course for the European Cup. However, due to the constant fluttering of hearts and subsequent collapses during stoppage time, many points were given away. Bochum are the exact opposite of Bayer Leverkusen, who have mastered the art of turning games around time and time again in extra time. Occasionally, bizarre occurrences have transpired. Let's take the Europa League match against Qarabag Agdam as an example, when striker Patrik Schick scored in the 93rd and 97th minutes to avert elimination.
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Source: www.ntv.de
