VfL Bochum continues its series of failures against Werder Bremen. The Ruhr area club is hopelessly overwhelmed and is stumbling towards the 2nd league.
The mood around the Ruhrstadion is probably not adequately described by sadness. This once so hopeful place on Castroper Straße has become a haven of unprecedented lack of success for the footballers of VfL Bochum.
Not even Tasmania Berlin was as disillusioningly inferior as the professional team from the Ruhr area after 13 Bundesliga match days. Tasmania once set the lowest point in this category in the long history of the Bundesliga in the 1965/66 season. After 13 games, the Berliners managed at least one win and one draw.
Plug pulled
The recent 0-1 defeat against Werder Bremen was already the eleventh defeat and fits seamlessly into a series of hopeless challenges this season that have led the winless Bochum team to the bottom of the table with no hope of improvement and with only two meager points.
“We’re not that far away, we’re making small steps forward”said coach Dieter Hecking after the new bankruptcy, “But one goal is enough to pull the plug on us.” The experienced coach was actually supposed to lift VfL out of this seemingly infinitely deep performance hole – but Hecking is also in danger of failing because of it.
Sports show, December 7th, 2024 5:45 p.m
Resignation also in the stands
There is perplexity around VfL. The club’s supporters tried to give their team the support they needed despite this unstoppable decline, the stands were full despite the misery, and the mood before the game was once again great.
The team tries to use this help for themselves, they work, run, fight. In terms of the statistical values of this game, VfL was even significantly better than Bremen in terms of mileage (116 kilometers), sprints (271) and ball possession (50.6 percent). There is a lack of footballing ability to transform these advantages into experiences of success.
After the final whistle there were only a few whistles and – what is particularly worrying – an embarrassed silence in the stands. Even the supporters have apparently come to terms with this non-existent competitiveness and only acknowledge it stoically and resignedly.
Rescue is probably impossible
“We don’t have that many adjustment screws. Even if you have four games under my direction that were significantly closer. But we haven’t gained the decisive momentum yet.”said Hecking, visibly disillusioned. Even if he added: “You have to keep believing in it.”
Even if the 60-year-old means well, wants to preserve the last spark of hope and radiate something like optimism, his sentences probably sound like slogans of perseverance to the ears of VfL supporters. Even the greatest optimist probably no longer believes in a rescue at the end of the season.
The Bochum team has to play two games before the winter break. First they have to play at Union Berlin, then Heidenheim comes to Castroper Straße. “It will be difficult to keep our heads up”admitted winger Gerrit Holtmann, who aptly summarized the entire Bochum dilemma in one sentence: “At some point we have to get three points, otherwise this will be of no use.”