Best team in DFB junior league
© Imago
While VfL Bochum is fighting for relegation in the Bundesliga, the A-Juniors are the surprise team of the U19 DFB junior league. In 19 games, the talents of the district club remained unbeaten – the only team throughout Germany. Coach David Siebers rightly described the performance of his protégés as a “crazy round”, “which we do not see before the season and is certainly something very special.”
The preliminary round ended the Bochumer in Group E with eleven victories and only three draws confidently as the first table in front of the Werder offspring. In addition to the large academies of Bavaria, Dortmund and Gladbach, VfL remained without defeat. And although the winter break lasted two months, Bochum did not subside in Group C of the main round – quite the contrary. After five games, there are five victories, no other team achieved that in the competition. The other three clubs with a white vest also had to accept a defeat.
The VfL, who was only eleventh of 14 in the U19 Bundesliga West last season, convinced regularly against top teams such as Bayer Leverkusen (4: 1) or the incumbent A-junior champions TSG Hoffenheim, who was discharged 5: 2 away. The Frankfurter U19 (2-1) could also be defeated on Wednesday. “It was an outstanding combative performance of us,” Sieber said proud again. “In the end, I think – I think – also deserved from the fight and love that the boys left on the square in the second half.”
“There is a lot about the team,” says Philipp Rentschwho the Bochumer with “Deep in the west-the VfL magazine“Closely accompanied. That was not always the case before. Siebers, who took on Heiko Butscher (now coach of the Oberliga team) to the professionals, also had a large part. Since then, the Bochum U19 has collected an average of 2.5 points in 24 games. Unlike Butscher, the only 37-year-old has no benefit experience.
Already at a young age, Siebers gained experience as a coach with undermined teams in the Dortmund area. After he was active as an assistant in the BVB youth, he ended up as a DFB base coach and about the youngsters of the Hombrucher SV in Bochum, where he had held various positions in the talent plant since 2014 and has already gained experience as an assistant coach. He has owned the football teacher license since 2021.
“Siebers has a very good reputation in Bochum and is even a potential candidate to take over the professionals one day,” says Rentsch. “He is extremely meticulous, determined and ambitious. In over ten years now, it has increased within the club. He also speaks a word during the squad planning. ” It is not just about success, but Sieber “has been improving his teams, his talents for years,” summarizes the VfL expert-including in the U19.
VfL Bochums U19 better, but focus on team performance
Some names such as goal scorer Luis Pick (17), who had already netted 17 times in 19 missions, can be picked out. Central defender Daryl Tschoumy-Nana (18) is also particularly dangerous, which-also as a safe penalty shooter-already comes to 13 hits. Right -back Kacper Koscierski (17) collected 19 scorers (five goals, 14 assists) in 15 games, against Erfurt (9: 0) he reached five templates in one game. Alessandro Crimaldi (17), who had been raised by VfL Wolfsburg in summer with a professional perspective, also convinces on the offensive.
Even if there were no top -class new additions, the team is “better staffed individually than in the past,” says Rentsch. “The team also benefits from the fact that they were a young born in parts last season. She had a year to mature, could play together longer. There are also these three or four outstanding talents that are very far for their age. ”
Siebers himself wants to focus less on individual performance. His team is so strong because the boys would constantly strike each other, they are still “taking one step more” than the opponents, he recently explained the “Waz“. Determination that unity and team spirit are the most important factors. “This team deserves the word team,” Sieber emphasized the always “wonderful team performance”.
It is also seen similarly in the TM community. “This team is characterized by a very high level of commitment and will. How to play better teams like Bremen or now Frankfurt is really strong, ”writes VfL fan“ Zwetschge10 ”in the Bochum forum. The team harmonize very well “and do not flatten off in individual positions.” The achievements in the strong main round group are “an exclamation mark”, the “more and more scouts (…), now from all over Germany”, Anlocke-and professional trainer Dieter Hecking.
Was a good game of both teams. These were also the two best teams in the group. In halftime 1 Frankfurt with more game shares. Our U19 had some difficulties in physical physically against it.
Halftime 2 then we stronger and especially the last 20 minutes more game -determined. Frankfurt was almost no longer from your own half.
This team is characterized by a very high level of commitment and will. How to physically better …
Talents such as Crimaldi, Captain Luc Dabrowski (19)-son of ex-RWE trainer and VfL icon Christoph Dabrowski-or Cajetan Lenz (18) into the training of the Bundesliga team again and again. The leap to the professionals can be made easier for the youngsters after reactivating the VfL reserve, which in the Oberliga Westfalen, as the first table in the first chance of promotion to the Regionalliga West, in the future. For the time being, however, the view goes on the final phase of the U19 championship. The Bochumers can plan with the round of 16 at ten points ahead of fifth place. The fourth of Group D would be the first to wait for Group C – currently the SpVgg Unterhaching, but district neighbor BVB only has one more point.
