It’s been half an eternity since that VfL Bochum in the DFB Cup was so successful. On December 21, the Ruhr area club was in a quarter-final in this competition for the last time. At that time the soccer professional Thomas Reis was there. Today, Reis is 48 years old and is a coach on the sidelines of the VfLwho meets SC Freiburg.
The coach is currently working very successfully to keep the newly promoted Bochum in the Bundesliga. With 29 points after 24 games he stands VfL much better than everyone involved could have imagined before the season.
And now the provisional highlights the season before. The cup match against Freiburg. “We can do it with a focused performance”, says Reis before the duel. Except for the long-term injured attacker Simon Zoller and central defender Saulo Decarli VfL all players available.
No opponent is too big
For their part, Freiburg are playing one of the best Bundesliga seasons in their history. With currently 40 points, they are fully on course for the European Cup. But the Reis team has shown hard this season that they can play at eye level against top teams. Last but not least, the most recent, spectacular 4-2 win against FC Bayern speaks for it.
But also in the 0-1 defeat against RB Leipzig last weekend there was almost no difference in performance between the two teams. “Once again we beat a top team. I keep seeing our development. If we continue like this we will definitely get the necessary points to stay up.”said Reis after the unfortunate defeat against the Saxons.
Bochum can keep up against any opponent. Nobody is too big for VfL: That is probably the most important finding of the current season.
Critics disabused
This is also due to the fact that VfL has consistently and sustainably improved in the current season. After the 7-0 debacle on the fifth day of the game away from Munich many observers and fans had serious doubts as to whether there was any chance of staying up. But the Bochumers taught all the critics better.