VfL Bochum messed up the most explosive game of the season. In the small Revierderby, the performance is right in the first half, but a curious own goal by the team takes away any momentum. The mood in the stadium changes. Opponents Schalke 04 don’t really care.
FC Schalke 04 collected 19 points in the Bundesliga at the end of this Saturday afternoon and believes in the miracle of staying up. VfL Bochum also has 19 points at the end of this Saturday afternoon, but the mood there has changed. After the 2:0 (1:0) of Gelsenkirchen in the small Revierderby “anne Castroper”, the situation in the city neighbors could hardly be more different. “Of course we can smile and laugh now,” said Schalke keeper Ralf Fährmann. In this explosive duel of all things, the team won again away from home in the Bundesliga after 38 desperate attempts.
The people of Bochum didn’t want to smile or laugh. After falling to the bottom of the table, coach Thomas Letsch announced that “it’s definitely time for the whip.” It will bang loudly at VfL. While the club thought they were on the right track in the relegation battle, they are currently tramping on the wrong path through the league. The last four games were lost, each without own goal. And again with outrageous mistakes. This time by Manuel Riemann, who put the 0:1 in the box in a strange way (45th). Central defender Erhan Masovic could have cleared without the keeper’s intervention. Riemann crouched on the grass like a heap of misery, and significantly, after the game, there was only consolation from the Schalke players. “It’s a massive problem that after a superior half-time in which we just didn’t take our chances, we didn’t go into the break again at least 0-0,” said Letsch.
It’s the individual dropouts that push the team ever closer to the abyss. “We weren’t relegated today and said before that it wasn’t a final,” said the VfL coach. “Everything is questioned and analyzed and then we need the right people to get us out of there.”
Meanwhile, the fans are growing angry and trusting that there are enough fighters in the team (after all, captain and boss “Toto” Losilla will return after his red suspension the next day) to pull the lore out of the shaft. After the final whistle, they who were so full of hope, adrenaline and passion before the game burst out furiously, which didn’t sit well with the Bochum team. Midfielder Philipp Förster, for example, was stunned by the anger and hatred that partially broke out over the VfL professionals. “I understand that the fans are unhappy. But it’s not okay for us to be given the wrong finger. That’s unacceptable.” Even during the game, the atmosphere in the stadium, which was sold out with 26,000 spectators, had become increasingly heated and aggressive. “We want to see you fight,” the fans chanted and whistled after the game. The players were also loudly insulted when walking in front of the curve.
Even before the kick-off, the anger was directed at someone else entirely, at coach Thomas Reis. In Bochum he rose to heroic status last summer. He had led the team from the depths of the 2nd division back to the upper house and managed to stay up there in a furious way. With spectacular victories against FC Bayern, for example, or at Borussia Dortmund. But then came the false start to the current season and reports that he wanted to switch to FC Schalke 04 in the summer. There was a bitter rift and allegations of loyalty and doubts between Reis and the club. Before the first reunion, everything was concentrated on the trainer, who tried to downplay it. But that failed.
Accordingly, he was greeted angrily, including with a shameful “Bastard” poster. Reis with the Schalke logo on his pullover on the sidelines didn’t cheer for his team’s goals and didn’t want to later spin another story out of the hatred from the ranks. “No comment, all good. We can talk about the game. We took three points and that’s the most important thing for me today.” And how important that was: For the first time since the end of October, Schalke is no longer at the bottom, Schalke is back in the fight for relegation, the status now that the two district rivals, Hertha BSC, VfB Stuttgart and TSG Hoffenheim will make up for themselves. “Of course that was brutally important,” said keeper Fährmann, who had once again kept the zero: “We’ll take the positive things with us.”
The positive things include above all the points, the performance, on the other hand, rather less. In the first 45 minutes, the hosts determined what happened, albeit at a moderate level. Philipp Hofmann, Patrick Osterhage and Christopher Antwi-Adjei missed three good opportunities. Schalke didn’t have any until the break and still led. After a cross from Rodrigo Zalazar, Riemann first undercut the cross and then maneuvered the ball over the line. “It wasn’t my turn anymore,” admitted Marius Bülter, the closest Schalke player to the scene, who also made it 2-0 in the strangely sluggish second half (79′). “It’s a strange thing, but luck has to be worked for and that’s what we have at the moment.”
How long does that last? Good question. Borussia Dortmund is coming to their own arena next week. There is currently no more difficult task in German football. The arch-rival is currently rushing through the league as if insane, sometimes doing magic or fighting against impending defeats with long-unimagined greed, like on Friday against RB Leipzig (2-1). “That was the next step today, but there are still a few steps to go. We have to keep collecting points,” Reis said. “We have a home game and now we have to process today’s game. We passed two so-called fateful games with flying colors and are back. Now we’ll see that we stay there for a long time.” The belief is back, the courage, the joy – it was released while dancing with the fans in front of the guest block.
More contrasts to VfL are not possible. “It’s difficult to put into words, but it goes completely against the grain for me because we had big plans and wanted to keep the three points here,” complained Keven Schlotterbeck. “In the end we are back with zero points. Shit feeling.” Everything should now be put to the test before the difficult away game at 1. FC Köln on Friday. Coach Letsch says: “The way we’ve presented ourselves lately, the bottom line is that we didn’t get enough out of it and thus gambled away our good starting position.” The mood with 19 points could not be more different.
