With his arms crossed in front of his chest, Thomas Letsch blew deeply. The crushing defeat in the relegation battle hit the Bochum coach, but it didn’t discourage him. “In the decisive moments we did too badly. You can’t sugarcoat that,” said Letsch after the 1: 5 (0: 3) against VfL Wolfsburg. But the 54-year-old also said: “When I see the atmosphere here and how the team fights, it also makes me confident.” Despite the gossip, his players were not booed. The followers cheered her up.
“VfL from Bochum will never go under,” echoed through the Ruhr Stadium. There was applause for that. The professionals from the Revierclub stood in front of the curve for minutes and absorbed the emotions. “Incredible,” said defender Erhan Masovic. “It means a lot to us that they are so behind us.”
After the previous home game against VfB Stuttgart (2:3), goalkeeper Manuel Riemann was badly insulted by some spectators. There was even a direct argument with the keeper in the stands. This time, despite a blunder, Riemann was met with chants. “We have to stand together,” was Masovic’s motto for the season finale.
Instead of landing the hoped-for liberation, his team has five games before the end of the season with 27 points to fear for remaining in the Bundesliga. If FC Schalke 04 wins at SC Freiburg this Sunday, VfL would slip into the relegation place.
The Bochumers can actually lift themselves up from their fans and their own morale. Even after the 0:3 break, VfL didn’t give up. In the opposing penalty area and also in defence, the performance against Wolfsburg was clearly not enough for the Bundesliga.
“We completely missed the toxicity,” said Letsch. Bochum hardly got into the duels, was often too far away in defense and didn’t take advantage of their chances. VfL has not won four games in a row. The home strength is gone too. In the last five games in front of their home crowd there have been four defeats and only one win.
“The best thing of the day” was “that the others also lost,” said Masovic, referring to the defeats of bottom Hertha BSC and TSG Hoffenheim. Of course, Bochum cannot and do not want to rely solely on the fact that the competition makes mistakes in the close relegation battle.
“We missed a chance. Nevertheless, we are in the situation that we have everything in our own hands,” said Letsch. “We mustn’t let the next chance pass by again.” With a view to the upcoming difficult derby against Borussia Dortmund on Friday, he added: “Knowing that the tasks will not get any easier and that the games will be fewer.”
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