Jacques Offenbach’s can-can music rang out three times from the loudspeakers and caused the Bochum stadium on Castroper Strasse to explode. VfL Bochum’s goal anthem could be a swansong for Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel. The record champions lost the floodlit game 3:2 (2:1) on Sunday afternoon against the underdog from the Ruhr area – and if things go the way they often do in Munich, this could have been Tuchel’s last defeat.
FC Bayern have now lost three competitive games in a row. You have to look back a long time to find such a series of bankruptcies for the former league leader, nine years to be precise.
The 2023/2024 season could be the first since 2012 that Munich ends without a title. An embarrassing second-round exit against third division team 1. FC Saarbrücken in the DFB Cup, in the Bundesliga they are now eight points behind leaders Bayer Leverkusen and in the Champions League they are anything but on course for the final after the 1-0 defeat in the first leg of the round of 16 at Lazio Rome. And there are always reports that things aren’t really going well between coach Tuchel and his star ensemble – the coming week on Säbener Straße is likely to be uncomfortable for the 50-year-old.
At first it looked like a liberation in Bochum. An early lead by Jamal Musiala (14th minute) was supposed to bring security to the Munich game, Harry Kane even left the score 2-0 a short time later before referee Daniel Schlager interrupted the game for around twelve minutes. The fans of FC Bayern and VfL Bochum have a long-standing friendship – and so they pulled together against the German Football League (DFL) and its plans to bring an investor into the football boat. Tennis balls flew onto the court, we now know it.
And if proof were needed of how much such interruptions can throw the professionals out of rhythm: FC Bayern provided it. Musiala wasted the ball in the opposing half, Bochum’s Anthony Losilla beat Joshua Kimmich and fed Takuma Asano, who equalized from 15 meters (38′). Cancan number one.
From then on, Bochum played freely, Bayern Munich seemed unsettled. A corner from Bochum’s Kevin Stöger landed precisely on the head of Keven Schlotterbeck in the 44th minute, who only had to nod off, Cancan number two. Game shot in just six minutes. Meanwhile, Thomas Tuchel’s head sank further and further into his high jacket collar. This will not only have been due to the pouring rain in Bochum.
After the break, a lively exchange of blows developed. It was impossible to tell that the second-placed team and the fourteenth-placed team were facing each other before kick-off – until the game was interrupted again. Referee Schlager asked both teams into the dressing room. Tennis balls, the second. “Shit DFL” chants from both fan blocks. In the catacombs, Tuchel seemed to have found the right words, Bayern pressed for the equalizer from then on, but couldn’t get through VfL Bochum’s compact defensive line.
In the final quarter of an hour Bochum recovered themselves and were rewarded in the 78th minute. After an elbow check in the header duel with Nico Schlotterbeck, Bayern’s Dayot Upamecano flew off the pitch and Schlager pointed to the spot. Kevin Stöger from eleven meters, Cancan for the third and a Thomas Tuchel, who, deep in his coaching seat, hardly wanted to watch the goings-on of his team in the madhouse Ruhrstadion – even Harry Kane’s goal (87th) couldn’t change that. Once again it became clear this Sunday afternoon: the record champions are having a hard time against teams that fight with self-sacrifice. Thomas Müller recently pointed out a possible attitude problem in the Tuchel team several times.
Tuchel was convinced in the Dazn interview after the final whistle that I didn’t read that. The defeat “wasn’t fair” and “a lot went against us”. But when it came to the lack of goals, Tuchel seemed at a loss. He probably knew what was going to happen to him. It remains to be seen what his slogans of perseverance and the oaths of loyalty from the Bayern superiors from the past few days after the embarrassment against VfL Bochum are worth. He made it clear that Tuchel is not thinking about giving up. And yet his future with the record champions is more uncertain than ever.
