What a coup! VfL Bochum took three points from Berlin and now has good prospects for another year of the Bundesliga. At the Revierklub, people fluctuated between euphoria and down-to-earthness.
Beside yourself with joy: Bochum joy in Berlin. IMAGO/Jan Huebner
You would think that after the wild 4-3 coup in Berlin, all the dams would break at VfL Bochum – and you would fall blissfully into your arms about the dazzling prospects of playing first-class again next year. But that was only the case to a limited extent. Sure, the joy of the all-important threesome was written all over the faces of the people of Bochum, but humility was also mixed into their emotions.
“There is a lot to process,” said Maximilian Wittek DAZN and referred to the drop in performance after the restart, when they almost lost a 3-0 lead. Such game outcomes would be anything but good “for the hearts of all Bochum fans,” joked the 28-year-old. “It won’t last like this for long.”
In the end it went well – and “if you’re successful, it’s ok,” emphasized interim coach Heiko Butscher, who was also a little overwhelmed by his emotions. “Such sick shit, it’s unbelievable,” he said to the 43-year-old looking back, admitting that his “nerves were completely screwed.” But that’s exactly “that’s why we love this football, because you have such a spectacle and such experiences. It’s the most beautiful sport in the world.”
It was “madness to win a game with this explosiveness. It was all there: an almost perfect first half, then really shaking, becoming too defensive, fighting back and throwing everything in at the end.” The coach knows that “it could have been different” – it was Union’s turn to equalize twice, after 2:3 and 3:4.
We wouldn’t have been able to win 1-0 or 2-0.
Kevin Stöger also saw it that way. “Luckily we scored three goals. If you look at the second half, we wouldn’t have made it 1-0 or 2-0,” said the Austrian. Wittek, on the other hand, was well aware that such games had already been ruined in the current season. “Anyone who has followed our season knows that we have already given up a few things,” said Wittek, referring to the 2-1 defeat in Cologne, when we conceded two goals in stoppage time.
“It is all the more important that we played through the last two games,” said Wittek. Stöger said: “In the end it wasn’t about a good or bad game, but about three points – and we got them.” That’s another reason why joy prevailed in the end, because as Wittek stated: “We took a big step today, that was very important. Staying in the league, nothing else matters to us.”
Tricky remaining program
Against Hoffenheim (3:2) and now also in Berlin, they managed to get the win over time, even though they still had to tremble in both games after taking a 3-0 lead. The fact is: Bochum can no longer be relegated directly, but could still slip into relegation place – and the rest of the program is not exactly easy.
Next Sunday (7:30 p.m.) the still unbeaten champions Bayer 04 Leverkusen will pay a visit before things get serious at the season finale in Bremen. But for Butscher it is clear: “We want to make it straight away and not go through the relegation zone. That has to be the goal.”
2024-05-05 18:31:17
#Bochum #euphoria #downtoearthness
