For the new Bochum coach Dieter Hecking, the preparation for his first opponent began with a seemingly scandalous, albeit involuntary and melatonin-induced, disdain: In order to watch <a href="https://www.archysport.com/2022/01/bundesliga-despite-a-crazy-summer-gladbach-bankruptcy-after-bayern-gala-bundesliga/" title="Bundesliga: Despite a crazy summer – Gladbach bankruptcy after Bayern Gala – Bundesliga”>Bayer Leverkusen‘s Champions League game at Liverpool FC last Tuesday, Hecking, 60, lay on the bed and dozed off after a short time, that’s what he said at the press conference before the game. When he woke up again, Liverpool were leading 2-0 and Hecking thought: Oh well? In the end, Leverkusen lost 0:4.
However, Hecking’s power nap did not harm VfL Bochum‘s chances for the Bundesliga game against Leverkusen in the Ruhrstadion; the Castrop-Rauxeler native is, after all, what is reverently called an old hand in football. Another factor was crucial for Bochum’s surprising 1-1 (0-1) draw against the German champions: life has returned to the VfL team with coach Hecking – and also a little bit of luck: the equalizer to make it 1-1 Koji Miyoshi scored in the 89th minute. The Ruhrstadion freaked out.
“The spectators pushed us until the end,” said the Japanese, who came to Bochum from Birmingham City in the summer, appreciatively and gratefully. The players’ thanks also went to Hecking: “We were very well prepared for the opponent,” praised goalkeeper Patrick Drewes, and the strong wingman Gerrit Holtmann, who should actually have been sold in the summer, said almost touchedly: “Today “We showed what we were missing for nine games.”
The draw is absolutely appropriate against an uninspired Leverkusen team
After the humiliation in Liverpool and only one win and four draws in the previous five Bundesliga games, Leverkusen were hardly stable in Bochum in the end. “That was annoying,” said coach Xabi Alonso, “we actually want to be better.”
The draw was absolutely appropriate because Bochum consistently showed backbone against uninspired Leverkusen and abruptly ended their increasing signs of disintegration from previous games (0:5 against Bayern and 2:7 in Frankfurt under interim coach Markus Feldhoff).
“Even if it sounds strange,” Hecking said afterwards, “but I would have been satisfied with the team’s performance even if we hadn’t equalized.” The team needed structure, “and I was surprised at how well she implemented it.” Hecking now has a feeling of hope: “This game can be a turning point, but for that we need a performance like today 24 more times.”
Hecking had changed the Bochum starting eleven in four positions compared to the 2:7 in Frankfurt: He brought in three new players in Tim Oermann, Jakov Medic and Gerrit Holtmann into a somewhat surprising five-man chain as well as a new game designer in Matus Bero. Hecking wanted to see progress in this game above all in terms of stability, and even conceding just one goal meant serious progress if you look at the series of goals Bochum conceded in the first ten games: 1, 2, 2, 2, 4 , 3, 3, 5, 7 – and now: 1. Hecking thinks: “The Bochum squad is no worse than that of five or six other clubs in the Bundesliga.”
The Bayer Leverkusen squad is of course not included. For the Rhinelanders, who were initially ripped off, all it took was a single brilliant move in the first half to take a 1-0 lead when Florian Wirtz sent Patrik Schick from midfield in the 18th minute with a super-precise through ball to make it 1-0. Schick was given priority over Victor Boniface, who had recently been under a lot of pressure and was substituted on late. Robert Andrich and Jonas Hofmann were also new to Bayer’s starting line-up.
After the performance, the Bochum players can look forward to two days off
Instead of falling apart after the 1-0 defeat like in previous weeks, this time the Bochum team defended themselves even more vigorously in the second half and had promising chances to equalize after a good hour. During this phase, more than 20,000 passionate Bochum spectators sang that VfL would never go down. But it took until the 89th minute before Miyoshi equalized. The Ruhrstadion was boiling. The fans sang: “VfL is back.”
At the end, the good-humoured veteran coach Hecking even revealed how he had packed the team within just four days and used all his experience to help them get into a completely different shape at such short notice: “I told the players that they had two days get a day off if they play well.” This also had a nice side effect for him: he wanted to go to the famous All Saints’ Fair in Soest in East Westphalia, where he grew up.
