Dieter Hecking watched the final phase stoically and with his arms crossed over his chest, and even when it ended with the final whistle, the VfL Bochum coach remained motionless on the sidelines. It wasn’t until several seconds later that he stirred and looked away from the field to take a few steps back and high-five everyone on the bench. It seemed as if he first had to pull himself together to encourage the staff after the dreary 0-1 (0-1) defeat at FC Augsburg.
There was not much reason to hope that the Bochum team can still escape their seemingly preordained relegation from their presentation on Saturday. It was therefore difficult for the guests to maintain their confidence. At least they couldn’t be denied their efforts, just like before on the pitch. But the attempt to radiate optimism was understandably not convincing for the bottom of the table after only two points from twelve games.
“It sounds stupid, but we have to keep believing,” said attacker Philipp Hofmann. “We have to get as good as we can between now and Christmas and play an outstanding second half of the season.” He referred to the progress the team has made under Hecking have. At the same time, he named one of the problems: “It takes a little time, but we don’t really have the time.”
After the seventh defeat in eight league games, the task seems more difficult than ever
After the 1-1 draw against champions Leverkusen on Hecking’s debut three weeks ago, there was confidence that his rescue mission would soon be enriched with further successes. Two defeats later – in Stuttgart (0:2) and in Augsburg – the glimmer of hope has already faded again. After the seventh defeat in the last eight league games, the task seems even more complicated than it already is.
Hecking is relying even more on a quick sense of achievement so that self-confidence returns: “We hope that we don’t have to wait too long, otherwise the mail will be over,” said the 60-year-old and made a calculation for the longed-for first win of the season, which after However, the rules of stochastics are not true: “The probability increases the more games you lose.”
For now they have to stick to small improvements at VfL. Hecking identified more resilience and said the team was trying everything they could to “get their foot in the door and get into the season.” In Augsburg, however, she didn’t get a shot on goal. The Bochum team only posed any signs of danger with attempts that all missed the target. You have to “score a goal at some point, take the lead at some point, just to have that feeling on the pitch,” said full-back Felix Passlack. “We have to start scoring three times now, ideally at the weekend.” Then comes Werder Bremen to Bochum, then there are games at Union Berlin and against Heidenheim before Christmas. “These are teams that are normally on an equal level with us,” said Passlack. However, that sounded more like wishful thinking.
In fact, the Bochum team would probably be very happy if they had the currently not much better style of play of the Augsburg team and the resulting income. This time FCA won thanks to Phillip Tietz’s converted penalty kick (38′). The game was “maybe not that good,” the goalscorer put it cautiously, but so what? “Got three points, that’s enough,” said Tietz, looking forward to the cup round of 16 against second division Karlsruhe on Wednesday. The KSC is “a chunk”, but: “We want to show that we are the first division team.” Bochum had already said goodbye to the DFB Cup in the first round – with a 0-1 defeat in Regensburg Bottom of the second league table.
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