Anyone who enjoys watching a clear sky literally turn into a storm in a flash was in the right place at the Ruhrstadion on Easter Sunday evening. As if the all-powerful director had pressed a button like in the feature film “Truman Show”, the scenario darkened within a few minutes exactly at the kick-off of the game between VfL Bochum and Darmstadt 98. Lightning flashed, rain pelted and the footballers experienced a storm that perfectly choreographed their table situation.
It was just six weeks ago that the sky over the football city of Bochum was clear, even “pink”, as coach Thomas Letsch put it retrospectively on Sunday evening. After a 3-2 defeat against Bayern in mid-February, the whole of Bochum dreamed of, for once, staying in the league early and a feeling of security that is otherwise unheard of at the Ruhrstadion.
But a subconscious longing for drama and thrills seems to be in this team’s genes. Bayern’s triumph was followed by four defeats in a row and an even more depressing 2-2 draw against bottom team Darmstadt when the highly superior Bochum team gave up a 2-0 lead in the last half hour.
“It could have been so nice,” lamented Bochum’s double goalscorer Philipp Hofmann, who made a significant contribution to staying in the league last season with eight goals, but is struggling to get going this season with three goals so far. His double pack, one day after his 31st birthday, was actually not enough to secure a decisive victory. “That was a huge opportunity,” he complained about the missed release, “and we have the next huge opportunity on Saturday in Cologne.”
Next Saturday will have groundbreaking significance for the rest of the season, not only for VfL Bochum, but in the entire relegation battle, when the Bochum team will host the second-to-last 1. FC Köln, while the third-to-last Mainz will host the last-to-last Darmstadt. With a Cologne and a Mainz victory, the Bochum team would be pulled deep into the relegation vortex again. “It will last until the end of the season,” suspects center forward Hofmann, because he knows himself and his Bochum Pappenheimers.
Bochum is struggling with two goals conceded, which worsens the situation in the relegation battle
The phlegmatic trio at the bottom of the table – Mainz, Cologne and Darmstadt – are still struggling and have been stewing in their own juice in exactly this constellation since the beginning of December. In the meantime, the gap to the fourth-to-last place was already eight points, and now it is still six, but unexpectedly a new drama beckons on the seventh-to-last matchday, in which Bochum, Mainz and Cologne could move up to four points.
In terms of momentum, this would put Bochum in particular in trouble, although they have many years of experience with crunch-time emotions in the season showdown. The fact that VfL sports director Marc Lettau somewhat surprisingly claimed on Sunday evening: “We don’t have to worry” probably stemmed from his desire “not to get hectic now”. The Bochum situation was summed up by coach Letsch’s sober realization that “we are in a relegation battle – and already in the middle of it.” Letsch, who himself is a bit surprised that his players didn’t know how to capitalize more on the actually courageous victory against Bayern, finds the situation in which he now finds himself with his VfL: “dangerous!”
Letsch predicts that his team will have “seven intense weeks” ahead of them, meaning that VfL will have to fight again until the final match day. That’s how it was last season, that’s how we know it in Bochum. At least the regular audience gets the full program for their money: it remains exciting until the end.