In the 90th minute, Jacques Offenbach’s can-can sounded in the Ruhrstadion. This time the recently suffering VfL Bochum scored late themselves, the goal anthem seemed to convey exuberance in the first game after the Bochum coaching change, but the late one meant more than equalizing the 1-1 (0-0) draw against 1. FC Heidenheim Header hit by Keven Schlotterbeck. The point saved in this way at least saved the Bochum team from falling into the relegation zone. “Today we are the moral winners,” Bochum’s sports director Marc Lettau bravely claimed – albeit with a very sad face.
Nine minutes before the late equalizer, the Bochum team had temporarily slipped into this dreaded relegation place. In the 81st minute, while trying to clear the ball, Schlotterbeck very unfortunately and somewhat strangely maneuvered the ball into his own goal to make it 0-1. The whole stadium groaned loudly. VfL Bochum’s curse of conceding late goals and defeats in a row apparently continued unabated under the new coach.
At least the hosts were spared another defeat. “After a change of coach, everyone always expects things to go wrong straight away,” said the new, interim head coach Heiko Butscher, almost apologetically, but still drew motivation from the course of the game: “The team wants it!”
“We are alive, we have shown morale,” says Bochum’s captain Losilla
The Allgäu Butscher was not asked during his official presentation last Tuesday whether he actually considers himself to be the right man to save the floundering team from relegation. The 43-year-old, previously a youth coach, said: “I can totally understand that one or the other might say: ‘Look at the table where his U19s are, they are in third from last place – What do you want with him?'”
Butscher once played for VfL Bochum for four years and has taken on various coaching jobs there since 2015. He had already played three competitive games in the transition phase from one coach to the next with the licensed team and is now proud that VfL trusts him to lead the club to stay in the league after coach Thomas Letsch was released. His A youth team, third from bottom in the Bundesliga West and now coached by the previous B youth coach David Siebers, won 3-1 against seventh-placed 1. FC Köln on Saturday. Butscher would have hoped for such a liberation for himself and the professionals.
It was not explicitly noticeable in the Bochum game that “a new impulse” had been given with Butscher. This was how the club justified its separation from coach Letsch after only one point from six games. The Bochum team gave it their all for half an hour, but didn’t score a goal. The supposed Heidenheim lead in the 43rd minute by Jan-Niklas Beste was not counted because of a handball. In the second half, the Bochum team gave it a lot of steam again and created even more chances. However, the supposed lead by Takuma Asano in the 63rd minute was rejected by referee Patrick Ittrich via video review on the sidelines because of a previous foul.
Many Bochum residents thought it couldn’t be even worse than the two goals conceded in stoppage time a week earlier in the 2-1 defeat in Cologne. But Schlotterbeck’s own goal in the 81st minute felt just as bad. After all, only for nine minutes. Schlotterbeck was able to correct his faux pas himself. “Today we were able to do it the other way around,” said the defender, on loan from SC Freiburg, about his own equalizer. He doesn’t feel like a hero – “but as an encourager” because they didn’t give up after falling behind and were at least able to avoid defeat.
“We are alive, we have shown morale, we still have it in our own hands,” said Bochum captain Anthony Losilla. “We are still above the line,” emphasized sports director Lettau. “Next Saturday,” said double goalscorer Schlotterbeck, “the next Big Point game is coming up.” Then the Bochum team will play VfL Wolfsburg, who are only one point better. No time to relax.