It’s not easy to understand why VfL Bochum, under their new coach Thomas Letsch, hasn’t scored a single point in four Bundesliga away games, with 1:15 goals – and why, on the other hand, he scored full in three home games with Letsch against strong opponents scored nine points, with 7:2 goals. At home on Castroper Straße, VfL is a different team. This is apparently also due to the atmosphere in the Ruhr Stadium – and the tailwind that the players get from the enthusiastic home crowd for their new, more courageous football.
“The entire stadium is simply outstanding,” enthused midfielder Kevin Stöger about the response from all four stands after the exciting 2-1 (2-0) win over Borussia Mönchengladbach. “Bochum deserved the victory through passion and emotion,” even the opposing coach Daniel Farke said appreciatively. And Gladbach’s Christoph Kramer, who once played in Bochum himself, put it this way: “Bochum, floodlights – and when the stadium comes, you know what’s going on.”
The World Cup break comes at the right time for Letsch to finally be able to practice his football
This seems a plausible explanation for the Bochum mystery. 0: 4 in Leipzig, 1: 4 in Stuttgart, 0: 4 in Wolfsburg and 0: 3 in Dortmund – these were the most recent away results. At home, however: 3-0 against the Champions League round of 16 Frankfurt, 2-1 against the then leaders Union Berlin – and now 2-1 against Gladbach. The discrepancy between home and away results is glaring. “I can’t really explain it,” said VfL center forward and 2-0 goalscorer Philipp Hofmann. His coach agreed: “It’s hard to explain!” Thomas Letsch doesn’t want to talk about it in detail anyway, because: “The more you talk about it, the bigger this story gets.” And then the whole thing threatens to become a self-fulfilling prophecy in away games.
At the end of September, the Swabian Letsch, 54, once the head of training at RB Salzburg and most recently a trainer at Vitesse Arnheim, started his job in Bochum. He prescribed a more aggressive pressing and tempo game for VfL. That went terribly wrong at the start in Leipzig, and the drop proved to be very large in the next few away games. But at home, in front of the fans in the electrifying retro stadium with its antique floodlight masts, the Bochum team implemented the new coach’s football much more successfully. “This stadium is simply unbelievable when the game is in tip-top shape,” says Letsch. And that’s exactly how the game against Gladbach was: Pointed to the button.
The enthusiastic atmosphere may even have an effect on the referee’s tight decisions, because the subsequent withdrawal of Gladbach’s 2-2 equalizer eight minutes before the end – after a very complex offside situation with a Bochum leg still on the ball – seemed doubtful. Gladbach coach Farke stressed that he was happy for the “likeable club VfL Bochum”, but he called the performance of referee Daniel Schlager and his assistants “underground”.
The Bochum team visit FC Augsburg in the last game before the winter break on Saturday. Then they want to play abroad like they do at home. “It’s time for the first away points,” says Stöger. Meanwhile, Letsch is looking forward to the two-month break in the season. So far he hasn’t had the opportunity to spend more time with the team and rehearsing his football. “I’m not unhappy that there’s a World Cup now,” he says, “I’m glad we’re getting proper preparation now.”