Back to Bundesliga buisness, the cup is history. Now it’s all about staying in the league. This Saturday offers the next chance to score important points, when VfL welcome the “Shamrock“. Let’s LOOK AHEAD to Greuther Fürth.
THE TEAM
A miserable first half of the season as the “Shamrock“ could only score five points in all with 14 defeats out of 17 fixtures and only a single victory. In most cases Spielvereinigung were not more than a makeweight and a historic negative record was about to be set. But that would change completely after the turn of the year – actually without that many changes in the squad. New Swedish regular goalkeeper as well as striker Afimico Pululu joined Fürth. Apart from the new signings director of football Rachid Azzouzi and others like Hoogma, Fein, Sarpei, Seufert, Itten all quit – some of them are back with their previous clubs. The “Shamrock“ has collected remarkable nine points in the seven games of the second half of the season so far – just as much as we have. Even though the gap between the bottom place and the relegation spot is still huge – currently Hertha Berlin are nine points ahead of Fürth – hope is back at the Ronhof.
THE HEAD COACH
One reason for the success might be that the club has held the established staff in place. Despite their poor first half of the season Stefan Leitl has not been suspended as head coach. He carrys the necessary serenity. Moreover the club from Franconia has a quite realistic point of view. The fact that it would become a tough task as a promoted side in the Bundesliga not only well-known in Bochum. Stefan Leitl took over in February 2019, he was getting started as a professional head coach in Ingolstadt, the club he also played for several years. The 191-times 2nd Bundesliga player is very familiar with the Franconia area. Not at least since his time at the Ronhof, Leitl also played for local rivals FC Nuremberg, where he also made five Bundesliga appearances.
THE RECORD
There have been 29 fixtures between VfL and the Spielvereinigung up to now. After the first leg game the record is now in slight favour of VfL: Bochum nine wins, Fürth eight wins, twelve draws. The first leg game was at the same time the first clash of both sides in the Bundesliga. The fans had been waiting a long time for the opener in this match, but in the closing phase our skipper Toto Losilla scored the winner – our first Bundesliga away victory after 11 years. Nice one! Please repeat on Saturday!