Tough time at the Alm

In their last away match of the year, VfL Bochum 1848 lost 2-0 away to Arminia Bielefeld due to goals by Okugawa and Wimmer.

Three days after their fantastic draw with Borussia Dortmund, VfL Bochum 1848 travelled to the SchücoArena to face DSC Arminia Bielefeld. Head coach Thomas Reis brought in Vasilios Lampropoulos for Maxim Leitsch and Christian Gamboa in place of Konstantinos Stafylidis.

With only ten points to their name so far, the team from Eastern Westphalia desperately needed the points and they played a high pressing line showing loads of aggressiveness from the start.

VfL Bochum were forced to defend for the best part of the first half-hour and Bielefeld kept pushing forward without creating any real chances until the 18^th minute when Krüger received the ball in a promising position in the box Lampropoulos made an important recovery.

Two minutes later, VfL had their first real attack with Holtmann hitting a good cross but Pieper sliding into the cross and blocking it. In the 21^st minute, the hosts intercepted a pass by Losilla, Schöpf was clean through but had his shot blocked by Riemann – that was close.

Just two minutes later, our boys with another mistake in their build-up; this time it was Wimmer with the chance, but Lampro got a block in.

After a physical tackle by Pieper, Pantović responded in kind. The Bielefeld player got away Scot-free with Panto being shown a yellow card. Polter received the same punishment for dissent.

Around the half-hour mark, we had clawed our way back into the match with the best chance of the match coming in the 37^th minute when Antwi-Adjei put Holtman through who lost two defenders before trying to side-foot the ball into the far corner only to see Ortega stick out a leg and block the ball.

After the interval, Stafylidis replaced Soares, and VfL had the first opportunity of the second half from Antwi-Adjei’s bicycle-kick that went over the bar.

In the 51^st minute, Bochum failed to clear their lines and a cross from the right was met by Okugawa who outjumped Gamboa and headed into the corner – 1-0.

Thomas Reis sent on fresh legs in Bockhorn and Ganvoula for Polter and Antwi-Adjei and it took Bockhorn just a couple of minutes to charge down the left but in the end, he could not get the cross in.

In the 69th minute, the Bielefeld pressure paid dividends when the ball came to Wimmer 12 yards out to the left. The Austrian hit a powerful shot which Riemann seemed to have under control before letting it slip into the net – 2-0.

Bochum were piling on the pressure now with Bockhorn sprinting through the middle before shooting but Ortega was able to save the central shot.

Thonas Reis sent on Novothny for Pantović and Osterhage for Rexhbecaj but the only excitement came when a long ball hit a Bielefeld defender’s hand in the box, but the ref ruled it unintentional.

After several great performances in the last weeks and 20 points gained so far, this wasn’t our evening. Now we need to pick ourselves up quickly and focus on the last home match of the year against 1. FC Union Berlin on 18 December, 3:30pm.