Preview: FC Bayern vs. VfL Bochum

By: phil | December 19th, 2011

In the Round of 16 of the 2011-2012 DFB Pokal. Bayern is on the road for this one, and the Pokal ship is starting to move away from the minnows and into the deep end. Bayern comes off of a 3-0 win over Köln that was inspiring of confidence, but that also may have left us somewhat tired. Bochum, meanwhile, has muddled along in the middle of the 2. Bundesliga table for most of the year; they are undefeated in their last 3 matches, though, and have outscored their opponents 9 to 1 during the month of December.

The Line-Up

Your guess is as good as mine. This won’t be a walk in the park, and you know Jupp Heynckes and the board would hate to crash out of the Pokal in the last match before the winter break. So don’t expect to see the “B” team out there. At least same time, there’s a lot of wiggle room between the bext XI and the “B” team, especially with Lahm, Badstuber, Kroos, and others having played the full 90 minutes this past weekend (and most of that a man down).

I’d bet we start at least a few of the regulars – probably Müller, Boateng, and a couple more – along with some of the semi-regulars such as Olic, Alaba and Petersen. Because Petersen didn’t get a chance to play at all on Friday, I have a hunch he’ll get the start. But my hope is that Usami and Contento get a chance to play, either as starters or as early subs.

Needless to say, we’ll be back with more info here as it becomes available.

The Opponent

By far the funniest thing about VfL Bochum: if you look up the club on Wikipedia, it lists their location, age, colors, etc … then under “nickname,” it says “Die Unabsteigbaren” (The Unrelegatables) – and then, in tiny letters, “only prior to 1994.”

Guess they need a new nickname. Since their colors are blue and white, how about we call them “Die Blau und Weiß” – I can’t think of any major clubs that are using that nickname, can you?

Anyway, Bochum is a respectable club for their size, playing about half their time in the 1. Bundeliga over the past two decades, and once earning a spot in the UEFA Cup (the precursor to the Europa League). Last season, they finished 3rd in the lower division, good enough to get a play-off for promotion; unfortunately, they lost the two-legged playoff to ‚Gladbach, who, as it turns out, aren’t that bad. This season, VfL has mostly failed to follow up on that decent season, with their mid-table performance punctuated by two ugly 4-0 losses to Braunschwieg and SC Paderborn. Over the past three weeks, though, they’ve started to claw their way back into relevance, most recently going on the road to beat FSV Frankfurt with two first-half goals.

Bochum has a good Asian contingent, led by Jong Tae-Se (a North Korean striker nicknamed “the People’s Rooney”) and Takashi Inui (a young Japanese midfielder who has played a few matches with Japan’s senion national team). These two lead the club with 5 goals apiece. The only other Bochum player whose name I recognize is Bjorn Kopplin, a versatile defender who came up through the Bayern system and has also played well with the German U-20 team. Kopplin is only 22, and he played at Bayern II with Müller and Badstuber, so if he continues to play well … who knows.

Final Notes

- The match will be shown live on ESPN 3, and will be followed by the Dortmund game. A full day of Pokal action if your cable provider carries ESPN 3.

- Bochum plays their home matches in the rewirpowerSTADION. That <— style is correct – all one word, all lower case for the first part, all caps for the second. I suspect corporate sponsorship here, though of course I could be wrong. Thanks for reading.