VfL Bochum vs FC Bayern Munich: Keep Looking Forward

By: Luke | December 10th, 2009

How a team plays against the “minnows”, how it responds in the matches it should win is often as important of a measure as how they respond in the matches they must win. Bayern Munich passed the latter test with very high marks indeed on Tuesday. Saturday, we will witness them answering the former on their final road trip of the year, visiting relegation-battlers VfL Bochum. For the first time in a while, GOLTV will have the coverage, and will show the match live at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time.

Of late, you don’t even have to be Herbert Grönemeyer to find a reason to be optimisitic about Bochum. They have managed a 3 match unbeaten streak heading into Saturday, their longest of the season. They are in fact, sitting outside the relegation zone at the moment, in 15th place on 13 points. But upon closer examination, the situation isn’t so great. They have managed exactly one home win this season. It was of course against Hertha, and both teams have changed coaches since then. They’ve had some inconvenient injury events, perhaps the worst being Stanislav Sestak’s broken arm. Central defender Antar Yahia is still unavailable due to injury. But with Mimoun Azaouagh healthy again, it looked like they would be close to full strength for Bayern. Then Diego Klimowicz had to go get himself sent off last Saturday in Stuttgart, and will be suspended for this week’s match. This is familiar territory for Bochum, as Shinji Ono has already been sent off twice this season. Surely it won’t be a surprise then that with 38 yellow cards in 15 matches, Bochum tie for the league high in naughtiness with Stuttgart. There are unconfirmed reports that Krampus beat the entire team with broomsticks a few nights back. That’ll teach ‘em. Bayern by contrast, have been carded a mere 15 times on the season.
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Krampus emerges from the Bochum dressing room

While not quite the worst defense in the league, Bochum have surrendered a full 1/3 of their goals via header. Stuttgart managed to earn 11 corners last weekend, but as we know, they hadn’t been bothered to take their chances much this year. Even if Bayern only earn 5-6 corners, I would expect this to be a week where Daniel van Buyten heads one in. For more on Bochum see:

*An interview with Bayern assistant Hermann Gerland, former long time Bochum player and coach.
*This terrific piece on Bochum coach Heiko Herrlich that Jefferson wrote a couple weeks back.
*The moderately dormant Bochum Offside which shows Herrlich’s most (in)famous moment against Bayern, one he’d surely like to be superceded by a famous win on Saturday.

Back to the grind
Thursday was quiet at Säbener Strasse, with the boys having been given the day off. There were no new reported injury concerns, and as has been the company line for a bit now, Franck Ribéry will be out of the squad, but may appear next weekend. In my estimation, Ribéry’s revelation that he personally feels FC Bayern is not good enough to win the Champions League is really not news. Even if I sit here and actually believe we could play to the level of the Juve match every time out the rest of the way, I don’t know that I could disagree with him. But once again, I’m not really sure why these opinions are being aired publicly.

Looking to the match, there’s not really strategy or technical data that is truly relevant. It mainly comes down to whether the team has come down out of the clouds after Tuesday’s triumph ready to get a little dirty for three points. A quick early lead would allow some playing time to important players who haven’t seen it lately. Especially in the case of Klose, I’d like to see him get a half’s work in, because there will come a time between now and the end of the season, where his contribution will be critical.

Prediction I will not be shocked to see a little bit of a hangover from the boys. But there’s nothing in these cards that says upset special…
VfL Bochum 0:2 FC Bayern Munich

Mini Bayern Derby Friday
In a match that will test the loyalty of some Audi employees, FC Bayern II will take on 3. Liga leaders Ingolstadt 04 in Munich on Friday. Ingolstadt, known to me mainly as a place to change trains (but it’s no Buchloe), will count on 3. Liga scoring leader Moritz Hartmann for some offense against a Bayern II defense that has allowed just 5 goals in the last 6 matches. Mehmet Scholl must do his best work with players he can identify with-Bayern II’s leading scorer is Mehmet Ekici. The 19 year old midfielder has already topped his scoring tally from last season with 7 goals in 16 matches. Bayern II will wrap up the fall campaign with another derby next week, a commute down to Unterhaching.