VfL Bochum beat NEC Nijmegen from the Netherlands in their test match on Thursday afternoon. Coach Thoms Reis’ team ultimately deserved to win the high-scoring match 5:4.
Without its five international players, VfL Bochum went into the first half with a clearly recognisable match plan: when in possession of the ball, they wanted to play forward in a controlled manner, and when the NEC had the ball at their feet, they wanted to win it directly with aggressive midfield and attacking pressing.
Especially the midfield pressing worked well in the early stages and led to the first chance through Holtmann, who won the ball in the opponent’s half and failed from an acute angle to beat the Dutch keeper Dieker. This seemed to wake up the NEC, however, and shortly afterwards Gruth scored from a corner to make it 0:1 from Bochum’s point of view in the 14th minute. Subsequently, VfL were the more active team, but were unable to create any compelling scoring chances against deep-lying visitors.
A ball win after pressing in midfield led to the deserved equaliser by Löwen in the 25th minute. Now the game went from strength to strength. Less than two minutes later, the Dutch scored to make it 2-1, Ruiz Pedro nodding in after VfL had again failed to defend a corner consistently. A minute later, after winning the ball again in midfield, Bochum levelled the score again in the 28th minute through Holtmann. So it was 2:2 going into the break, also because Decarli missed from close range in the 44th minute.
Five goals in the second half
VfL came out of the break well and as the more active team, Nijmegen limited themselves to defending. Accordingly, the 3:2 in the 61st minute was deserved, a tight shot by Blum from the left edge of the penalty area hit flat into the far corner. Shortly afterwards Löwen scored his brace, after a short solo he flicked the ball into the right corner from 15 metres in the 68th minute.
Subsequently, after chaos in the Bochum penalty area, the NEC were able to reduce the score to 3:4 in the 72nd minute through Romeny. The Bochum defence then became more and more fragile. In the 82nd minute, after a strong finish by van Rooij, the score was equalised at 4:4. The final goal was scored in the 90th minute by substitute Chibsah, who, after Löwen’s pass in the five-metre area, only had to push in the ball for the final score of 5:4.
Even though Bochum’s victory was alright, VfL had to reproach themselves for unnecessarily squandering a two-goal lead in the second half and letting the visitors back into the game. After the international break, Bochum face Fürth in the league on 15 October (15.30).
