On Saturday in the win against Hoffenheim, Soma Novothny scored his first Bundesliga goal. The striker now also scored with his head in VfL Bochum’s test match against third division side Viktoria Köln.
Mostly players from the second row had been given the opportunity by Thomas Reis to prove themselves in the test at the athletics ground on Castroper Straße. “Overall,” said the Bochum coach, “the boys were very committed, I have seen weaker test matches. But compared to the Bundesliga, a friendly match is of course always 20-30 per cent lacking.”
Herbert Bockhorn made a lacklustre but successful comeback in the 2-1 win against the third-division team. He played 60 minutes after recovering from a fibre tear in his adductor area and is likely to be an alternative on all possible wing positions in the future. The Bundesliga promoted team currently has a number of problems on the flanks in particular.
On the wings, things are looking a bit bleak.
The injured Danny Blum and Gerrit Holtmann will be absent the Saturday after next in Leverkusen. Furthermore, it remains to be seen in what condition Takuma Asano will return from his international trip with the Japanese national team. “On the wings,” admits Thomas Reis, “things are looking a bit bleak.”
One candidate for one of the two flanks could be Christopher Antwi-Adjei, who played 90 minutes against Viktoria Köln but hardly made a positive impression. “Tactically, he still has a lot of room for improvement,” says Reis, “and he also needs to be more courageous.” The ex-Paderborn player missed a great opportunity in the second half when he ran at full speed towards the Cologne goal but failed to beat goalkeeper Bördner. “When he is on the move with so much dynamism,” said Reis, “he has to be more courageous and simply pass the goalkeeper.”
Thanks to an improvement in the second half, the Bundesliga team won the test match; “after the break, we at least created some good chances “, said coach Reis.
Goal scorer Decarli has to leave the pitch early
And the outlook? It is still not clear when defender Maxim Leitsch will be fit for action again. But the defender has made some progress recently and is already taking part in training sessions on the pitch. Robert Tesche, who is still out due to muscular problems, is also not expected to play in Leverkusen.
Small scare on the sidelines: Goal scorer Saulo Decarli, who scored the 1:0 with his head, had to leave the pitch early after attempting a side-footed kick and falling on his shoulder. An exact diagnosis on the defender’s injury is still pending.
