Bochum seems to suit him well for his anniversary match: On Saturday, SC coach Christian Streich will be on the bench for the 300th time in the Bundesliga. He hopes for a “cool day”.
Officially, Christian Streich has already been responsible for 301 games for Sport-Club in the Bundesliga. However, as he missed two games at the start of the 2018/19 season due to back problems, only the away game in Bochum is really number 300. “You wouldn’t have thought that was realistic a few years ago, at one place and one club – a good, great club,” said a delighted Streich. Only five coaches have managed more Bundesliga games with one club, including former SC coach Volker Finke (340).
“I am very grateful that I was allowed to do this,” said Streich, also referring to his years as the youth coach of Freiburg. “Even though I’m sure other people think he’s been squatting on the kicking field every Saturday for 44 years, he’s not quite normal.” For him, football is his life and his work, and also “always exciting”.
Gladbach instead of concert
However, he would have preferred a different date than Sunday evening for the away game in Mönchengladbach next week. Because on that day, of all days, he had tickets for the concert of a “great guitarist” in Switzerland. “I was really annoyed,” Streich admitted, “but that’s the way it is sometimes.”
But first it’s off to Bochum for Freiburg, and the SC coach is looking forward to that without reservation. “If we win, it could be a cool day “, he said referring to his anniversary. “It’s a great stadium, and Bochum against Freiburg as a Bundesliga match I think is good.” Because he also likes the club.
Be careful of the ominous waters
Despite this, he hopes his team can overcome Bochum’s defensive bulwark, even though VfL “have consistently performed well, are really good in their aggression and tackling, and have almost always played to nil at home”. After two defeats in a row at Bayern and against Frankfurt, Sport-Club are still “in a very good position in third place in the table and that’s super pleasing”, said Streich, “but we don’t want to get into a rut where we have to talk about unfortunate match developments afterwards”.
