Borna Sosa threw herself on her back and cried. Atakan Karazor wiped his eyes with his hand. Sasa Kalajdzic shook Sosa, then put his arm around him. And Konstantinos Mavropanos? He stood straight, eyes wide, and then he slapped his forehead with his hand. What did I do there?
It was a question that could be answered with relentless clarity, as some malicious individual broadcast the crucial scene of that 1-1 draw between VfB Stuttgart and VfL Bochum up and down afterwards. You can see how Mavropanos in the fourth minute of added time runs towards a Bochum ball that has been sent aimlessly, how he tries to let the ball roll out and block the opponent, if there is one at all, oh, watch out, that’s really it one, shouldn’t I rather hit the ball away? Collisions of thoughts, in fractions of a second, mockingly displayed on the finest color television. Mavropanos prefers to swipe the ball away, and then several things happen at the same time.
Bochum’s Sebastian Polter runs past him, Mavropanos pulls out and slips and hits Polter while sliding. What are you supposed to do as a Bochumer Polter? fall, what else? And as Osmer’s referee you don’t have a choice either: you have to whistle for penalties. The rules do not provide for pity or an extra sanction for clumsiness.
Should VfB Stuttgart be relegated to the second division in the near future, the players, the staff and the hundred thousand supporters of this huge traditional club will all have the same image in their heads. You will not see the many other mishaps of the season, the missed penalties, the deflected goals, the numerous injuries and the even more numerous corona diagnoses, not all the pass errors and the defensive errors. You’ll see Mavropanos accidentally flattening that polter. And maybe they’ll let the image in their head continue for a moment and see the complete nonchalance with which Bochum’s Eduard Löwen converted the following penalty.
Heartbroken: Konstantinos Mavropanos after the final whistle.
(Foto: Christian Kaspar-Bartke/Getty Images)
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A lot has happened to VfB Stuttgart in the past few months, and all the small and large setbacks have triggered all the stress and overwhelm symptoms known from scientific literature in this young team. Anyone who knows football knows what helps in such a case: a dirty win, as it is called in technical jargon, against Bochum perhaps, preferably 1-0, after an own goal. And that’s exactly what happened: After a corner kick from Stuttgart’s Chris Führich and a subsequent header from Orel Mangala, Bochum’s Armel Bella Kotchap extended the ball into her own goal (1:0/56.). A lucky goal, but still deserved because the Stuttgart team had been remarkably disciplined and even inspired at times.
They have been waiting for such a lucky opening goal at VfB for months
It was exactly this story that VfB needed to start the much-needed race to catch up now that all the injured and sick are gradually reporting back to duty. And FC Augsburg, direct competitor in the relegation battle, had also lost.
The 94th minute turned that story on its head. Now it reads like this: Despite a decent performance, VfB Stuttgart suffered the next setback and gave up two points in the 94th minute. Arminia Bielefeld, direct competitor in the relegation battle, won and is now six points away. And on Sunday, a diagnosis followed that destroyed the next narrative of hope in Stuttgart: that a race to catch up is quite possible, if not probable, when all the top players finally play football together again.
Silas Katumpa Mvumpa, who is on the way to his old form again after an eight-month cruciate ligament break and subsequent corona disease, will now be out for months again. The collision in the 20th minute looked rather harmless, but, as the MRI showed on Sunday, Silas now owes a shoulder dislocation including torn ligaments. A diagnosis reminiscent of that of Sasa Kalajdzic at the beginning of the season; the Austrian was out for four months and now, after his return with the first goal, he’s out again with a calf injury. And Omar Marmoush, who came on for Silas in the 20th minute and was last absent due to his appearance at the Africa Cup of Nations, had to be replaced again in the 73rd minute because of a newly recovered corona disease that was still bothering him.
If Murphy’s Law really exists – that wisdom according to which everything that can go wrong will go wrong – then VfB footballers with good prospects can apply as testimonials. Although it cannot be ruled out that this amount of mishaps is also starting to embarrass Mr. Murphy. Maybe he’s even ashamed.
Mangala misses a chance that should never be missed – and certainly not in the relegation battle
“It sucks and it hurts,” said Stuttgart coach Pellegrino Matarazzo later, and at least they are honest enough at VfB not to hide behind dark forces in their analyzes. Sporting director Sven Mislintat put it this way: “We could have rewarded ourselves 2-0 early and had to decide the game. We have to take credit for that.”
There was a second colored picture that evening, not only that of the clumsy Mavropanos. The picture from the 76th minute also explains a lot about this team: The excellent winger Führich (who was of course injured twice this season and once had corona disease) surprised Bochum’s defense with a lob, and suddenly Mangala was so free in front of goalkeeper Riemann, like you are not actually free in the relegation battle. Mangala didn’t shoot, he hesitated, and then somehow twirled the ball to the goalkeeper’s body. It is obvious that the team is missing 27 goals of the previous year: Kalajdzic scored 16 and Silas scored eleven.
The hope that at least Kalajdzic can still contribute a few decisive goals, that carries them in Stuttgart, and so they try in their distress to give the story a new twist. “There’s so much going against us, and that’s why we’re thinking ‘now more than ever’,” said coach Matarazzo, drafting a concrete script for the last eleven games of the season, including a final punchline: “If we can look back on this huge board after these eleven games and still be able to celebrate , then that’s a bond that will last a lifetime.”
Prognosis: Konstantinos Mavropanos would celebrate the most, Borna Sosa would cry tears of joy. Problem: You would have to win a few games beforehand.
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