Lazaro (Hertha) and Arnold (Wolfsburg). Nobody’s happy with a draw.
It seems to happen every week these days. After losing the lead two times against Hertha two weeks ago, Wolfsburg have now drawn seven Bundesliga games in a row. Should they continue this odd streak on Saturday, against Freiburg, they’ll equal Waldhof Mannheim’s record from the year 1985, when the now-regional league outfit missed out on the UEFA Cup qualification due to their inability to produce the wins. But Wolves, stuck in the 14th place as we speak and edging the dropzone by just three points, have other goals. One in particular: to stay up. Preferably: to stay up without the play-offs.
For VfL, this is a brand new situation. Three years ago, the club was heavily investing for the future, hoping to mount a serious title challenge. The arrivals of Kevin De Bruyne, Luiz Gustavo, Timm Klose and Daniel Caligiuri have allowed Dieter Hecking’s team to finish as Bundesliga runner-ups and with the German Cup. A year later, two prestigious Champions League wins over Manchester United and Real Madrid have somewhat redeemed the failed league campaign. However – after this spell of success, a literal yard sale commenced at Volkswagen Arena. In little over two years, VfL have managed to get rid of all those…
In many ways, their current run has already the survivalist flavour. They’ve started it quite strongly, by playing a fighting game against Werder Bremen. This was Martin Schmidt’s first game in charge at the Volkswagen’s city and he had reasons to be pleased. His lads controlled the game very well in the first half and took relatively early lead when Paul-Georges Ntep crossed to arriving Divock Origi and the Belgian blasted the ball in the back of the net from the close range. Too bad that the visitors had a second-half answer to that: a failed clearance from Robin Knoche fell for Fin Bartels and he equalized.
That might’ve been the game where Wolves narrowly missed out on all three points. However: out of the next four matches, three have proven to be the ones where the team in green narrowly escaped with draws. The snatch-and-grab job began on a chilly Friday evening in Munich, against the gargantuan Bayern team. The Bavarians, having just destroyed Martin Schmidt’s previous team, Mainz (4-0) and hammered Schalke in Gelsenkirchen (3-0), looked to inflict some more damage against the team that lost in the previous nineteen (!) visits to the reiging Bundesliga champions’ ground.
For nearly an hour, Carlo Ancelotti’s team was performing exactly as planned. Germany’s best crosser, Joshua Kimmich would nearly provide two assists in the opening minutes, when Vidal and Boateng couldn’t quite convert their younger colleague’s terrific passes. Eventually, it was Lewandowski, who found the way. The Polish forward picked up yet another Kimmich’s pass, flicked it well with his back to the goal and got his shirt pulled by Marcel Tisserand. The penalty was converted and, soon afterwards, Arjen Robben added a freakishly deflected long shot to the scoreline, making it 2-0.
0-2. Nothing feels worse for a goalkeeper than getting beaten by a ricochet.
“Not so long ago, we would probably have collapsed completely after such a half-time” – said VfL’s man of the hour, Daniel Didavi, after what has proven to be one of the most memorable escapes in his club’s recent history. Indeed: Wolves’ history of imploding at Allianz Arena is fairly rich: two years ago, they fell victim to Lewandowski’s five goals; last season, they conceded twice inside half of an hour and got smashed 0-5. This time, the team in green came back from the dressing room fired up, pulled one back through Maximilian Arnold’s free kick and made it 2-2 five minutes before the final whistle.
Three weeks and one draw later, Schmidt’s side made even bigger comeback when they arrived at BayArena. To this day, twenty-five thousands of Leverkusen fans must wonder how their beloved team managed to turn a victory into a draw. Especially after the first 45 minutes, during which pretty much every single corner cross from the hosts would result with a terrific goalscoring chance. Lars Bender alone could’ve had a set-piece hat-trick and secured a 3-0 lead for B04 very early in the match – instead, one lapse of concentration and VfL pulled level just seconds before the break.
The match at Leverkusen exposed a multitude of problems the Swiss boss will have to resolve soon. Left-back Yannick Gerhardt has shown very little ability to stop skilled Leon Bailey. The Jamaican winger had a field day against the ex-Cologne lad, creating four chances and producing three shots on target – all, somehow, without any end product. While this was happening, Wolfsburg’s hope in the heart of the midfield, 23-years old Maximilian Arnold had another poor game, misplacing pretty much all free kicks and risky passes he’d take. Yunus Malli struggled too, making VfL’s left flank even more weak.
Luckily for Schmidt, despite all those problems, his lads have brought back their newly discovered determination to save the day. Origi’s 1-1 header was only the second half-decent chance the team came up with in Leverkusen – and the Liverpool loanee took it, proving that he deserve more chances at Anfield in the future. When it was time to rescue the visitors again after Alario’s goal, hard-working Błaszczykowski has provided a textbook finish, losing marking with his first touch and then placing the low shot between two defenders and away from a goalkeeper. Wolves weathered the storm again.
The Swiss boss tried to rectify the situation by changing his starting XI for the Hoffeheim game. Gerhardt, Guilavogui and Malli all dropped to the bench, making way for Gian-Luca Itter, Daniel Didavi and Landry Dimata. Ten minutes in, this new lineup has let down their manager again when it’s leader, Arnold, failed to score from the penalty spot. To make things even worse, that wasn’t even the best chance VfL missed in the first half: shortly before it’s end, Origi’s woodwork shot fell for Uduokhai and the young centre-back passed the ball straight to Oliver Baumann instead of just tapping it in.
Soon enough, one more miracle was needed. Late in the game, Demirbay demonstrated Arnold how to properly convert a spot kick. There were seventeen minutes left and Schmidt’s player desperately angled for an equalizer. Achtzehn99’s defenses held firmly until the added time, when main offender Arnold has managed to win what proved to be the final corner of the game. Once again, it was Didavi who put his foot on the key ball, finding Uduokhai’s head at the far post. The resulting, awkward shot had very little power on it but the precision was too much for Baumann to handle. 1-1. Another one point.
More of the same happened a week later, in Gelsenkirchen. Again, Wolves’ opponents scored from a penalty. Again, Schmidt was pulling his hair out when one of his players fluffed a spot kick. Again, the rescue strike occurred in the added time. And again, the lad who previously failed to do his job had his hand of the equalizer. After the match, the German media mostly discussed the extensive use of video assistance by the referees, who’d award few big decisions based on the replays. Meanwhile, the weird resemblance between the game and the Hoffenheim clash remained unnoticed.
To be fair to Wolfsburg, the last time they’ve had a chance to turn around this drawish run, they’ve finally created one hell of a show. After going down 0-1 to what was more or less the very first kick of the game, they bounced back late in the first half. Both 2-1 and 3-2 scorelines were within their grasp but in the end – surprise! surprise! – they’ve conceded a late goal. It was a typical, scrappy goal from a substitute forward that just had a slight advantage of fresh legs and extra composure. Before that, Schmidt’s team wasted one penalty (again!), hit woodwork twice and attempted as many as 20 shots – all in vain.
Of course, this mysterious tour of ties can be explained by tumultous circumstances surrounding the Swiss manager from Volkswagen Arena. The 50-years old, former car repairman has inherited a young squad packed with exciting, but inconsistent players – players he himself did not choose. In just a couple of weeks, he had to cope with the absence of injured centre-back John Brooks; soon after his return, the health problems hit Ignacio Camacho and Josuha Guilavogui as well. Those issues, combined with awful set-piece defending and penalty ineptude, have all took it’s toll.
There’s a silver lining to that spooky streak, though. Since the 21st century started, four out of five teams with the record number of Bundesliga draws have managed to stay up. Only the unlucky eleven of Arminia Bielefeld went down; in all remaining cases, teams like Stuttgart (with… young Mario Gomez in squad), HSV or Nürnberg all finished in fairly respectable spots. Even the bookies agree on this one: currently, Wolfsburg’s survival is rated as 14/1 – far higher than the odds of Köln, Freiburg, Werder Bremen, HSV and Mainz.
Still – they absolutely need to learn how to convert penalties…
Shot on Goal 