Heiner Backhaus and Alemannia Aachen travel to SSVg Velbert with a broad chest after the last-minute win against Düren. The coach doesn’t want to play nicely, he wants to win.
Heiner Backhaus was still very enthusiastic about the emotional last-minute victory against 1. FC Düren (2:1) in front of 19,500 fans at the Tivoli in the press conference before the clash in Velbert on Friday (7.30 pm). “I’ve never experienced anything like it. Especially when you’re down there, it’s a different acoustic level than when you’re in the stands. The drama of the game was unique,” enthused the Alemannia Aachen coach. “I’ll never forget a moment like that and I don’t think many people who were in the stadium will forget it either. That’s what makes the club so special.”
It may not be quite as full at SSVg Velbert on Friday, but numerous supporters will be there again. Backhaus is currently very positive about the atmosphere between the team and fans. “Our fans have a very fine sense of whether the team is giving everything or not. They forgive us every mistake as long as everything comes from the heart and everything that is in the body is left on the pitch. They let us feel this trust,” explained the coach, adding: “We’ve also worked hard to ensure that we don’t get booed when we lose 3-0 in Bocholt, because they know that this is just a slip-up, we’ll continue next week and the boys will win again. “
If we think we can come here and play a bit of soccer and do a bit of yo-yoing, that won’t work. We need all of Aachen’s virtues.
Heiner Backhaus
On paper, that should also be possible for the fourth-placed team in the table at SSVg, who are currently in last place. However, Backhaus warns to have great respect for the promoted team. “They took a point off Bocholt, took a point off Oberhausen and even beat Wuppertal. So if we think we can come here, play a bit of soccer and do a bit of yo-yoing, that won’t work. We need all the Aachen virtues.”
That also means that you can’t always just play beautiful soccer, as the coach made clear. “We’ll never be able to expect ourselves to completely batter the opposition with our soccer. You don’t have to expect that, but you do have to expect us to fight the opposition with everything we’ve got. Then many people say that we have to play better soccer. But if you lead 1-0 in every game, as you have almost always done in recent weeks, then the opponent has to play and offer more,” he explained.
Backhaus advocates fighting instead of playing nice
“It’s a league where 90 percent of the games are about winning with a goal difference. In this respect, I prefer this criticism to the criticism of having played beautifully but lost in the end. We also played good soccer in Bocholt, but were brutally beaten for it.”
Backhaus himself is traveling to Velbert with a “very, very good feeling”. His team have demonstrated “a monster mentality” in recent weeks, which he is calling for once again. “You simply have to feel that on the pitch from the very first second. It doesn’t matter whether we’re playing the team bottom of the table or top of the table.” That’s how it should work out on matchday 17 with the ninth win of the season