Nine straight losses sink Bielefeld to the edge
A club with seven major titles and a proud name now sits 17th after a run that has made the Bundesliga's trapdoor look like a mercy.
Nine. Nine Bundesliga defeats in a row for DSC Arminia Bielefeld, and the only thing that changed on Sunday was the margin. Hertha Berlin left the SchücoArena with a 2-1 win, and Bielefeld left with nothing again.
The run reads like a punishment: 0-3 to Fortuna Düsseldorf, 0-3 at Borussia Dortmund, 0-3 to Sport-Club Freiburg, 0-4 at Eintracht Frankfurt, and now 1-2 to Hertha. Sixteen games played, seven points, 17th place. The club that once held seven major titles is now staring at the second division.
Nico Cordes has been in charge since 14 December. He inherited a team already in freefall, and he has not stopped it. The pressure on him is real and growing. A new manager gets time, but not when the losses pile up like this. Not when the club's name is known far beyond its borders and the fans are watching their team slide without a fight.
The latest defeat had a flicker of resistance. Bielefeld scored, something they had not done in the previous three home games. But Hertha, comfortable and organised, took the points without ever looking troubled. The home crowd, once loud, now sits in a grim silence broken only by groans.
Cordes spoke briefly after the match. 'We cannot keep saying we are close,' he said. 'Close means nothing. We need points, not performances.'
The winter break cannot come soon enough. But even that will not fix a run of nine straight league defeats. Something deeper is broken at Bielefeld, and unless Cordes finds a way to stop the bleeding, the club's long history will count for nothing in May.
For now, the number is nine. And every week it gets harder to see where the next point comes from.