Svensson on helping Vogt break decade-long scoring drought: "It was clear Kevin should take the penalty."
Several long-standing Bundesliga goal droughts came to end this past weekend in Germany's top footballing flight. Leverkusen attacker Jonas Hofmann scored a league goal for the first time in a year. Kiel's Jan-Fiete Arp registered a Bundesliga tally after a seven-year-long wait. By far the longest drought, however, belonged to veteran journeyman defender Kevin Vogt.
The 33-year-old last scored in the Bundesliga whilst representing 1. FC Köln on match-day eight of the 2014/15 campaign. Since then, Vogt has contested 275 matches for Union, Hoffenheim, and SV Werder Bremen. Interestingly enough, that goal also came in the first half of a 2-1 league victory over Borussia Dortmund. Vogt converted a penalty in Saturday's mirror result.
Only three other players - Dietmar Schwanger (266 matches), Reinhold Zech (211 matches) and Dennis Diekmaier (203 matches) had to wait longer. Speaking at a post-match press conference on Saturday, FCU trainer Bo Svensoon confirmed that giving Vogt the chance to snap this skid from the penalty spot constituted a team priority.
“It was clear that Kevin should take the penalty if it came up today," Svensson said, "Kevin is a very important player for us. At some point we just had to do it."
Brought in help gird Union in the relegation fight last January, Vogt has certainly delivered for die Eisernen. The Witten-native immediately slid into Robin Knoche's old role in the Union back-three, starting evert 2023/24 "Rück-runde" and make-up match (16) for which he was available. He's started all seven of Union's competitive fixtures this year, going the full 90 minutes on five occasions.
"We took a lot of penalties in training and the lads were happy with me," Vogt remarked in his post-match interview with Sky Germany, "When I took the penalty, there were several faces looking at me."
"I would have preferred to face someone other than [former Hoffenheim and current BVB keeper] Gregor Kobel," Vogt continued, "but luckily my penalty so so good that not even a Gregor Kobel could stop it."