In the end, a “2:4” was on the scoreboard, in front of which the Freiburg players cheered up after the defeat against Borussia Dortmund. 2:4, that sounds clear. But on Saturday afternoon it belied the fact that just a few minutes before the final whistle, every stadium spectator had the impression that there were two teams on the pitch that would probably have been happy with a point split.
This was definitely true for Freiburg, who had recently reduced themselves from eleven to ten due to a bad foul by Nicolas Höfler. But also for BVB. Borussia had made another offensive change in the final phase, but were far from pushing for victory with all their might. She didn’t even have to. Finally, the Freiburg defense, especially the young keeper Noah Atubolo, kindly took care of Dortmund’s business themselves during the cool-down phase of the game.
The home team allowed Borussia two more goals around the 90th minute. And with it the first win after the two draws against Bochum and Heidenheim. “There are not many teams that can win here and catch up,” said a relaxed coach Edin Terzic and did not forget to praise the double goalscorer Mats Hummels: “It helps to have someone on the pitch who has seen everything. “
The spectators watched a game between two visibly struggling teams in the pleasant late summer weather in the west of Freiburg. The fact that Dortmund started the season somewhat weakly has been sufficiently discussed. But the sports club was also hurt after the 5-0 defeat in Stuttgart.
Freiburg’s defensive behavior becomes a problem against Dortmund
You could see that in the defensive behavior of Dortmund’s early opening goal by Hummels, who was completely unmolested, without having to go into detail – because there was no defensive behavior. And you could see that on the Freiburg starting grid. Vincenzo Grifo, whom coach Christian Streich had identified as one of the faces of the defeat in Swabia, was supposed to stay on the bench. However, it only lasted about half an hour.
Then Michael Gregoritsch had to leave the field and the man who had already prepared so many goals with his crosses and set pieces came along. So Grifo did Grifo things: he chipped a ball once onto Lucas Höler’s head and once onto Nicolas Höfler’s head; and a game that was still 0-1 from Freiburg’s perspective after 45 minutes went into the break at the end of stoppage time with Freiburg leading 2-1.
And also because BVB seemed to lose faith in themselves after the early lead – Hummels scored for the first time in the eleventh minute. In this phase, Dortmund showed a phenomenon that is not untypical for unsettled teams: Although the sports club often left the Dortmund attacks a surprising amount of space on both flanks, there were quite a few bad passes from Dortmund to marvel at. In addition, goalkeeper Gregor Kobel allowed himself endless goal kick times in the middle of the first half – as if he was defending a narrow lead in the Champions League in the 89th minute.
However, the fact that his team played so cautiously in this phase did not correspond to the requirements, as Terzic emphasized: “What I don’t like is that we couldn’t maintain control after taking the early lead.” Terzic didn’t like the result of the interim lethargy either. Instead, he again noted a disregard for the match plan: “We wanted to avoid having a lot of free kicks near the penalty area. We slept twice when we conceded goals.”
From Dortmund’s point of view, all of this remained a side note, after all Donyell Malen scored the equalizer after an hour, and ten minutes followed that decided the game to Freiburg’s disadvantage. After the red card for Höfler, the team fell apart – which was all the more unfortunate because the last goal this season was a young goalkeeper who was not done any favors when he was considered close to the national team before the first Bundesliga game. In Dortmund’s 3-2 victory, Hummels’ second goal, he appeared helpless, and in another penalty area action shortly afterwards – before the entire Freiburg defense stopped working when Marco Reus made it 4-2.
While Freiburg’s coach later spoke of the possibility of a “tough season” for his team, BVB sports director Sebastian Kehl was of course in a good mood: “I wouldn’t say that the team is at 100 percent, but I think that we are have taken a big step forward.” By the way, it’s also at the right time: Borussia will play at Paris St. Germain next Tuesday.