Shortly before the game against TSG Hoffenheim early on Sunday evening, Borussia Dortmund coach Edin Terzic gave an interview on the pitch to the live broadcaster Dazn. There he talked to guest commentator Sami Khedira about short passes and vertical football. There was great agreement between the two about this type of forward play. Terzic praised the expert conversation, the fans sang “Heja BVB” in anticipation, the referee Marco Fritz blew his whistle – and 97 seconds later Dortmund were 0-1 behind.
The defender Emre Can had played a miserable, 20 meter long horizontal pass to his neighbor Nico Schlotterbeck in his own penalty area. Hoffenheim’s fast striker Ihlas Bebou stole this pass and made it 1-0. It only took 97 seconds for the Dortmund players to show their coach for the first time that evening that theory and practice can be completely different things.
Beyond the unsuccessful start, the game was supposed to be a particularly nerve-wracking episode from the “Dream Job of a Football Coach” series for Terzic. Initially, his Dortmund team, only briefly dismayed by the disastrous start, turned the game around within 22 minutes and took a deserved 2-1 half-time lead through Donyell Malen (21′) and Nico Schlotterbeck (25′). But after the break, BVB’s game was once again completely unhinged, while Hoffenheim, who had previously been winless eight times in a row, now pressed very effectively, defended strongly and countered successfully. With two goals from Maximilian Beier (61st and 64th), they gave the rollercoaster game another boost. In the end, Dortmund actually lost for the first time in the eighth game of the new year – at home at that – and due to the 2:3 (2:1) embarrassment, they failed to extend their lead over RB Leipzig to four points in fourth place.
Hoffenheim’s Maxi Beier succeeds in the evening’s actions.
Dortmund had to do without relevant players on Sunday: the injured goalkeeper Gregor Kobel, the sick central defender Niklas Süle and, on the offensive, Felix Nmecha and Sebastien Haller. However, they still didn’t have to lose this game – shouldn’t have lost. Terzic also thought so after the final whistle. “It’s very difficult to explain,” he said, “we showed a good first half after the nervous start, but we started the second half very poorly again – that was extremely frustrating this time.” It’s entirely your own fault for this defeat: “We alone allowed the opponent to come back into the game.”
His attacker Julian Brandt had a similar view: “We controlled the game in the first half, but suddenly lost balls very, very drastically in the second half, Hoffenheim scored two goals – and the rest is history.” After the break, they failed to interpret game situations appropriately and make the right decisions. “In the end it was chaos,” Brandt decided, sounding completely unnerved.
Goalkeeper Alexander Meyer, who replaced the injured regular goalkeeper Kobel, also found it “inexplicable”: “At first we showed a great reaction to the early deficit, but then we stopped playing in the second half. We can never let that go give.”
After falling behind, Dortmund ran blindly.
At halftime there was still a fairly conciliatory mood in the stadium given Dortmund’s 2-1 lead, but when the curtain rose on the second act, the game dramaturgy foresaw another serious moment of shock for the hosts. Hoffenheim’s Beier put Borussia in trouble within four minutes. In the 61st minute he ran a counterattack, hit a few hooks, shot from 18 meters and hit Marco Reus, from whose body the ball was deflected into the Dortmund goal by goalkeeper Meyer. In the 64th minute, Beier gave Hoffenheim a 3-2 lead when he scored low after a cross from Anton Stach. The stadium was boiling, the Dortmund audience was foaming at the mouth, some were already whistling.
Towards the end, Terzic generously replaced his offense. Karim Adeyemi came into the game after a two-month injury layoff, as well as Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Youssoufa Moukoko. But there was only fifteen minutes left. Dortmund ran blindly. Eight minutes before the end, the stadium howled again. After Hoffenheim’s Florian Grillitsch (unintentionally) blocked Marcel Sabitzer’s shot on goal with his hand, referee Fritz, after consulting VAR Pascal Müller, did not award a penalty. Then it was over.
The Hoffenheim team were happy. “We came out of the break really well and turned the game around brilliantly,” said Hoffenheim’s overjoyed double goalscorer Maxi Beier.