When Erling Haaland hobbled off next to team doctor Markus Braun after a good hour of play, the all-clear was about the same as it seems to be for the whole Dortmund team at the moment. The tomograph scan was still pending on Sunday, but it seems certain that the striker Haaland suffered a rather harmless torn muscle fiber in the adductor area. So nothing dramatic – compared to the anxious minutes before the game, when Braun had to test the striker for a possible cruciate ligament tear. Luckily with the all clear.
BVB is in a similar situation to Haaland: just bitterly eliminated from the cup against St. Pauli, from the Champions League anyway – but in the Bundesliga with the 3-2 win at TSG Hoffenheim the next disaster was prevented for the time being. Dortmund coach Marco Rose acknowledged critical questions immediately after the final whistle: “Yes, the win was flattering, but we fought it home in the end.”
Hoffenheim could well be of the opinion that they were the slightly better team, as there were many lively moves and 13:5 shots on goal. “It was a victory for effectiveness,” said BVB captain Marco Reus. In fact, Dortmund scored three goals from the first three shots on goal, through Haaland, Reus and a more or less forced own goal from Hoffenheim’s young international David Raum. Andrej Kramaric (1-1) and Georginio Rutter (2-3) scored for Hoffenheim.
Goal scorer Haaland is expected to get away with a maximum three-week break from football. Since the next Bundesliga game is not scheduled for February 6th, against Leverkusen, the time for a break is not the worst. And they are also lucky in other ways at BVB, at least in the league. Dortmund have 43 points from 20 games, Bayern are still in sight and they are ten points clear of first place without Champions League eligibility. So far so good. The criticism of BVB’s often inexplicably weak, always unpredictable football does not go silent.
Dortmund is doing well in the league, but the criticism doesn’t stop.
Because the hangover mood with which Dortmund’s expensive ensemble came back from St. Pauli could not really be dispelled with the largely disappointing performance in Sinsheim. Hardly anyone can really enjoy the good score, thanks to three wins in the previous second half games against Frankfurt (3:2), Freiburg (5:1) and now in Hoffenheim. The financial and physical effort that BVB makes for its regular place behind Bayern seems large, measured in terms of earnings. In addition, Borussia is currently also benefiting from the weaknesses of supposed competitors for the coveted first four places (Leipzig, Wolfsburg, Mönchengladbach, Frankfurt). And the only reason Bayern haven’t rushed yet is because they allow themselves more dropouts than in previous years.
In Sinsheim, BVB defender Manuel Akanji once again tried an explanation that actually only described that he also had no explanation: “We have games in which we play well and then games in which we don’t play well. We talked about it.” One thing is certain: the indisputably good point haul in the league is opposed by many black, inexplicable holes at Borussia.
They were kicked out of the DFB Cup as defending champions against a second division team, without any apparent resistance. In the Champions League, the likes of Ajax Amsterdam and Sporting Lisbon suffered defeats, a particularly bitter one in the second leg in Portugal. Dortmund first lost the moderately important Supercup final and then the home game in the league against Bayern. The balance sheet also shows that Dortmund has lost all games of key importance under coach Rose, who was brought in last summer. The word “work victory” has also become a term at BVB that tends to be used ironically.
So far, Rose has survived these currents relatively unscathed. Here and there there is criticism of the system, no matter which one is currently being played, sometimes with late substitutions and substitutions. Otherwise, however, most of BVB seem to have settled in with the fact that they have a team that obviously cannot be driven out of the will-o’-the-wisps. Yes, there are more injuries than usual, but internally it has now been registered that there are only half a dozen players in the squad who are on the mental hand-to-hand combat level of most FC Bayern players. In addition to goalkeeper Kobel and defenders Akanji, Hummels and Meunier, there are Jude Bellingham and Haaland. Even someone like Captain Reus sags in many games, most recently against St. Pauli.
So Rose has to struggle at several construction sites. BVB continues to concede an unbelievable number of goals, a good 1.5 per game, because the initial sparks of opposing counterattacks are already overslept in midfield – and then the post goes off. In addition, a speed deficit is noticeable in a number of positions. In terms of speed, Haaland has at least received reinforcements from Dutchman Donyell Malen. He prepared all three goals in Sinsheim, even Raum’s own goal. Otherwise, however, the squad is currently not up to date with the latest speed research, which is currently rolling over football. Marco Rose will not be able to do much to change this shortcoming in the next 14 days.