Borussia Dortmund without Erling Haaland is like Paris without the Eiffel Tower, Rome without the Colosseum, San Francisco without the Golden Gate Bridge: you can see it, but the kick is missing. Speaking of the kick: The aforementioned Haaland-less BVB won 2-0 (1-0) against 1. FC Köln with no socks, but with two headed goals. First Thorgan Hazard headed the ball into the goal to make it 1-0 (40th minute), then Steffen Tigges, who was substituted on for him, made it 2-0 (64th).
67,000 spectators were in the stadium, but they didn’t have any great reasons to freak out. A job victory is called such a fulfillment of duty in football, but in Dortmund these are quite unusual. “We were effective, but we can play better,” said department head Sebastian Kehl soberly.
In the absence of any offensive spectacle, BVB insiders and experts were delighted this time with a statistic on their own goal: For the first time in the tenth game of this Bundesliga season, Dortmund did not concede. 2-2-2-3-2-1-1-1-1-0, that’s the number of goals conceded by Borussia in their first ten league games. You can at least see the positive trend.
Nevertheless, the coach Marco Rose sounded critical. “In everything with the ball, FC were the better team,” he said of their opponents Cologne. “We basically want to appear differently, we want to play more dominantly.” The coach didn’t exactly like the game against the ball: “We don’t fight tackles consistently enough.” Ball wins through higher pressure when pressing are also too seldom achieved.
The list of injuries at BVB remains long
Haaland wasn’t even in the stadium this time. He was not sitting in the stands, which denied the cameramen the popular option of repeatedly putting him in the picture. “Erling is with his family in Norway,” said BVB sports director Michael Zorc Sky, “It will need a few more weeks, there is nothing else he can do and should clear his head; we hope that it will be used again this year.” The hip flexor, a frontal hip muscle, hurts 21-year-olds.
“You have to pay attention to who has been missing for weeks,” says Rose. This time, besides Haaland, Raphael Guerreiro, Mateu Morey, Dan-Axel Zagadou, Emre Can and Giovanni Reyna were also missing. “That we still collect points and defended the massive Cologne game to zero,” wrested a “compliment” from him for the team.
Teams of the Cologne trainer Steffen Baumgart have always played quite well in the Dortmund stadium. In November 2019, Baumgarts led SC Paderborn as a Bundesliga opponent at the break 3-0 at BVB and lamented in the end about a 3: 3. In February 2021, Baumgarts SC Paderborn, as a second division team, forced BVB into extra time in the cup and in the end was annoyed by a 2-3 defeat.
Again, Baumgart’s team played at least a strong first half. The alleged first goal by Mark Uth was withdrawn because of a handball by the goalscorer, the alleged second goal by Ondrej Duda, high and far from 45 meters, was prevented by the hurrying goalkeeper Gregor Kobel so narrowly that it knocked him against the post of his goal. But he could continue playing.
First Bundesliga goal six minutes after substitution: Dortmund can use Steffen Tigges (center), where Haaland is injured, Donyell Malen is not in the best shape and Youssoufa Moukoko is on the way back after injury.
(Photo: Martin Meissner / AP)
Five minutes before the break, Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham circled a cross behind the Cologne defense line from the corner of the penalty area and found Hazard there, who scored the flattering BVB break lead half with his head and half with his shoulder. Last week Hazard had already scored BVB with two goals in the DFB Cup against second division club FC Ingolstadt in the round of 16. At least a little he is already standing in for Haaland’s substitute. Against the increasingly harmless Cologne team, it was in the 64th minute of Steffen Tigges, who had only been substituted six minutes before, who scored the 2-0 with his first Bundesliga goal. According to the textbook, he headed a corner from Julian Brandt into the right corner of the goal.
The regular striker of the BVB third division team received compliments from coach Rose. And a rumor was also confirmed: “Baumi called us about Tiggi in the summer,” revealed Rose at the press conference after the game. “But you didn’t give it to me,” replied Baumgart with a grin.
Now, with Haaland injured, Donyell Malen not in the best shape and Youssoufa Moukoko on the way back after injury, the Borussia Tigges can really use them. Let’s see who will storm the starting line-up on Wednesday when Dortmund try to rehabilitate themselves in the second leg for the 4-0 swat at Ajax Amsterdam in the Champions League. Rose does not expect any returnees from the hospital.