Bundesliga
BVB after false start: “Home with complete frustration”
Frustrated: BVB coach Edin Terzic (M) and newcomer Niclas Füllkrug. photo
© Bernd Thissen/dpa
The false start is complete: Instead of the hoped-for nine points, Borussia Dortmund only goes into the international break with five points. The coach and the head of sports are sounding the alarm.
After the unnecessary 2:2 (2:0) against newcomer 1. FC Heidenheim, which made the runner-up’s false start perfect, coach Edin Terzic even drilled into the still gaping wound of the playful championship title to shake up his sloppy professionals.
“We felt how much it hurts”
“We felt how painful it is when you don’t manage to catch up on what was lost in the first half of the season,” said the 40-year-old: “So we’ve made it our goal to start well this time, that we not dropping so many points to avoid having to start catching up again. And now it’s happening to us again.”
The championship title that BVB still thought they had in their hands on the last matchday in May against Mainz will not be the case this season either. Terzic knows that too. “If we don’t stop doing that, it’s going to be very difficult to celebrate at some point,” he said. And he was also so upset because Julian Brandt (7th) and Emre Can (15th, hand penalty) were lucky enough to take a 2-0 lead, which was not gambled away by bad luck.
He had already seen “some signs” in the first half, which was actually sovereign, said Terzic and recalled “ball losses with the heel 30 meters in front of his own goal”. Later, his team “completely gave up the structure and positional discipline. In the end, we mostly beat ourselves.” Building up the opponent like that and making mistakes like that are “just things that shouldn’t happen to us if we want to have really big ambitions. Things like that don’t happen to top teams. They happen to us again and again. We’re going home with complete frustration. And then we will learn the lessons from it, with every consequence.”
Kehl criticizes carelessness
Sports director Sebastian Kehl said shortly afterwards that he had not yet spoken to Terzic, but his words were almost the same. “The carelessness with which we give up the game shouldn’t happen to a team like this,” said Kehl, referring to the entire start of the season with the happy 1-0 win over Cologne and the 1-1 draw in Bochum. Instead of the planned nine points from the grateful starting program, BVB is now going into the international break with five points and a lot of frustration.
“In total, the three games are far too little for the demands we have,” said Kehl: “We have to talk to the players about it. There were just too many things that shouldn’t happen at this level.” After the goals from Eren Dinkci (61st) and Tim Kleindienst (82nd, penalty kick) “we could have lost”, as Kehl admitted.
The majority of BVB players are now traveling to the national teams, “that’s why we don’t have a lot of time to work things out,” explained the head of sport: “But after that, we can expect an intense time. We have to pull ourselves together as soon as possible.” Freiburg, Paris Saint-Germain, Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim and Union Berlin are the next opponents.
Full pitcher euphoria quickly evaporated
The euphoria about Niclas Füllkrug, who had been committed the day before, also died down against Heidenheim. He was euphorically received when he came on as a substitute in the 78th minute. When he and his new team stepped out in front of the south stand for the first time – after effectively 20 minutes without a shot on goal – they were met with deafening whistles. The reception from the fans was “terrific”, said the Bundesliga top scorer: “It’s a shame that it fizzled out a bit.”
The whistles were “earned a bit”, said Füllkrug. And his coach, who once stood in the south stand himself, became even clearer. “I can completely understand both the anger and the frustration because I feel it too,” said Terzic. The support was “unconditional” until the final whistle: “But if we don’t manage to make the people who support us so happy, we shouldn’t complain when it turns negative.”
In Dortmund, however, they now have to be careful that the overall mood does not become too negative.
Information about the game at bundesliga.de