When Borussia Dortmund’s coach Edin Terzic talks about “the two teams in the Bundesliga that are currently in the best form”, FC Bayern Munich is left out. For Terzic, the two Bundesliga clubs in the best form at the moment are his BVB and RB Leipzig. Of course, this realization was strongly influenced by Friday evening’s top game between these two teams, which had one of the best games of the season, with a hopeless offensive, masses of spectacular goal area scenes and a happy 2-1 victory for BVB in the end. Black and yellow made the eighth league win in a row clear – and preserved a tingling duel with FC Bayern at the top of the table.
Who are currently the teams in the strongest form is above all a question of perspective. If you take the table, then it’s Dortmund and Bayern, if you take the second-half ranking after six matchdays, then it’s Dortmund (18 points) and Mainz (15 points) – and if you look at who is still undefeated in the second half of the season, then it’s Dortmund and Schalke 04. And it’s these two clubs that will meet in the ever explosive Revierderby next Saturday evening.
Before Dortmund are subjected to another character test at Schalke, they will first travel to London, where the second leg of the Champions League will be played at Chelsea on Tuesday evening. This is the second game in a row of three that Terzic described as “the most important week of the season so far”. The successful first part of this triple pack was the victory against pursuers Leipzig, fixed by goals from Marco Reus (21st / foul penalty) and Emre Can (39th) with a goal by Emil Forsberg (74th). Dortmund’s performance against RB must have impressed the next opponents Chelsea and Schalke – at least those from the first half, when BVB played Leipzig after problems at the very beginning and could even have led more than 2-0.
Sports Director Kehl is looking for a way to extend the contract with Captain Reus despite the salary cut
After the break, however, Borussia were lucky that Leipzig, despite dominance and many chances, only managed to make it 1:2. After years of mentality debates, however, the Dortmunders are now in a phase that has finally been stable and successful, clearly not wanting to be forced into a stupid debate. “We had to tremble, yes, but we’re working hard to get this happiness at the moment,” Reus justified himself. Apparently, coach Terzic was also talking a little too much about luck. He didn’t like that.
After ten victories in a row, some of which are actually close, the Dortmund team insists that they help luck and chance with passion and zeal, with a large personal contribution. Sports director Sebastian Kehl sang a song of praise for the team, which had so often been accused of having an attitude problem: “We defend ourselves, we are ready to suffer, we fight without end.”
Kehl is particularly busy with Captain Reus these days because they are trying to get a contract extension beyond the summer. It is probably primarily about a salary reduction that is acceptable for both sides. The 33-year-old attacker has good arguments for his position. With his 1-0 win over Leipzig, Reus caught up with Michael Zorc, who was second in the all-time BVB top scorer list. Both come to 159 competitive goals. Reus is now only ahead of Adi Preißler (177 goals in the 1940s and 1950s) on this list.
The question remains as to whether Dortmund will slowly and widely admit that they intend to end Bayern’s winning streak since 2013. Answer: No, they do not confess it! After the Leipzig game, Terzic was even asked about goals for the season by RB coach Marco Rose and answered very factually: “We want to qualify for the Champions League again, we want to be successful in the DFB Cup and we’ll be happy if we can advance to the next round in the Champions League.” For the coach of the Bundesliga team, which is currently in the best form, this is still a sign of extreme humility.