Dortmund’s striker explains the 1-0 win against Hoffenheim in a culinary way, goalscorer Reus and coach Terzic demand more offensive. Although BVB is now the leader of the table for a short time, the club is concerned about personnel issues.
Culinary composure works wonders. Even in soccer. “It was important,” said attacker Julian Brandt after Borussia Dortmund’s 1-0 win over TSG Hoffenheim, “that we didn’t concede a goal.” Such binge eating got on the Dortmunders last season. 52 goals in 34 Bundesliga games were not worthy of a runner-up. It even cost coach Marco Rose his job. Edin Terzic was also installed to treat this. And so far it works quite well.
In six competitive games this season, Dortmund has kept four clean sheets, four times not conceded a single goal, well: eaten up. For the third time in five league games, there was a 1-0 win against Hoffenheim on Friday evening. This most ascetic of all victories isn’t exactly star cuisine, it’s more like morbid nibbles. But raw food can also fill you up. With four wins from five games, BVB spent Saturday night in first place in the table. Terzic was satisfied. “Obviously we want to be better in attack and score more goals,” he said. So there should also be a dip with the fairy tales. Later star cuisine not excluded.
“We have to be more callous up front,” said goalscorer Marco Reus. Already in the 16th minute he had scored the winning goal. It fell a bit randomly, out of the crowd. Hoffenheim played “too sloppy” according to the feeling of his midfielder Sebastian Rudy. This resulted in the second defeat of the season, although there were still chances to equalize at the end. The Dortmunders were “shaky” again, as Brandt found. This stems from that 3-2 home defeat two weeks ago against Werder Bremen when they squandered a 2-0 lead in the last six minutes, conceding three goals and losing 3-2. “After that we were shocked,” Reus recalled. That 1-0 win against Hoffenheim was all the more healing, a week after an identical 1-0 win at Hertha BSC in Berlin.
But even as a temporary table leader, BVB is worried. As is well known, center forward Sebastien Haller is undergoing chemotherapy and will not be able to play for a long time. Right-back Mateu Morey has had surgery on his left knee after months of absence due to a broken right knee and has been out for months again. Midfielder Mahmoud Dahoud is undergoing shoulder surgery and will hardly be able to play again this calendar year. Raphael Guerreiro (unwell), Donyell Malen (muscular problems) and Karim Adeyemi (toe injury) were also absent against Hoffenheim, and winger Jamie Bynoe-Gittens dislocated his shoulder just before half-time.
Bad luck like that comes at a bad time. Because now the hottest phase of the first half of the season begins. On Tuesday, Dortmund welcomes FC Copenhagen to kick off the Champions League, next Saturday they are guests of the top Bundesliga team RB Leipzig, four days later BVB welcomes Manchester City again in the Champions League with ex-Dortmunder Erling Haaland and the Saturday after next comes Schalke 04 to the holy Revierderby in Dortmund.
For such a program you actually needed a best cast. But that is not in sight for weeks. It’s comforting that everyone is in good form at least in defence: defensive midfielders Jude Bellingham and Salih Özcan as well as central defenders Mats Hummels and Nico Schlotterbeck. The new central defender Niklas Süle from Bayern Munich, on the other hand, was only substituted on again, for the third time already. Apparently his fitness is not enough for 90 minutes. It’s about time!