Dortmund coach Edin Terzic felt like he was caught in a time loop. His team had not won for the fifth time in a row, and in the Bundesliga there had only been one win in the last seven games. And this time, in the 1-1 (1-1) draw in Augsburg, Borussia missed the threesome partly because of a goalkeeper who is only too well known to the Dortmund team.
In the 2-2 draw in Dortmund, Finn Dahmen protected 1. FSV Mainz 05’s goal with some spectacular saves and contributed to BVB losing out on the championship title on the last matchday. Now Dahmen fended off many chances again and left Terzic “very dissatisfied”. “We failed to finish things clearly,” criticized the BVB coach, “there was a lack of calm and precision.”
The Dortmunders are now also missing some firmly planned points, and the table picture could deteriorate further by Sunday evening. The draw in Augsburg and the 26 points earned so far are “too little and definitely not what we need to achieve to achieve our goals,” said attacker Niclas Füllkrug. Even the minimum goal of qualifying for the Champions League is increasingly in danger.
How much quality does BVB have? Julian Brandt finds critical words
One of the familiar deficits in Augsburg was “not enough cold-bloodedness” when it came to the deals, as Julian Brandt found. Overall, the offensive player misses something “obvious.” He said: “It all seems very difficult and forced.” Overall, it’s currently not what we imagine. It’s hard granite that we’re biting into at the moment. Brandt even went so far as to question the team’s much-vaunted quality. “It’s hard for me to say, you have the quality and you just don’t put it on the pitch,” said Brandt. His demand: “You have to see them on the pitch.”
In the first two weeks of December, the Dortmund team had already shown the full range of their capabilities. The amplitude ranged from the irritating defensive performance in the 2-0 defeat in the round of 16 of the DFB Cup at VfB Stuttgart to the strong 1-1 draw against Paris Saint-Germain last Wednesday in the Champions League. The resulting group victory was also linked to an artful tackle from Niklas Süle, which stood as an iconic image of Dortmund’s passionate side.
In Augsburg it seemed as if they wanted to prove to BVB that they could compress their violent swings up and down into just a few minutes. Like in the opening phase, when Süle made a bad pass in the build-up, but was lucky that Fredrik Jensen shot over the goal. Shortly afterwards, a very delicate action was marveled at when Rami Bensebaini heeled Nico Schlotterbeck’s pass just past the Augsburg goal.
Dortmund’s performance remained in rocking mode – typical for Terzic’s team. The 0-1 deficit that resulted from Schlotterbeck’s lost duel against Demirovic fit into this picture. Schlotterbeck allowed himself to be pushed away too easily on the shoulder by the Augsburg player and fell, which is why the FCA captain was able to run up to goalkeeper Gregor Kobel alone and push in (23′). According to the video images, referee Matthias Jöllenbeck left the decision at that. It was also clear that BVB would not keep a clean sheet for the eighth time in a row. “Swallowing goals is also an issue for us,” Brandt later pointed out.
The FCA once again presented the offensive courage that coach Jess Thorup demands. However, the Dortmund team had the higher share of the game and soon returned to the upper part of their performance spectrum. This was particularly visible in Donyell Malen’s equalizer, in front of the Füllkrug he played a one-two pass to Malen with his heel and through the legs of Felix Uduokhai, who pushed it into the corner (35′). “When you see the goal, it looks like it was easy,” said Füllkrug.
Now there is a duel with Mainz, the debates at BVB could get even worse
But this skill turned out to be fleeting: Dortmund continued to be up and down in the second half. Kobel was exposed to three big chances from Augsburg attacker Phillip Tietz and later a dangerous lob from Demirovic. On the other side, Malen narrowly missed making it 1:2 after a solo. But this action itself also lacked the ultimate consequence. This also applied to Füllkrug’s header past the empty goal in the final phase. And it also applied to the double chance for Malen and debutant Samuel Bamba shortly before the final whistle.
The fact that Füllkrug staged a side kick from offside, after which Dahmen directed the ball to the post, fit into the sometimes artistic picture without any results, as did Malen’s heel finish into Dahmen’s hands. On the other hand, Ruben Vargas missed the 2-1 for Augsburg when he shot just wide of the goal from an unmarked effort in stoppage time. Shortly afterwards, Schlotterbeck saved Dion Beljo with a passionate tackle that was at least a little reminiscent of Süle’s rescue act on Wednesday.
The impression that Terzic and Borussia are caught in some kind of time loop with their fluctuations is reinforced by the game plan, which looks like it did at the end of last season before Christmas. At that time, a 3-0 win in Augsburg against Mainz was followed by a 2-2 draw, which meant that BVB missed out on the championship title. Now Borussia welcomes the FSV at the end of the year. “Hopefully our fans will be rewarded with a home win on Tuesday,” said Terzic. If not, the debates are likely to intensify further.