Football manager Sebastian Kehl came up with many F-words on Friday night. In the previous game, Borussia Dortmund’s sporting director found several decisions made by referee Sascha Stegemann “negligent”, “cowardly”, “cheeky” and “wrong” – especially the one when Dortmund player Karim Adeyemi tore his legs off in the Bochum penalty area in the 65th minute without a penalty for Dortmund and a yellow-red card for Bochum’s Danilo Soares. A penalty might have made it 2-1 for Dortmund, which could then have played home with a majority. However, the game ended in a 1-1 draw in Bochum, Germany.
Your legs torn away – or should you say: the ground under your feet? – Borussia Dortmund also have it on Friday evening, because with this one point, which they scored in Bochum, they give the title duelist Bayern Munich the chance to retake the lead in the table with a win and then in four in the home game against bottom-placed Hertha BSC on Sunday Play to have everything in your own hands. In Dortmund, people definitely expect Bayern to win against Hertha, but they don’t necessarily expect them to win all the other games afterwards. “We know from this season how quickly things can change,” says coach Edin Terzic. Dortmund still have three home games in the four remaining games. Terzic swears the black and yellow community to be confident when he says: “We are Borussia and will continue to give everything.”
Dortmund gave a lot in the game in Bochum, but they didn’t achieve much. Bochum’s opening goal by Anthony Losilla in the 5th minute was equalized by Karim Adeyemi in the 7th minute to make it 1-1. After that they started unsuccessfully. It was their sixth winless away game in a row in all competitions. “Building-independent performances”, as Terzic had demanded of his team a few weeks ago with a wink, he still doesn’t get to see. Dortmund are the Bundesliga’s strongest team at home, but they’ve only won seven out of 16 games away from home. In the end, that might not be enough to become a German champion.
Coach Edin Terzic tried to talk to Stegemann and saw the yellow card because of his protests or his choice of words.
(Photo: Ralf Treese/Treese/Imago)
For Dortmund, a missed penalty in Bochum is now also part of the repertoire of possible reasons that could be mentioned at the end of the season. Kehl even complained about three controversial decisions: that Bochum’s goal was preceded by a foul on Emre Can in midfield, then Stegemann’s ignoring of the “clear” foul on Adeyemi and finally in the final phase a potentially punishable handball by Bochum’s Erhan Masovic in the penalty area. Three questionable decisions against his BVB upset the manager so much that his voice echoed very, very loudly through the basement of the Bochum stadium – with the final sentence: “Today things didn’t go right.” That’s what ghost hunters usually say after visiting a haunted house. It was somewhat overlooked that Adeyemi was twice yellow carded for swallows in the past games and that referee Stegemann could also have influenced that.
While Stegemann is said to have shown little understanding for Dortmund’s anger (and did not even appear and explain publicly at first), Dortmund received the full sympathy of Bochum coach Thomas Letsch, who, like Kehl and Terzic, argued that a referee in this crucial phase of the season, in which nothing less than the title is at stake, has to explicitly ensure that he doesn’t make any wrong decisions. “It’s about so much,” said Letsch. But Stegemann had just not watched the penalty scene again on the sidelines. Kehl complained above all about this failure to provide assistance. “But he has the means at his disposal, then he has to go out and see it.”
In football, of course, it happens again and again that a penalty or a handball is not awarded. But it’s more painful in the final sprint of a championship race than it is early in the season or in a meaningless game. Kehl and Terzic emphasized on Friday evening that they tended to look for mistakes in themselves and in their own team over the course of the season, but that it was different this time. “We were always self-critical,” said Kehl, “but unfortunately I have to say that the referee decided the game today.”
And so in the next few weeks the moment could come when some in Dortmund will think that the referee Sascha Stegemann not only decided a game on April 28, 2023 at 9:45 p.m., but even the championship. But that would certainly be an exaggeration. And a lot can still happen on the final four matchdays.