Remis against fluminense
© Imago
Warning shot at the start: Borussia Dortmund started the club World Cup with a happy 0-0 against Rio de Janeiro Fluminensee. Initially, without the Jobe Bellingham, which was only substituted after 60 minutes, the Bundesliga club was still well served at 12:00 p.m. local time. The four-time Brazilian champion was the better and more dangerous team in East Rutherford in the US state of New Jersey.
At the huge Metlife stage, in which the NFL teams of the New York Giants and New York Jets are otherwise playing, the 34,736 spectators lost something. The capacity of the arena is 82,500 spectators – slightly more than the Dortmund Signal Iduna Park. Unlike at home, there were only a few thousand BVB fans. As expected, more Fluminense fans from Brazil came who also loudly and passionate mood.
This was exactly what BVB coach Niko Kovac expected and spoke of a “very hard game”. This was actually. Fluminenense, which had won the South American Copa Libertadores in 2023 – comparable to the European Champion League – met BVB at eye level. The strongest of the three Dortmund preliminary round opponents put the Kovac team under pressure from the start. The experienced team around the 40-year-old former Chelsea defender Thiago Silva was superior to football and earned several chances, especially in the second half.
Kovac was not satisfied with his team’s appearance. Again and again the 53-year-old gestured on the sidelines. “It is a very important game for us. We want to go into the next two games with a good result,” Kovac said before the opening match. The other group opponents are Mamelodi Sundowns from South Africa on Saturday and HD Ulsan from South Korea on June 25th. Achieving the KO round is also the minimum goal of the Dortmunder from an economic point of view. The victory premiums increase considerably from the round of 16. Overall, the World Association FIFA as the organizer releases $ 1 billion.
Kovac, however, did not start the Bellingham in the starting eleven last week for a good 30 million euros. The BVB coach wanted to give the 19-year-old Englishman a grace period. “A week is not enough to internalize all processes and principles with us,” said Kovac.
After the change of sides, the Dortmund coach had to survive for a burial for minutes after a collision from goalkeeper Gregor Kobel with flower luster EVERALDO. The Swiss keeper then continued to play and later saved Dortmund against Nonato (70th) class from the deficit. Since the Brazilians took over even more game control, Kovac reacted with a system change, the double-six dissolved in defensive midfield and brought Bellingham and Felix Nmecha for Pascal and the disappointing Karim Adeyemi. The 44-year-old Fabio in the fluminensee gate remained more or less unemployed.