BVB boss angry after debacle in Kiel
“Unworthy, embarrassing and shameful”
January 14, 2025 – 9:46 p.mReading time: 3 minutes
With 2:4, BVB was embarrassed by newly promoted Kiel on the last matchday of the first half of the season. The coach, captain and club boss then say drastic words.
Borussia Dortmund played the next desolate away game of this Bundesliga season. Newcomer Holstein Kiel suffered a 2-4 defeat at the start of the 17th matchday on Tuesday evening. It was the fifth defeat in the eighth away game.
The Black and Yellows presented a disastrous picture, especially in the first half, and were down 3-0. After the game, Lars Ricken, Dortmund’s sports director, spoke to the team.
“The first half in particular was of course unworthy,” said the 48-year-old on Sky. And further: “If players believe that they are something special, and I think it is something special to play for BVB, then a game like this is simply embarrassing and shameful and also unworthy, like the black and yellow ones colors were represented here.”
Ricken took the BVB stars to task: “We have top players with top skills, they have every opportunity. We have a large coaching team, we always have over 80,000 at home, here on a Tuesday evening our block is full. Just them Unfortunately, you don’t see the willingness to really appreciate that and to call upon that.”
Coach Nuri Şahin demonstratively supported Ricken: When asked by Sky reporter Patrick Wasserziehr whether Şahin was up for grabs, the Dortmund manager said clearly: “No, he isn’t. We don’t need to have that discussion here now.” He had “an excellent attitude to the team tactically and emotionally.” Now the focus is on the next Bundesliga game on Friday: “We are now flying from here directly to Frankfurt, so we have to do everything we can to score points.”
However, Şahin himself knows about his precarious situation and said: “I cannot absolve myself of the fact that there is also discussion about the coach. I also know how football works. Football is a results sport, I am measured by results because I I bear complete responsibility and there is nothing to add.”
He described his team’s performance in Kiel as “absolutely shameful. An absolute non-performance.”
And further: “I’m speechless, I’m stunned how we can achieve such a performance. It’s about me in no time, it’s about Borussia Dortmund and the fact that as the person in charge I haven’t yet managed to let this team play like this as requested”
BVB captain Emre Can also chose clear words after the final whistle: “We are always well prepared, but we can’t manage it on the pitch. That’s why we deserved to lose,” he said on the Sky microphone and added: “We’ll get it At home, but away from home it’s nothing. We have to change that as quickly as possible.”
Significantly: Without the national player being asked about it, he also defended his coach, whose job discussions will increase in the next few days. “I would like to emphasize here again: It’s not the coach’s fault. It’s always easy to say when things aren’t going well, it’s the coach’s fault. No, that’s not it. All of us players who were on the pitch today – all of me at the front – that’s not possible.”
What needs to change at BVB? Can: “A lot. I don’t mean to say the coach, definitely not. I just emphasized that. We players have to bring the basics onto the pitch, get into the duels, like Kiel did. We can get used to that Take example. It’s work, work, work.”