These will be tough weeks during the long winter break: Two defeats at the end of the Bundesliga year are causing negative feelings at Borussia Dortmund. The team seems to have a fundamental problem.
The BVB pros crept off the pitch with their heads hanging, coach Edin Terzic was visibly served: Borussia Dortmund goes into the long World Cup break with a bad hangover. With the 2:4 (2:3) in the last championship game before the start of the tournament in Qatar at Borussia Mönchengladbach, the supposed title aspirant said goodbye to the top group for the time being Soccer Bundesliga.
In a highly entertaining Friday evening game, the Gladbach goal scorers Jonas Hofmann (4th), Ramy Bensebaini (26th), Marcus Thuram (30th) and Kouadio Koné (46th) in front of 54,042 spectators in the sold-out Borussia Park caused the sixth defeat of the season defensively desolate team coached by Edin Terzic.
“conceded too many easy goals”
“If you score two goals here, that’s actually a good foundation. But we conceded too many easy goals through our own inability,” said national player Julian Brandt at DAZN. In the second half, the team was also “extremely harmless” offensively. Brandt admitted that it was a “shitty feeling, because you can’t change anything now”.
This means that BVB will most likely spend the winter in a disappointing sixth place in the table. The goals from Brandt (19th) and Nico Schlotterbeck (40th) were not enough given the blatant defensive mistakes. “We will make a tough, honest and direct analysis,” announced coach Edin Terzic after the game. “We have a lot of work ahead of us as a whole team to achieve our goals.”
“Far from our claim”
“Sixth place is far from our goal. That will give us a few restless weeks,” said sports director Sebastian Kehl. In addition to the table situation, one is also “not satisfied with the way”. The defensive in particular has recently wobbled alarmingly. “We were much better at the beginning of the season,” Terzic admitted after the sixth defeat. Kehl was disappointed: “If we defend together like this, then we can’t be successful.”
In general, the defensive performance: In midfield, Dortmund (especially Jude Bellingham) gave their opponents free rein for their clever passes, at the back the defenders Hummels, Schlotterbeck and Süle had no chance against the pace of Gladbach’s Marcus Thuram.
Hummels, Schlotterbeck, Süle – overwhelmed in terms of speed
This time Mats Hummels didn’t help his otherwise good positional play. The BVB defense chief, who had not been included in the World Cup nomination, had a very weak day defensively in his 400th Bundesliga game, just like his neighbor and World Cup driver Schlotterbeck. With two of the four goals conceded, the advanced duo was simply overrun.
There is not much left of the spirit of optimism after Terzic’s return after 25 points from 15 games. Under predecessor Marco Rose, the black and yellow were second at the same time last season with 31 points. “That’s not enough. Everyone has to look at their own noses,” Kehl demanded, announcing a “relentless analysis.”
