During the visit of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Borussia Dortmund celebrates a last-second victory against FC St. Pauli. The points yield is excellent, but not everything is right in terms of gameplay.
The points tally is better than in the last championship season under Jürgen Klopp, but the atmosphere at Borussia Dortmund is far from reminiscent of the glory of days gone by.
“I’ve never experienced having this number of points after 18 games,” said Julian Brandt after the 3-2 (1-0) win against FC St. Pauli, in which BVB had put themselves in dire straits: “It would look a little better if we didn’t have a team in the south that is making it insane this season.”
This team, meaning Bayern Munich, towers above everything with their 50 points, and so BVB “only” remains in second place. Coach Niko Kovac’s team has collected an impressive 39 points, compared to 37 at the same time in 2012 under Klopp. “The current situation is like this, we have to continue to stick to the plan. We mostly manage to get the results. That’s what everyone measures us by,” said Brandt, scorer of the 1-0 (45th + 1), and in the past already a critic of BVB’s style of play.
This is anything but inspiring, but it is highly effective. When Chancellor Friedrich Merz celebrated Karim Adeyemi’s 2-0 win (54th) in the honorary box next to BVB President Hans-Joachim Watzke, victory already seemed certain. But then BVB was “very sloppy in possession” and “gave St. Pauli the feeling that something was still possible here,” reported Brandt – James Sands (62nd) and Ricky-Jade Jones (72nd) punished Dortmund’s negligence. It was only very late that Emre Can (90+5) redeemed BVB when the captain converted a penalty kick, which had only been given after the video assistant had pointed it out, into the winning goal.
The penalty hero spoke of a “rollercoaster ride” and had a simple explanation for his nerves. “I figured it was going in. You have to imagine it and manifest it, you can’t doubt it,” he said.
BVB is looking to London
Kovac blamed the need for this late goal on his team’s negligence. “We failed to keep our foot on the accelerator. The fact that you pull it off in the end means that the team still has the will and the belief,” said the 54-year-old: “Now we go to London with a positive result, the victory was very important for us.”
Because BVB will continue in the Champions League against Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday (9 p.m./Prime Video), Kovac has taken a few tasks with him from the game against St. Pauli. When in the lead, Dortmund had to maintain control through possession of the ball. “The ball circulation has to be a lot faster,” he said. The aim is to “defend aggressively, reduce space and time.”
Because there was a win in the end, Kovac focused on the positive. “Once again we bowed a game to the end, clearly lucky, but often luck is also skill.”
