After just a week at the top of the table, Borussia Dortmund has already lost its place in the sun in the Bundesliga. BVB only drew 1-1 at VfL Bochum on Matchday 30, while FC Bayern notched up a lackluster but important 2-0 home win over Hertha BSC on Sunday. Ex-Bayern coach Felix Magath put forward an assumption as to why BVB keeps stumbling in the championship race.
Defeats against Werder Bremen or 1. FC Köln, draws against FC Schalke, VfB Stuttgart or most recently VfL Bochum: Borussia Dortmund has repeatedly suffered sensitive point losses against the supposedly weaker opponents in the Bundesliga, which the club suffered at the end of the season could possibly cost the championship.
According to veteran coach Felix Magath, BVB once again lacked the self-image this year to deliver their best performances even under increasing pressure.
“They just don’t have that ‘Mia san mia’. Even if they said blatantly last week, ‘We want to be champions’. That doesn’t come from within. They decided to set an example after they had won the missed points,” said Magath in the “Sky90” football debate.
Magath does not allow penalty scene as an excuse for BVB
The 69-year-old thinks it is right that the black and yellow club bosses had publicly revised the goal of the season upwards. However, Magath did not believe the team’s goal of the championship at their last appearance in Bochum.
“It’s still not something that really comes from within. It’s only intentional and that’s why they played against Bochum again,” criticized the former champion coach of FC Bayern, above all the lack of determination and consistency in Dortmund’s guest appearance on Friday evening.
Magath did not accept the hotly debated penalty situation in the game at VfL Bochum, which may have cost BVB victory, as an excuse at all: “We’re now talking about this missed penalty again. Of course it was a foul. But still the team had 90 minutes – and not just one scene. I resist picking out a scene like this for just one team and we trivialize the other 100 wrong decisions that happen all the time.”
After 30 match days, the Westphalians are currently back in second place – one point behind leaders FC Bayern.