Bundesliga: After the BVB defeat, Hoffenheim’s manager collapses

Ehe star duo sprinted onto the lawn half an hour before the end. And a little later ensured that this Saturday afternoon was still successful for Borussia Dortmund. Coach Lucien Favre replaced Marco Reus and Erling Haaland – and the German national player scored the decisive goal to make it 1-0 (0-0) at TSG Hoffenheim in the 76th minute on presentation of the Norwegian.

For BVB it was the third win in their fourth league game and for Reus it was the first Joker goal since March 2014. For the first time this season, Borussia secured away points. “They bring in a brutal quality,” said Hoffenheim goalkeeper Oliver Baumann about the substitutions for Reus and Haaland. And Reus said: “We are happy that we started the upcoming English weeks with a win.”

Favre had made five changes to the starting XI. After the international matches, he initially spared Reus and Haaland, among others, but Julian Brandt stormed. Marwin Hitz played in goal, while keeper Roman Bürki was absent recently due to a respiratory infection. But Brandt was not convincing, without their offensive stars the Dortmunders were harmless for a long time.

At Hoffenheim, several professionals had tested positive after their return from international matches, but according to the club they had no contact with their TSG teammates or supervisors and are now in quarantine. Among other things, scorer Andrej Kramaric, who was on the road with Croatia, was missing.

“The way it went, it definitely doesn’t work”

The angry TSG manager Alexander Rosen criticized the international associations at Sky: “It definitely doesn’t work the way it went. It’s just irresponsible. It is time to put an exclamation mark so that we act differently in the next shutdown period. If necessary, we have to think harder about not letting the boys go, because that is not only a club issue, but also the boys do not want to travel long distances and play so many games. ”The national team secondments should be the Bundesliga keep busy in the new week.

6030 spectators were allowed in Sinsheim, they were required to wear a mask during the game. The audience saw that Dortmund struggled against “feared opponents” Hoffenheim at times: BVB had not won in the Sinsheim stadium since 2012. In addition, the Kraichgauer won 4-0 in Dortmund on the last day of the previous season. “Hoffenheim wasn’t as dangerous as in previous years,” said Reus.

Favre had to improvise especially in defense. In addition to the injured Dan-Axel Zagadou, Manuel Akanji, who is in quarantine after a positive corona test, was also missing. Niko Schulz and Thorgan Hazard weren’t there either. In addition, several national players had only returned to Dortmund on Friday. Training with the team before an important Bundesliga game: Nothing.

Dortmund won happily, but deservedly

Favre’s side almost fell behind after three minutes of play, but Mijat Gacinovic missed the chance. After that, Dortmund got better into the game. Hoffenheim’s Robert Skov blocked a shot from Giovanni Reyna in dire straits (35th), two minutes later Thomas Meunier headed the crossbar from a corner. “We want to defend aggressively,” said TSG coach Sebastian Hoeneß before the game. His team succeeded for a long time, but in the final phase they couldn’t withstand the pressure of BVB. With 15: 8 shots on goal, Borussia won with a little luck, but deservedly overall.

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The stress for Dortmund will increase massively in the coming weeks. The BVB entourage will be flying to Rome on Monday, and the Champions League opener at Lazio is scheduled for Tuesday in the Italian metropolis. Next Saturday, BVB receives FC Schalke 04 for the Revierderby, then it goes against Zenit St. Peterburg, then to Arminia Bielefeld, then to Bruges. At the end of three English weeks with seven games, FC Bayern comes to the Bundesliga summit.

After the next international game cancellation phase in mid-November, it will continue with four English weeks until Christmas. A look at the tight schedule shows what is currently required of the top teams, whose national players had to play up to three international matches in the past two weeks.

Favre demanded two teams weeks ago

“We all know we have a difficult time ahead of us. We have to accept it as it is, ”said sporting director Michael Zorc. Zorc was reluctant to blame the national associations who were not willing to forego the less attractive games in the Nations League. “There is no point if we point the finger at the bandages and then the other way around, they point back at us.”

Coach Favre had already pointed out during the preparation for the season that BVB normally needed “two teams” in such a short period of time in order to meet the national and international demands – he did not even have to worry about possible coronavirus. Cases thought.

But in contrast to his Munich colleague Hans-Dieter “Hansi” Flick, who received further reinforcements shortly before the transfer window closed, Zorc, his designated successor Sebastian Kehl and managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke took the view that the squad was strong and broad enough is busy. In fact, it would have been difficult, both economically and in terms of planning, to commit backups if it was not clear in which part of the team there were vacancies.

However, Favre should still be responsible if there should be massive problems. The Swiss started the season with an expiring contract.