Borussia Dortmund in Bochum: Not just bad luck – sport

You can sometimes even learn something for life from perimeter advertising in a football stadium. “Fortune favors the brave” could be read behind the gate in Bochum’s Ruhrstadion on Saturday. Loosely translated: “Happiness belongs to the able.” The fast-paced game that was played in front of this gang confirmed the truth of this aphorism, even if the Borussia Dortmund footballers did not look happy after the final whistle.

The hosts from VfL Bochum had defended vigorously for 90 minutes, and the Dortmund team ran hard and tirelessly for just as long, but because luck could not ultimately determine itself in the face of this stalemate, it decided 1: 1 (1: 0). Sebastian Polter had given Bochum the lead with a penalty five minutes before the break, Julian Brandt had equalized for Dortmund five minutes before the end to make it 1-1.

“Luck and bad luck have always played a small role,” Brandt said afterwards at Sky, “but today it wasn’t all just bad luck. In the end, you have to want it too, you have to get into the balls with more conviction”. 20: 5 shots on goal and 15: 0 corners should have been enough for BVB to win, but in front of coach Marco Rose, who only watched from a box, they gave the best chances to score. “There were also a few easier ones,” complained Brandt, who was only substituted on in the 68th minute after suffering a concussion in the 3-2 defeat against Bayern Munich a week earlier.

There is always something between Dortmund and the goal

The nerves of the locked out Rose and the assistants Alexander Zickler and René Maric, who represented him down on the sidelines, were strained because the Bochumers knew how to prevent a goal in the most creative ways for 85 minutes. In the 18th minute, the VfL goalkeeper Manuel Riemann saved a shot from Jude Bellingham with his foot in the manner of a handball goalkeeper, in the 48th minute the central defender Erhan Masovic headed a ball off the goal line and in the 54th minute the attacked Referee Matthias Jöllenbeck personally, because when Marius Wolf hit, BVB colleague Bellingham was passive offside and Riemann blocked his view.

Jöllenbeck looked at the scene himself on the monitor despite the two-minute check by the video assistant Timo Gerach, after there had been debates at Dortmund 2: 3 against Bayern a week before, because Felix Zwayer did not after a controversial foul in the penalty area had gone to the screen himself.

Brandt hits a volley after a Haaland flank

Jöllenbeck’s decision against the BVB goal was okay, however, and so it should take until the 85th minute before Brandt scored the well-deserved and overdue equalizer by volleyball after a cross from Erling Haaland. The Bochum audience in the stadium, which was filled with 13,799 spectators, howled.

“We are still absolutely happy with this point,” said Bochum coach Thomas Reis. “It was a bonus game for us against a team as strong as BVB, so it’s a bonus point too.” He thought the draw deserved despite the staggering statistics for Dortmund: “I don’t care about the statistics today, because of our mentality we deserved this point.”

The game was particularly ungrateful for BVB goalkeeper Gregor Kobel, who had little to do in the course of the 90 minutes, but still owed the goal to make it 0-1 in the 40th minute because he defeated the fast Bochum winger Christopher Antwi- Adjei rudely sabered in the penalty area. After a fabulous pass by Elvis Rexhbecaj from Bochum into the back of the Dortmund defense, Kobel stormed towards Antwi-Adjei, who was rushing up like an ICE, and only noticed shortly before the collision that he had miscalculated. “I have to do better,” he said afterwards, guiltily. When the penalty kick was only poorly shot by Polter, Kobel jumped into the wrong corner.

It was the first ever draw in a competitive game for BVB this season, but it felt like a defeat. When asked about the already six points behind the leaders Bayern Munich, Kobel said on Sky about the necessary race to catch up: “It will be very, very tough.” The assistant coach Zickler didn’t want to contradict him: “Three points would have been important in order to stay with Bayern.” Zickler knows how difficult it is to catch up with Bayern who are running away. He was with them seven times German champion between 1994 and 2005.