Gregor Kobel and Marco Richter are well acquainted with each other, the Borussia Dortmund goalkeeper and the Hertha BSC striker share a common past at FC Augsburg. And so there was only sympathy in the Berlin air when their eyes met about ten minutes before the end of the game that Borussia Dortmund was to win 1-0 at Hertha.
Richter had come on as a substitute – for the first time after his testicular cancer operation – and almost made history of the matchday in the 79th minute. He took a shot from 17 meters and shook the frame and the net with the ball, but it wasn’t a goal because the missile just hit the crossbar and bounced off again. Richter saw for himself what could hardly be seen with the naked eye: that Kobel had softened the force of the bullet a little. Dortmund’s Cerberus had easily gotten his hand on the ball. When Kobel had straightened up again, he looked at Richter and winked at him.
Perfect take-off, perfect hit: Anthony Modeste (left) scored in the 32nd minute with a header to make it 1-0 for Borussia Dortmund.
(Photo: O. Behrendt/Contrast/Imago)
For Dortmund, Kobel’s action was a blessing and also a reminder that a week after the collapse in the game against Werder Bremen (2-3 after a 2-0 lead in the 89th minute), not everything is as it should be. The game statistics showed 24 shots on goal by Dortmund, only midfielder Jude Bellingham should have scored three or four goals in the second half or at least could have scored them, but in the end it was also thanks to Kobel that Dortmund improved their season record to nine points were able to expand from four games.
Modeste explains his jubilation: “The coach noticed that I’ve been getting so much on the lid lately.”
“Even if we had scored three goals today, we would still have talked about not converting our chances so well,” said Terzic, but he sounded rather amused because of the three on Berlin soil. Because one striker was reliable: Anthony Modeste, 32.
The French striker, who completed his move from Cologne to BVB after matchday one, scored his first goal in Dortmund’s kit in the 32nd minute and he did it in the house style, showing “qualité dans le style de la maison “, as they would say in their homeland. He headed a cross, in this case from the brilliant ex-Cologne player Sihan Özcan from the right, into the Berliner Tor.
After that, Modeste was as fast as he had probably not been in the last ten years: he wanted to thank coach Edin Terzic and sprinted quickly like Jesse Owens – just not on the athletics track, but across the field, to the bench and hugged the coach . “The trainer noticed that I’ve gotten so much on my lid lately. He was always behind me, always supported me,” said Modeste about his whole body Merci. And Terzic? Feared when Modeste stormed him that he could ask him to dance, he had already done that with another coach: “Thank God he didn’t do that today.”
The pressure Modeste felt must have increased in the minutes leading up to the goal. After Julian Brand and Salih Özcan (by hitting the post) narrowly missed, Modeste also had to mourn two missed opportunities. Once Hertha goalkeeper Oliver Christensen parried, the second time he put the ball next to the goal. But when a cross catches him – and Dortmund did a lot to give him dogfights – Modeste is arguably one of the best strikers in the Bundesliga.
BVB trainer Edin Terzic knows: It’s now also a matter of managing with your strength
The fact that Hertha was able to dream of one or even more points after the break was less due to the fact that the game was “a bit wild”, as Terzic and Hertha’s coach Sandro Schwarz complained. But above all, that Adeyemi and especially Bellingham missed the finest opportunities. A second or even third goal would have been convenient for him, said Terzic, 42, in order to economize with the upcoming “English weeks” (six Champions League matches in nine weeks). “It’s about saving energy.”
But it was enough, also and above all because of Kobel, who had his fingers in the game not only when Richter shot the crossbar, but also before that when substitute Stevan Jovetic (68th) had a chance. Nevertheless, there was a basic satisfaction among the Dortmunders. “It was definitely important to show an increase in performance compared to what we delivered last week. We managed to do that,” said Terzic, who had reminded the players before the game how upset they were after the 2-3 win against Werder had gone to bed.
Colleague Schwarz, on the other hand, is still waiting for his first competitive win after four games in the Bundesliga and the cup defeat. And yet there was a moment of joy: Richter’s return from the operation that fills Hertha’s dressing room with confidence. Even if the results are not yet correct.
