Dortmund’s Anthony Modeste (left) and Youssoufa Moukoko (right) robbed Bayern of victory with their goals.
Photo: IMAGO / Sven Simon
It has probably never happened before that the audience in Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion enthusiastically intoned a song that was once invented by Gelsenkirchen’s arch-rivals. Schalke once wrote dozens of stanzas in honor of their striker Ebbe Sand about the extraordinary skills of this player, for example: »Who heads the nail in the wall? Ebbe Ebbe Sand!« or »Who is holding the bowl, Ebbe Ebbe Sand!«. Years later, supporters of 1. FC Köln stole this song to pay homage to their hero Anthony Modeste, and Ballermann star Ikke Hipgold made a hit out of it. But the song has probably never been smashed so intoxicated by spontaneous stadium euphoria as on Saturday evening in Dortmund. »Who will take care of the late football party? Anthony Modeste!« was composed spontaneously and: »Who will finish the classic? …” The striker, who had become more and more of a black and yellow crisis in the weeks before, had crowned a furious comeback with a 2-2 win over FC Bayern in the fifth minute of injury time and had thousands of people in ecstasy.
At that moment, the stadium “was briefly torn apart,” said Dortmund’s sports director Sebastian Kehl, because he couldn’t think of any more suitable words for the wild explosion of emotions. The Dortmunders weren’t winners, but the profit they can draw from this crashing final chord is perhaps even more valuable than two points: the audience experienced the most intense outburst of happiness since the beginning of the pandemic years. In terms of the table, BVB is still on par with FC Bayern, who have now drawn for the fourth time this Bundesliga season. Dortmund could be celebrated for their much-criticized mentality, because they had caught up a 0:2 deficit, with “an incredible amount of commitment, with an incredible amount of morale,” said Kehl. In addition, the face of Munich CEO Oliver Kahn, distorted in spontaneous horror, which TV cameras caught at the moment of the equalizing goal, was good as a small cherry on the cake of happiness. And last but not least, the Dortmund striker discussion took a completely new direction that day.
As during the week in the 4-1 victory in the Champions League in Seville, Modeste was only on the bench in the Bundesliga for the first time since moving from Cologne to BVB, his performances had always been too poor. That evening he had prepared Youssoufa Moukoko’s goal to make it 2-1 (74th) and crowned the added-time drama with the 2-2. Up until his final header goal, he was in acute danger of becoming a tragic figure again. Because in the 83rd minute he was completely free six meters in front of the goal, even more favorable scoring opportunities are rare. But Modeste didn’t hit the ball cleanly. “It’s often so close together,” said Kehl, “now he’s celebrated, that’s good for all of us, that’s good for him, and that was extremely important, especially for the team.”
The question of whether the famous top scorer knot burst with this goal has not yet been answered, but the Dortmund striker world looks a little different now. Due to the good performance of the 17-year-old Moukoko in Seville and now against Bayern, the attacking problem is noticeably alleviated. The Modeste/Moukoko duo have now scored two goals and provided two more assists in two games, that’s a decent record. And despite all the competition, the two seem to like each other somehow. “I’m his father, you can say that,” said the 34-year-old Modeste and reported that he “complained a bit” in the dressing room last week: “We don’t flank enough and we can’t just do it play sexy,’ he’d told his colleagues.
In fact, this beguiling final phase on Saturday, in which one high ball after the next flew into the Munich penalty area and in which even BVB goalkeeper Alexander Meyer was permanently in front of Manuel Neuer’s goal, was as if painted for Modeste. Nico Schlotterbeck finally hit the decisive cross, and Oliver Kahn later said: “It’s an amazing season, how we always manage to rob ourselves of the reward we deserve.” Because Bayern were after goals from Leon Goretzka (33.) and Leroy Sané (53rd) clearly superior, but missed the best opportunities to score a third and fourth goal. They were also unlucky when referee Deniz Aytekin decided just before half-time not to send off Jude Bellingham, who had already received a yellow card, after an accidental but very violent kick to Alphonso Davies’ temple. “He just kicks him in the face, that’s not yellow, that’s a red card, but minimum yellow,” said coach Julian Nagelsmann. After several Bayern games in Dortmund tipped over in favor of Bayern Munich due to referee decisions, this time things went the other way around, and even Bayern fans have to admit that it was exactly the right thing to do in order to fulfill the desire for the title fight to be as exciting as possible, which also existed in Munich.
