Only 18 kilometers as the crow flies from their beloved Borsigplatz, the Borussia Dortmund footballers played what was perhaps a groundbreaking game on Friday evening. They opened the fifth to last matchday of the 60th Bundesliga season with a game on Castroper Strasse at VfL Bochum.
In Bochum, no matter how close BVB and its historically significant place of foundation may be, they have no sympathy for Borussia and for the idea of a collective championship title for the area. As Germany’s largest metropolitan region, the Ruhr area does not have a common football identity. Firstly, VfL needs every point to stay up in the league, secondly, they celebrate a traditional aversion to the black and yellow and thirdly, they have been fans of FC Bayern Munich for 50 years. So there were three good reasons for Bochum to get at least a draw from Dortmund and thus enable Bayern to regain the lead against Hertha BSC on Sunday.
And in fact, Bochum opened a door for Munich with their hard-fought 1-1 (1-1) draw against Dortmund to regain the top of the table and become champions for the twelfth time in a row in the remaining four games of the season.
For Dortmund, the result in Bochum was the sixth away game in a row without a win as the strongest team in the Bundesliga at home, after five competitive away games without a win. This negative series, which could ultimately cost BVB the title, has already lasted two months.
The trainer Edin Terzic recently mischievously called for “building-independent performances”, but that’s exactly what his team doesn’t succeed in, and so it could be difficult with the title.
In the blazing light of four beautiful old floodlights on Friday night, spectators were treated to an action-packed opening sequence as soon as the blue and white smoke had cleared the stadium. Bochum’s captain Anthony Losilla had a free shot on the edge of the penalty area in the 5th minute and threw the ball so wonderfully into the corner that his team-mates looked dazzled just two minutes later when they undisturbed Dortmund’s Karim Adeyemi at the second post to make it 1: 1 compensation. It was a fast-paced first half. Dortmund let the ball rotate in the style of a champion team, while Bochum tackled it in the style of a relegation candidate. A wonderful derby!
With every minute that passed, Borussia seemed to get a little more afraid of the longed-for title
Apparently that wasn’t enough for the director, because in the second half it sent pouring rain down into the Ruhr Stadium and made it increasingly difficult for the oncoming Dortmund team to deliver clear action and a tight pass. With every minute that passed, they seemed to get a little more scared for the title they longed for. However, the focus of the discussion later was a scene in the 65th minute: Danilo Soares met Karim Adeyemi in the penalty area, referee Sascha Stegemann did not whistle to the horror of Dortmund and did not look at the scene again on the screen. A supposed late winner by Mats Hummels fell from offside.
18 kilometers away from the Ruhr Stadium, Borussia still want to do everything possible to celebrate the German championship at the end of May. It would be their ninth league title and their first since 2012. However, watching Bayern’s game on Sunday helplessly on TV, they must take comfort and nourish their hopes by playing three of their four remaining games of the season at their home Signal Iduna Park may. It is only four kilometers from Borsigplatz.
