In contrast to another, more southern Bundesliga location, the internals of the Borussia Dortmund dressing room are not an everyday part of German football debates. Neither moles were last seen there, nor were existentially threatening questions asked about whether coach Edin Terzic lost or won the dressing room – which could be due, among other things, to the fact that BVB maintains a comparatively open communication of certain internal moods.
Terzic, for example, announced after the 2-1 win in the home game against Union Berlin that Youssoufa Moukoko had put on a “scowling expression” in the changing room after he found out that he would not be in the starting XI in the game against the third-placed team. He then took him aside, said Dortmund’s coach, and told him “that it wouldn’t work like that, with that expression”. Moukoko has to play with a smile to be successful, Terzic said, which is why he told him he had “a good feeling” that Moukoko could still play an important role during Saturday afternoon. He should therefore prepare positively for his big appearance, which actually followed.
Terzic was also able to tell this story of the ambitious, but sometimes a bit self-confident 18-year-old in a conversational tone, because a few hours later it was clear: the coach and his feeling were right to let Moukoko out for the time being – as well as to let him out to come on later, because it was ultimately the speed of the young striker that secured BVB’s hunter’s position in the Bundesliga.
“I smelled it and then I was just there,” is how Moukoko described the scene in the 79th minute, when he ran into the Berlin penalty area while expecting a pass from Marco Reus. Reus lost the ball, but Unioner Paul Seguin, who came to help from midfield, played a rather involuntary pass into his own penalty area, which turned out to be a perfect template for Moukoko: A corner around goalkeeper Frederik Rönnow later it was 2-1 for Dortmund , which at the time was an almost flattering result.
Dortmund’s strength of form in the second half of the season has not been lost in the past seven days
BVB dominated the game for 45 minutes, took the lead in the 28th minute through Donyell Malen and should have made it 2-0 through Sebastian Haller shortly afterwards. Dortmund seemed variable and enthusiastic in attack, Haller worked just as well in his role as a pass stadium as did Karim Adeyemi and Julian Brandt around him. But then there was an impressive revolt by the Unioners, who worked their way back into the game with sometimes borderline hard duels. It was “always tight, always difficult” against the Berliners, said Terzic – especially when the duel behavior of their own team is not right. In the 61st minute, Niklas Süle defended too passively against Kevin Behrens, who was able to equalize after a one-two with Sheraldo Becker.
However, 1. FC Union made “one mistake too many” a little later in a “good away game”, as midfielder Rani Khedira analyzed the decisive scene with Seguin and Moukoko. From Dortmund’s point of view, on the other hand, one could almost say that it was confirmation of their status as number two in the Bundesliga: After the defeats in Munich and Leipzig, BVB was briefly denied the quality of being able to survive against the best in the league – but the appearance against Union proved that the strength of form in the second half of the season has not been lost within the past seven days. Above all, however, it seemed as if Terzic’s demand to appear more “as a unit” again had been met.
In any case, Moukoko ended his celebrations in the arms of the coach and staff who supported him after his injury earlier this year – although he is currently still off the bench as Haller appears to be centered. “I really want to play, but I’ve been injured for a long time and I have to get there slowly,” said Moukoko in a very self-reflected manner: “The coaching team does that very well with me, that they slowly build me up.”
Terzic doesn’t want to see the many freedoms that Jude Bellingham enjoys as a weakness
Terzic also used the opportunity of the victory to put an end to the briefly emerging unrest around the team. The coach didn’t want to see the many freedoms that Jude Bellingham enjoys in Terzic’s system as a weakness just because they didn’t work twice. Bellingham has “unique quality (…) and of course we want to use that to our advantage and even if the opponent occupies special spaces, we all have to know which spaces we are closing for them.”
This team unity had distinguished BVB in the second half of the season, it is obviously still there – and in combination with Moukoko’s goal instinct from the bench it is also good for seeing Dortmund as a very serious candidate for the championship after the 27th matchday. In view of the gap of five points to Union in third place, probably even as the last remaining.
