Bitter memories came to the surface as the final stages of BVB’s game against 1. FC Köln began and nothing resounding was going to happen up front in front of the famous south stand. As with the draw against Mainz at the end of last season, with which Dortmund gambled away the championship that was within reach, they seemed helpless, unimaginative in the opposing penalty area and at some point also increasingly paralyzed.
Cologne was the better team. But in contrast to the dramatic finale of the previous year, some forces ensured a happy end for Dortmund on this first Saturday evening of the new Bundesliga season. After 88 minutes, Donyell Malen somehow stumbled a ball that bounced through the penalty area from a corner into the goal. Happy and random rather than controlled. “There wasn’t much that we liked today,” admitted coach Edin Terzic, from whose point of view “only the three points” were actually pleasing. “If we want to achieve our goals, we have to improve our performance.”
Dortmund are still a long way from the good form of most phases of the first half of the year. It was tough and not particularly attractive either. New captain Emre Can described his side’s game as “sluggish”. After 40 minutes, the stadium management displayed a meaningful snippet of data: Mats Hummels, who has the reputation of being one of the slowest players in the Bundesliga, had reached the fastest sprint speed of all Dortmunders at this point: 32.31 km/h.
“We had a lot of ball possession but in a lot of situations where there was no risk of scoring. We never occupied the six-man space, we kept getting into the situation that we lost the ball in the center and had to swallow a lot of counterattacks,” said Terzic.
Tired-looking Haller
BVB lacked intensity and speed, and even more worrying: the title aspirant repeatedly lost control over large areas in front of their own defensive line. The rock in the surf in the chaotic second half was defender Hummels, who, according to Sky, had more ball contacts than in any of his previous Bundesliga games. “Mats is still a good defender, he played well in preparation and is fit, you could see that today,” said Can. On the other hand, far too many other Dortmunders don’t yet have the form that is necessary to play for the championship title again.
The tired-looking Sebastien Haller found no way to assert himself against the robust Cologne central defender Jeff Chabot. Marcel Sabitzer had no effect, Julian Brandt had good moments, but also a lot of idle time and the can made mistakes, sometimes seemed overly motivated and was substituted after an hour. “I didn’t play a good game, I made a lot of mistakes in my game, so the substitution was right,” said Can self-critically. It remains to be seen whether he is the right captain for this team, in the end goalkeeper Gregor Kobel wore the armband.
When Can left the field, Dortmund could be glad not to be behind. Apart from a shot by Julian Brandt in the first half, you didn’t have a really good chance of your own, FC were the more dangerous team. “We did even better in the second half than in the first half,” said Cologne coach Steffen Baumgart.
“I like the way the lads work, how they push their limits.” “We have to play a bit calmer, the last pass was missing, otherwise we might have won the game,” said Cologne’s Dejan Ljubicic.
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The Austrian also had a very good chance, but missed his unchallenged shot from 16 meters just wide of the angle. Three minutes later, Sargis Adamyan headed in from close range, Gregor Kobel saved the ball with his foot in dire need, and in the first half Davie Selke hit the top of the bar with a deflected shot (17′).
“It was definitely a happy thing, but that’s part of it,” said Kobel about this victory at the start, which fuels many doubts. Parts of the team obviously still have to catch up on fitness deficits and newcomers Lukas Nmecha, who came on as a substitute in the second half, and Sabitzer are not yet fully integrated. While Cologne have a very stable team again after the impressions of this game.
