Niclas Füllkrug had imagined his first game for Borussia Dortmund differently: after the confusion about being substituted on, the sobering draw against 1. FC Heidenheim followed – and through no fault of his own, a less than pleasant first encounter with the south stand.
In a new work outfit: Niclas Füllkrug. IMAGO/Team 2
The stadium clock had just jumped to 77:25 when Niclas Füllkrug entered the Dortmund stadium lawn for the first time in a competitive game. Sebastien Haller had left the field for him, the Ivorian national striker took a seat on the bench with relief, his clumsy effort against Jan-Niklas Beste had not resulted in a penalty for 1. FC Heidenheim just before – the midfielder was standing according to the VAR decision but on the sidelines.
As is well known, things turned out differently, in the second attempt the Cologne cellar corrected his correction and Haller got the yellow card, just about justifiably. And Füllkrug, who does not travel to the national team because of a tendon strain? He also suffered through his own worries after not seeing the scene himself. “I changed my clothes and then the change took place,” reports the newcomer: “I was just afraid that there might be red and my substitution would have been invalid.” According to the statutes, that wouldn’t have happened anyway, but it wasn’t an untroubled debut.
After the loud greeting of the fans (“They gave me a great welcome. I was happy about that, I felt the energy in the stadium. It’s a shame that it fizzled out a bit”), the first few seconds of the game were filled with the converted penalty kick to equalize shaped, his first contact with the ball right after the restart came a whopping 311 seconds after the substitution because of the delays.
Füllkrug: “The change was thought differently”
By then, its actual task had long since been overtaken. “The change was planned differently,” says Füllkrug: “It was about us holding the ball a little better up front, getting into ball possession phases and overplaying Heidenheim’s pressing because they already went for the second goal, started high are.” The course with the equalizer “was of course the worst case,” says the striker: “But after that it’s still possible to win a game. We get involved in an open exchange of blows, which doesn’t have to be.”
In the end there was a disappointing draw and the frustration of the fans. A loud concert of whistles drowned out a few encouraging reactions on the south stand. “They were deserved to some extent,” said Füllkrug, who had imagined his first contact with the famous grandstand differently: “Losing a 2-0 win at home against a promoted team is not what Borussia Dortmund and the fans want.”
2023-09-04 09:43:21
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