Sports general meeting
Watzke distributes and protects the BVB stars
As of: 4:49 p.m. | Reading time: 4 minutes
Despite the victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach, the mood at Borussia Dortmund is clouded. Hans-Joachim Watzke tries to counter this with strong words at the general meeting. The BVB managing director rails against critics.
Ursula Reitemeyer was reading out the annual report of Borussia Dortmund’s table tennis department when she was greeted by BVB President Dr. Reinhold Lunow was “reluctantly” interrupted. “The team is outside and we don’t want to leave them out in the cold,” he said, to which there were isolated expressions of displeasure in the Westfalenhalle. But then most of the members stood up and politely applauded coach Edin Terzic’s soccer team.
The scene from the BVB general meeting on Sunday afternoon in the Westfalenhalle clearly reflects the mood surrounding the fourth-placed team in the Bundesliga. The atmospheric disaster could be avoided with the 4:2 (3:2) over Borussia Mönchengladbach the day before – but that’s not all good.
Hans-Joachim Watzke’s on the one hand conciliatory and on the other hand combative speech could not hide this. The chairman of the management appealed above all to the solidarity within the club – even if the team has fallen short of its potential in terms of sport in the current season.
BVB managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke spoke about the criticism of the team at the club’s general meeting
Source: dpa/Bernd Thissen
However, his criticism of the team was rather mild. “We got 24 points from twelve games. If we’re honest, we were hoping for two or three more. But it’s not like we have to go into sackcloth and ashes,” he said.
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It should be accepted that there are currently teams in the league with FC Bayern and especially with league leaders Bayer Leverkusen that are playing outstandingly well. Dortmund, who have to play in Leverkusen next Sunday, are ten points behind the Werkself.
“Are exposed to a barrage of fire”
Where declarations of war on the competition have been formulated at comparable events in previous years, this time there was a reckoning with the critics. “We have been exposed to a media barrage for months, the likes of which I have not experienced in ages. I have to make sure every week that we are not playing against relegation,” said Watzke. “We won’t allow people to try to destroy us just to generate more clicks.” The media scolding was applauded. After all, Watzke had to realize that there was “a lot to do” in terms of sport.
This undoubtedly includes solving the riddle of the two faces that the team is showing this season. Last Saturday she even did it within one game. Two weeks after the disastrous 1-2 loss in Stuttgart, Terzic’s team stumbled into another game. After 28 minutes, BVB was 0-2 behind Mönchengladbach. The mood threatened to change.
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“It definitely won’t be boring with us this season. A big compliment to the team for their morale, energy and belief,” said Terzic. This time the coach decided to focus on the positive qualities that had led to the catch-up. The victory over Gladbach should serve as a source of encouragement for the difficult tasks ahead: Dortmund will be playing at AC Milan in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Sebastian Kehl also expressed relief. “The victory was important to calm things down. “They weren’t easy days,” said the sports director. He wanted this to be understood in view of the massive criticism of the team in recent weeks – but it certainly came in handy because there were recent reports of a strained relationship between him and Terzic.
Terzic wanted to continue building on Can
The coach emphasized that this was not the truth. “These are all rumors that someone is spreading. “It’s something that’s supposed to distract us and just makes noise,” the coach told Sky. He didn’t want to go into more detail. “It’s no use thinking about things that people say about us who don’t see how trusting we are with each other,” says Terzic.
In fact, there were different opinions when it came to the composition of the team. Before the start of the season, Kehl campaigned to sign Edson Alvarez, a new defensive midfielder. Terzic, on the other hand, had made it clear that he would continue to rely on Emre Can and also wanted to make the 29-year-old captain. Kehl and Terzic also thought in different directions when it came to other personnel matters, but still agreed on common decisions – probably also because Watzke had the decisive say.
The BVB boss only addressed this indirectly, if at all. BVB “would not have allowed itself to be destroyed (by the reporting) because we are analytical and solidarity-based,” said Watzke.
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