It is not a completely new realization that the Dortmund team repeatedly takes completely unpredictable paths between extremes. However, the fact that this strange team transforms itself within a single half as much as it did in the memorable 4-2 win against Borussia Mönchengladbach is a new peak in this madness.
Given the unpredictability of his team, goalkeeper Gregor Kobel no longer wanted to talk about larger contexts and said when asked about the fluctuations: “We just have to bring it to the pitch from game to game.” Somehow Dortmund seem to to be a mystery to yourself.
Coach Edin Terzic’s team defended for 28 minutes as if it were a completely unimportant test match. Or had the bad defeats against FC Bayern and in Stuttgart left their mark and robbed the team of its self-confidence? In any case, the afternoon started badly: BVB was down 2-0 early thanks to goals from Rocco Reitz (13th) and Manu Koné (28th). Alassane Pléa had even scored another goal for Borussia vom Niederrhein, but was standing just offside.
Dortmund were strangely absent, a disaster threatened. But apparently this “back against the wall” situation once again awakened the resistance forces that were slumbering somewhere in the depths of this team, which almost made winning the German championship possible in the spring. Now this uprising could be seen in a 15-minute long compact version.
Suddenly the duels were fought with a completely different intensity, the timidity had given way to a deep determination. And so a very strong ball win by Marco Reus in his own penalty area and an energetic sprint with the ball by Julian Brandt led to Marcel Sabitzer making it 1-2 (30th). In these minutes, the team seemed as if someone had given them access to a secret energy source, because there was no visible tactical change or other external impulse. “The morale and energy the team got back on the pitch is a huge compliment,” said Terzic.
Two minutes after the 1:2, Niclas Füllkrug scored 2:2 with an artful shot with the outside of his foot after a beautiful header from Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, before Bynoe-Gittens himself made it 3:2 before the half-time whistle (45th). “That was a great step for us. “Especially in a phase like this, it’s good when you can fight back like that,” said Kobel. Reus even had the chance to make it 4:2 (45th + 3) before the break.
First the celebration, then the turnaround: Gladbach leads 2-0 in Dortmund, but loses significantly in the end. : Image: dpa
This first half was a wild spectacle that not only reflected the unsettled season so far, but also caricatured one of those responsible’s central intentions. It wasn’t that long ago that Dortmund’s coach was still hoping to have driven his team out of this type of adventure football. A series of very pragmatic, narrow victories served as an indication, so this was now a relapse. Terzic said with a bittersweet undertone: “It definitely won’t be boring with us this season.”
The second half could then be attributed to the series of narrow and serious victories from the first phase of the season. The dedicated Marco Reus hit the crossbar with a free kick (56′), but little else happened in front of the goals until stoppage time. Dortmund focused on defense and Gladbach were perhaps simply too worn out by the madness of the first half to come back.
It wasn’t until the sixth minute of stoppage time that Christoph Kramer had a great opportunity to make it 3-3 when he had a free shot in the penalty area but shot just wide of the corner. The game was finally decided when Donyell Malen scored into the empty goal to make it 4-2 (90+7). Gladbach’s goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas rushed forward at the last corner.
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The club from the Lower Rhine has been waiting for a successful experience in Dortmund for almost ten years. Since March 2014, when Lucien Favre was still coach in Mönchengladbach, all games at the Westfalenstadion were lost. Now everything had started so well, which was in line with the upswing of the past few weeks. “The first 30 minutes were really good for us,” said Reitz, but “small mistakes that make the difference give you three things.” This afternoon, the team was unable to recover after conceding three goals, so Dortmund celebrated in the end.
