After another worrying Champions League goose egg, Dortmund return to their bread-and-butter in the Bundesliga. There, the black-and-yellows remain undefeated since their one loss in Munich back in mid
October. Furthermore, their record against this weekend’s opponent is a pretty one: four wins, two draws, no losses. Making Heidenheim the only current Bundesliga side Dortmund have never fallen to.
As Frank Schmidt and his men try to claw their way out of the league basement, they’re conceding 2.21 goals per match and scoring 0.89. While Dortmund recently notched their league-best 10th clean sheet, Heidenheim is in the midst of a 22-match clean sheet drought. Yikes. Still winless in the new year, it’s safe to assume that FCH will come out swinging with urgency on Matchday 20.
A lot has been made of the latest 42 points being BVB’s best haul over 19 games in seven years. However, many of those games plainly don’t pass the eye test. The manner in which this team has earned those points has been way more vexatious than many within the club are willing to admit. Point being, can Dortmund best a struggling relegation candidate in the manner a club of their stature should, or will Sunday resemble more of a neck-and-neck slugfest in the 2. Bundesliga?
Player to Watch: Stefan Schimmer
Make sure to mark FCH’s #9! While the 6-foot-1-inch poacher doesn’t usually start, he’s been nothing short of a supersub this campaign. In fact, nobody scores more off the bench than the 31-year-old. He’s netted five and assisted one in just 465 minutes played. That’s nearly a third of Heidenheim’s goal total (17)! An incredibly sneaky run for the German so far. For context, Serhou Guirassy has recorded six goals in 1,389 minutes played.
Of course, we’re also still keeping an eye on our loanee Diant Ramaj in goal.
Lineup Prediction:
Daniel Svensson, Salih Özcan, and Waldemar Anton (who couldn’t partake on Wednesday) will rejoin the squad. Niklas Süle is back in team training, while Marcel Sabitzer is working individually, with the hope that he could at least make it onto the bench.
I don’t anticipate a major shift from the Inter starting XI. If Anton recovers from his illness in time, he will replace Filippo Mane. Although I’d have no problem seeing Mane start again, the U21 youngster hasn’t played much this year and, therefore, has been wrestling with fatigue/cramps.
You could easily make the case to drop Guirassy for Chukwuemeka and have Silva spearhead the offense. I personally feel the ball moves faster with Fabio upfront. Aside from him not being as cold-blooded in the box as he’s used to being, Guirassy also looks like he’s carrying some sort of injury (that is NOT a report, that’s just what my gut is telling me). The Serhou from last season would have 5-10 goals more by now, in my opinion.
Match Prediction:
What looks like an easy task on paper always has the potential to escalate into a nailbiter for die Schwarzgelben. My wish is that Dortmund can find a way to transmit their theoretical quality into practice on the pitch and present a brand of football that the city can identify with. Win, lose, or draw, we as fans simply want to watch entertaining football when we sacrifice our time, money, and mental health for this club…
Borussia Dortmund 3 – 1 FC Heidenheim
