Not every win is going to be pretty. Borussia Dortmund’s 1-0 win against VfB Stuttgart yesterday certainly wasn’t. The two sides at the MHPArena locked horns and fought a tight match, with very little to separate them other than the important one: a lone goal by Maximilian Beier to put Die Schwarzgelben on top.
After a scoreless first half in which neither side generated much offense, Dortmund’s breakthrough goal came in the 70th minute, with Jobe Bellingham whipping in a cross that took a fortunate
deflection off the leg of Maximilian Mittelstädt right to Maximilian Beier, who buried the shot past Fabian Bredlow.
Dortmund closed out the match without much trouble, giving up only a handful of half chances, for their third clean sheet of the season. BVB now enter this agonizingly long international break with a perfect record in all competitions continued and on top of the Bundesliga table. Not bad!
Here are the highlights, en Español:
My Thoughts
- I was a bit concerned by Dortmund’s inability to progress the ball through the center of the pitch. Niko Kovac set his side up for possession, with both Felix Nmecha and Joey Veerman in a double pivot, but I was really surprised at how easy it was for Stuttgart to cut them out of the match. It felt like every chance that Dortmund created during the first half came from one of the center-backs or even Gregor Kobel bypassing midfield with a long pass to one of the wing-backs or Guirassy, Nwaneri, or Beier dropping deep. According to a graphic the Telemundo broadcast flashed, only 31% of Dortmund’s possession through 60 minutes came through the center two quartiles of the pitch, compared to 69% on the wings. To further put things in perspective, the player who led BVB in passes into the final third… was Gregor Kobel.
- Konstantinos Karetsas came off the bench and looked solid, creating a pair of shots for himself and getting involved in the buildup to Dortmund’s goal. I’m just glad that he’s healthy again.
- After how successful the combo was last week against Paderborn, I was surprised not to see Fabio Silva and Serhou Guirassy on the pitch at the same time. I think Guirassy works best having another striker to play off of. He won’t be able to take on an entire back-line by himself, and neither Maxi Beier nor Ethan Nwaneri fill that niche quite like Fabio Silva does.
- If you think about it, 34 is just as arbitrary a number as 4. Why do you get a trophy for finishing first in one amount of games, but not the other?
Your Thoughts
What did you think of yesterday’s match? Let me know your thoughts!
