Borussia Dortmund’s first “competitive” match of the season ended in defeat, with Die Schwarzgelben falling by the score of 2-1 to Bayern Munich at home in the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup. It was a close-fought battle and Dortmund were one reasonably competent finish from Maxi Beier away from sending the game to penalties, but the Bavarians walked away victorious.
While Borussia Dortmund applied heavy pressure to Bayern in the first 15 minutes, it was the away side that would strike first, more or less
out of nowhere. Julian Ryerson challenged Michael Olise for a long pass but completely failed to even get close to the ball, allowing Olise to poke it free to Nathaniel Brown, who tucked the ball past Gregor Kobel to open his account for Bayern.
While Bayern controlled much of the rest of the half, it still looked like BVB would make it through down only by one. Then, just before half-time, Jobe Bellingham played an errant pass that missed Ramy Bensebaini completely. Olise pounced on the ball and managed to charge in on goal, all while holding off the Algerian, and poke the ball past Kobel into the net.
In the second half, BVB came out on the front foot, but it took until the 75th minute for them to break through. Giannis Konstantelias played a beautiful reverse pass to Daniel Svensson, who picked out Fabio Silva waiting in the box, who buried it to make the score 2-1.
Dortmund had a chance to equalize in the dying moments of the match when Waldemar Anton played a perfect pass right to the feet of Maximilian Beier. Despite looking Neuer right in the face from only a handful of yards, Beier smashed the ball into the sky over the crossbar.
Here are the highlights:
My Thoughts
- Obviously, it would have been nice to start the season with a win against Bayern and a trophy. But at the end of the day it’s only the Supercup, and I cared much more about the process than the result. The “process” was definitely a mixed bag. On one hand, Dortmund played with a lot of intensity, and there were points of the game where I thought they pressed Bayern really well. On the other, there were far too many lazy turnovers that made it far too easy for Bayern to pounce. Jobe Bellingham had a very rough night. While Karetsas had a lot of bright moments, he did get caught in possession a few times. It’s preseason so of course there is rust to be shaken off, but some of the passes played today just can’t happen in an actual competitive match.
- I really wanted to see all of Konstantelias, Karetsas, Veerman, and Nmecha on the pitch at the same time. I think those four players will be absolutely crucial to Dortmund’s success this season. Unfortunately, we never got to see it. Kovac swapped Nmecha for Veerman and removed Karetsas shortly after bringing on Giannis.
- I’m absolutely buzzing about what we saw from both of the Greek kids. They both provide a level of pace, vision, and technique that we haven’t seen at Dortmund in a long time. Giannis almost scored an insane flying volley, while Karetsas almost had a gorgeous assist to Serhou Guirassy.
- Joane Gadou had a mixed bag of a night. While I liked his defensive play, his passing was not good at all. Bayern found it far too easy to press him into committing really atrocious turnovers.
- I thought Kovac asked too much of his wing-backs. With Guirassy providing so little in the build-up, Karetsas and Inacio cutting inside, and only two men in midfield, it felt like the wing-backs had to do everything from defending against Michael Olise and Harry Kane in the wide areas to joining the midfield to providing width in the final third. It’s hard for only two players to deal with all these responsibilities effectively.
- Fabio Silva has made a case for himself starting over Serhou Guirassy. Guirassy was mostly invisible. He provided next to no pace to challenge Bayern’s back line and still didn’t help out in the buildup. Silva, on the other hand, used his pace much more effectively and actually managed to get on the end of a cross and score. I hope that Ole Book isn’t in a hurry to sell him.
Your Thoughts
What did you think of the game?
