Borussia Dortmund have beaten Werder Bremen to advance to the next round of the DFB Pokal. I am not going to sugar-coat it—that was a horrible performance by my standards. For anyone who would like to ride the high of Marcel Sabitzer’s stunning goal to win the game, or the decent football Dortmund played in the first half, I will not stop you. By all means, those things are both good. But for Borussia Dortmund to fumble a 2-0 lead to Werder Bremen twice in one month is just inexcusable, partly from
the perspective of the players, but mostly from the perspective of the coach.
I am not a Kovac hater, but today’s match deeply soured me on Dortmund’s head coach. How is your squad not prepared for the most obvious play in the book, a play THAT WAS ALREADY RUN ON YOU THIS MONTH? Of course Füllkrug is coming on. Of course the momentum is going to swing. How are you as a defensive unit, as a squad, not spending every moment of your match preparations getting ready to ride that wave, and retake control of the game? It’s not that Füllkrug scored, that’s what he does. It is that Dortmund spent 25 minutes of the match looking like they were up against the best side in the world. Misplaced passes, miscommunication, genuine disarray across the pitch. And Füllkrug, for his part? No smiles, no celebration. All business. The juxtaposition was jarring. BVB have thrown away a 2-0 lead against Werder Bremen four times in the last five years. You wonder which team is supposed to be the “good” one.
Here are today’s candidates for Man of the Match.
Marcel Sabitzer
Saved his team’s behind. Without Sabitzer’s excellent awareness standing over that dead ball, and unbelievable poise, BVB go 120 minutes in this match, and quite possibly walk away with nothing. It’s also worth noting, there have been matches this season where Sabitzer clearly isn’t there to give it his all. Today he was. From the moment he came on, Sabitzer was driving into the box, making chances, and dictating the attack.
Jobe Bellingham
Actually looked quite good. Won some contested balls, created the Chukwuemeka’s goal, and had a lot of impact during the good spells. During the bad spells, he was just as much a part of the problem as everyone else.
Carney Chukwuemeka
Exceptionally well taken goal from the Austrian, but his failure to convert the tap in handed to him from Guirassy almost keeps him off the list.
Serhou Guirassy
It would be harsh to leave Guirassy out here. He scored a great goal, essentially created a second except for some horrible finishing, and actually tracked back and worked hard to both defend and progress the ball out of pressure.
Honorable Worst Men of the Match: Waldemar Anton and Julian Ryerson. Genuinely, what on Earth were they doing. Two players I consider mentality monsters looked the most rattled of anyone. Disappointing.
