Mid-season update 08/09

(Updated) It’s winter in German football. About time for another update on the progress of Borussia. How much the atmosphere at Dortmund has changed is quite remarkable. At the club’s last AGM a couple of weeks ago, the players and the manager were greeted with standing ovations rather than boos and sneers like the year before. We are currently 6th in the Bundesliga, well within reach of qualification for Europe although this is not an official goal (and will still be difficult to reach considering the competition). In the cup, we still have the chance to repeat, or improve on, last year’s success, when we reached the final and narrowly lost to Bayern Munich. The 3rd round matches will actually kick off the second part of the season in Germany, on 27/28 January. Like last year, Dortmund are entertaining Werder Bremen at home. A real test, for starters.

What has changed our fortunes so much? For one thing our new manager, Juergen Klopp, has brought a new philosophy, a new style of play, to the club. For another, all of our summer signings have arguably improved the squad. Neven Subotic and Mats Hummels have brought stability to the defence (Hummels already arrived last winter) and Tamas Hajnal seems to be the creative attacking midfielder we have been longing for since the departure of Tomas Rosicky for Arsenal. We could do with a few more goals, but at least Mohamed Zidan looks promising after the reunification with his favourite manager, Klopp.

While we have generally seen great improvement in the style of play (it looks more fluent and attacking-minded now), the squad hasn’t been able to show it in every match. There was just one really awful performance, the 4-1 thrashing at the hands of high-fliers and league leaders Hoffenheim, but while we haven’t lost at home yet, we have drawn too often.

One spectacular and rather rewarding draw was the 3-3 in the Ruhr derby against our main rivals FC Schalke 04. We were already 3-0 down, but sometimes Schalke like to beat themselves: they got two of their players sent off. They had some issues with the referee later on but the dismissals were spot-on. You could argue that the wonderful strike by Alexander Frei who made it 3-2 was preceded by an offside position. And the penalty in the dying minutes, which was again put away by Frei, was a bit contentious. But then again, the ref had an all around bad day, as he should have sent off Schalke’s Rafinha early in the game, and he didn’t give Borussia the chance to turn it round completely as he blew the whistle without any added time.

So there are still some scores to be settled quite early on in the second part of the season. Borussia will travel to Gelsenkirchen (home town of Schalke) and Munich and entertain Hoffenheim at the Westfalenstadion (which is officially called „Signal Iduna Park“ now, due to a sponsorship deal with an insurance company). The first Bundesliga match will be at home to Leverkusen, another team with a bright, young manager and a good run so far. Let’s just hope the boys in black and yellow work well in their January training camp…

UPDATE: In case you were wondering about the Premier League-related articles in this blog, I’m also following my favourite English club, West Bromwich Albion, closely this season. For well-informed English reports on the Baggies’ progress, I refer you to the relevant links in my blogroll, the Birmingham Mail’s WBA Blog by Chris Lepkowski and the Baggies Blog.

Can’t wait for the season to begin

Hey, quite a lot has happened at Dortmund since my last English update. We finished last season in 13th place, the worst position in 20 years, but, on the other hand, made it to the cup final, where we lost somewhat unluckily to Bayern Munich, 2-1 after extra time. Now, most fans will always see the league as the most important competition, and so did the club executives. Manager Thomas Doll was fired only days after the last game against Wolfsburg (a 4-2 home defeat to our former favourite opponents). In my opinion, it was the correct, the logical decision: Doll tried a lot, but never found a way to bring consistency to the team.

Nearly all BVB fans were electrified when they heard who was to become Doll’s successor: Juergen Klopp was finally ready to leave 2nd division side Mainz 05 after seven years in charge. Klopp had made a name for himself with his friendly and optimistic attitude, his temporarily very successful work at a small club and his quick-witted performances as a TV pundit. Moreover, he is also known as an advocate of attacking football, who nevertheless acknowledges the need for a quality defence.

And this is the area where the club has (up to now) invested most of its transfer budget. Young centre-back Neven Subotic (19) has followed Klopp from Mainz to Dortmund for around 4,000,000 €. He is regarded as a hot prospect in Germany; last season, he was arguably the best centre-back in the 2nd division. From Figueirense in Brazil, Felipe Santana, another young (22-yr-old) centre-back, has been brought in, who obviously still has to adapt to German football and life, but should be all right in the end – he was extensively scouted by BVB representatives. A well-known name and former Germany player is Patrick Owomoyela who has joined us from last season’s vice-champions Werder Bremen for a bit over two million €. The right-back has had recurring injury problems though, and his first goal will be to stay fit for some time.

In midfield, we might have finally found a successor for Tomas Rosicky in 27-year-old Hungarian Tamas Hajnal who came from Karlsruher SC for a fixed transfer fee of 1.3 million €. Tamas showed very promising signs in the recent 2-1 win over Bayern Munich, a game that was unofficially labelled „Super Cup“ by the two clubs. And in this game, the fans also got a taste of the sort of football usually associated with Juergen Klopp: pacey and with a lot of pressing, just nice to watch. I would love to see performances like that next season. But before that, we have two more weeks of pre-season, packed with rather interesting matches against Juventus, Feyenoord Rotterdam and Spurs.

The season starts with the 1st cup round at 4th division side RW Essen on 9 August – should be an interesting one as they are quite close neighbours…

Mid-season update

(Updated) After the much-discussed mid-season interval, Borussia Dortmund (and German football) will be back in action tomorrow night for the German Cup 3rd round clash against Werder Bremen, currently 2nd in the league, on equal points with leaders Bayern Munich. So it’s about time for an update on how the „Schwarzgelben“ have been doing during the last three months. Our position in the Bundesliga hasn’t changed a lot since the early days of this blog. Currently, Dortmund are lying in 10th place, a bit closer to the relegation zone than to qualification for Europe, but all in all still deep in mid-table obscurity.

I guess no one at the club can give the perfect reason why the team has had such a mediocre run until now. The one word creeping in every conversation has been CON-SIS-TEN-CY. In early November, at Hanover, the team played 20 minutes of great football only to break down thereafter and lose 2-1. This was followed by an unlucky draw at home to Frankfurt. The away game at Nuremberg marked a new low, an awkward performance against a team threatened by relegation meant the hosts walked out as 2-0 winners.

Manager Thomas Doll must have found the right words in the following week, because the team came back on Saturday to beat last season’s champions, Stuttgart, 2-1 at their place. And six days later, we thrashed Bielefeld 6-1 at home, showing some great football in the process (though, to be fair, Bielefeld were distinctly weak in that match, they fired the gaffer subsequently). So, one week before Christmas, the team had the chance to set the record straight with an away win at Wolfsburg, statistically one of our favourite opponents. But, as you might imagine, it went the other way: Due to some individual mistakes, BVB lost 4-0 and thus sealed a disappointing first half of the season.

Since then, the contract of the manager has been extended until 2010. The club executives have unsuccessfully tried to lure Germany No.1 Jens Lehmann away from the Arsenal bench in order to replace the injured Roman Weidenfeller, a doubtful move imho, as our substitute keeper, Marc Ziegler, has played fair enough when he had to fill in for Weidenfeller a couple of times. Well, now he IS number one…

In the January transfer window, Mats Hummels, a young defender, has been brought in on loan from Bayern Munich, and right full-back Antonio Rukavina was bought from Partizan Belgrade. The 24-year-old Serbian international has been promising in the friendlies so far. And finally, as the new number two in goal, Alexander Bade (37) from Paderborn has signed a contract until the end of the season. Most promising news though: Striker Alexander Frei is set to return to action very soon after some persistent injury problems, and defensive midfielder Sebastian Kehl, who already had three appearances in December, will hopefully be back to his full level of fitness.

So there are some promising signs for Dortmund, but from my experience of the last few years, I would definitely advise some caution. Expect nothing and you won’t be disappointed… but then again… cumon lads, let’s beat Bremen!!!

UPDATE: They’ve done it! Marc Ziegler saves a late penalty to keep it 2-1 for Dortmund!