Borussia Dortmund Battle for a Hard Fought Point
By John Harbeck
The day was marred by questionable officiating against BVB but despite the adverse conditions, Borussia Dortmund was able to capture a point on the road.
You knew the game was going to be exciting when but two minutes into the match Mark Uth found himself breaking an offside trap to match up one on one with goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller. Uth tucked away an easy goal after rounding Weidenfeller to open the scoring and madness 1-0 to Hoffenheim.
The frenetic pace was early established as both managers opted to set up in essentially attacking 3-4-3 formations. Defending was often secondary especially on a change of possession. The entire match could be broken down into counter-attacking moves, very exciting for neutrals to be sure, but for fans exceedingly nerve racking.
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Just minutes later Dembele, who was my man of the match, took the ball near midfield and charged down weaving his way around the Hoffenheim defense. The ball even took several deflections along the way but eventually Dembele took the pass toward a wide open Mario Gotze on the left who tucked in the nice move to level the score at 1-1.
Another ten minutes later a deflected corner led to yet another Hoffenheim goal. There truly isn’t much to say other than scorer Wagner pushed off on his mark Sven Bender.
For the remainder of the half, the match devolved into a fouling fest with both clubs looking to gain control through fouling some questionable, some more real. Unfortunately for BVB, one of those questionable fouls came from Marco Reus who also received his second yellow for the effort of tracking back defensively off a corner. The half would end with a 2-1 scoreline and BVB down to 10 men.
As I tweeted during the match, of any club in Europe, Borussia Dortmund might be the least affected as they are best on the counter. Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, Dembele and Christian Pulisic are all players who love the space playing on the counter and more defensively can bring.
That extra space paid dividends as after Hoffenheim clanked a shot against the post, Dembele picked the ball up 15 meters within the Borussia Dortmund half and took off. Aubameyang made a clever run down the left side and after a cutting past all that was left was to slip in the second BVB goal. The score was level at 2-2.
The remainder of the match continued on the rushing up and down feel with Dembele continually playing in the hole between the Hoffenheim defense and midfield. He was given so much space by beating the initial defender and running. The only consistent way Hoffenheim could slow down Dembele was by kicking him out of the match. They finally succeeded in the 69th minute when the accumulation of fouls finally caught up with the younger and he limped off the field.
Until the ever end, both sides had opportunities to score, yet it just wasn’t to be and the score ended 2-2. BVB picked up an important point on the road when it probably shouldn’t have happened under the circumstances.