Borussia Dortmund Brush Aside Standard Liege

Borussia Dortmund captured their second winter break victory 3-0 over Belgium side Standard Liege.

In a match that was often played at half speed, Borussia Dortmund did have several players who came out and impressed.  There were also several players who made promising returns from injury or continued their way back from injury.

The highlight of the afternoon most certainly has to be awarded to Christian Pulisic, who not only scored the opening goal but also had another nifty finish called back by a narrow offside call.

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The young American was confident both on the ball and making incisive runs the entire first half before being subbed out for Emre Mor.  Against lower level competition it is nice to see Pulisic continue his development in possessing the ability to dominate.

Other highlights from the match include Marc Bartra who came on for a worryingly injured Sokratis Papastathopoulos midway through the first half.  Despite struggling at times in this young season, Bartra seemed at ease snuffing out the Standard Liege attack and contributed to the collective Borussia Dortmund clean sheet.

In a match that saw several of the typical attacking players out with injury including Marco Reus, Ousmane Dembele and Mario Gotze, young Danish winger Jacob Brunn Larsen was given an opportunity to heavily feature.  Larsen has yet to make a Bundesliga appearances for BVB, so he might be one of the winter break players to really make a place for himself in the squad.  His impact was minimal, but he did have once sequence that he took on a Standard Liege defender and narrowly lost out before taking a shot.

One other individual note Borussia Dortmund fans have to be excited about was the 30′ or so that Raphael Guerreiro was given at the end of the match.  He was dynamic in the limited playing time and hopefully will be able to push on the second half of the season and become an important part of the squad.

The actual match was played at a slightly slower pace as should be expected from a mid-season friendly.  The aforementioned Pulisic started the scoring before both teams traded midfield punches for the remainder of the half.

After a string of substitutes to begin the second half, the match continued to offer very little in terms of excitement.  Borussia Dortmund pushed for goals, but it wasn’t done with much enthusiasm until Passlack took over and shimmied between a cadre of stunned Standard Liege defenders.  Passlack ended the move with a laser to destroy the Belgium side’s goalkeeper to put Borussia Dortmund at an unassailable 2-0 up early in the second half.

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The entrance of Guerreiro perked up the crowd and his impact was quickly felt after he trundled in a rebounded Emre Mor shot to end the scoring at 3-0.

Today was yet another step toward a successful Borussia Dortmund second half.  The club was able to control the match without much problem and the focus on defensive shape was clearly an objective that was given attention.  A 3-0 scoreline in and of itself isn’t that encouraging given the competition, but team shape and coherent attacking moves were a notable feature to build on.