In a Puskás Award Caliber Goalfest, Dortmund Glide Past Frankfurt 3-1

DORTMUND, GERMANY — If you are a Dortmund fan and decided to skip out on today’s Bundesliga match against Eintracht Frankfurt, you made a mistake. In front of a packed Westfalenstadion, Dortmund and Frankfurt provided fans with stellar goals and high-tempo play for ninety minutes in what was the best Bundesliga match of the weekend.

After being out for weeks due to injury, Marco Reus marked his return with a goal in only the third minute of play. After navigating himself into the box, US-International Christian Pulisic zipped a ball to the feet of an incoming Reus, who then back-heeled in the opener.

After a dream start for Dortmund, Frankfurt found an equalizer through their Mexican playmaker, Marco Fabian, who provided fans with the second phenomenal goal of the game with this thunderbolt from deep in the 29th minute.

After twenty minutes of play, both Frankfurt and Dortmund seemed to up to the task of taking home three points. However, five minutes after Fabian’s screamer, a certain someone wanted to let the world know he was going to be responsible for the best goal of the game while his team took away an important three points.

And no, that certain someone was not Reus, Pulisic, or Aubameyang. It was none other than every Dortmund fan’s favorite “Papa,” Sokratis.

After picking up the ball just past the center circle, Sokratis made his way forward towards the Frankfurt goal, made a few defenders miss, and then decided to turn into Ballon D’Or caliber striker by launching a rocket into the top left corner, nearly ripping the net.

Heading into halftime, Dortmund led 2-1 and sported an impressive 72% possession in the first half.

Before the second half kick-off came about, Thomas Tuchel decided to take off the first-half goalscorer Marco Reus in what seemed to be a planned substitution as Reus had just returned from injury. Furthermore, with the substitution of Reus off for Ousmane Dembele, Tuchel is indicating that he wants to utilize both Reus and Dembele in full supply when Dortmund takes on Monaco in the Champions League this upcoming Wednesday.

After an exciting first half of soccer, the second half didn’t live up to the quality of the first half until the 86th minute in which we witnessed the faster player in the Bundesliga show off his speed.

After clearing the ball from the Dortmund box, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang turned on the jets and ran upfield as substitute Ousmane Dembele took in a long pass from Nuri Sahin right around the halfway line. After getting to the 18-yard box, Dembele slotted an incredible pass across the box to none other than Aubameyang, who ran the length of the field in less than eight seconds to slot home the game-sealing goal for Dortmund.

Following the final whistle, Dortmund grouped together as a team and held up a Marc Bartra jersey in front of the Yellow Wall. Additionally, when asked about what this performance meant for Dortmund, goalscorer Sokratis gave a heartfelt answer.

(Translated: “We swore before the game to give everything for 90 minutes. The goal was for Marc Bartra.”)

In the midst of all that is going on right now, this performance by Dortmund certainly aided their road to recovery. Hopefully, Dortmund can soon be back to normal as a team and as individuals.

Despite winning 3-1 on the day, Dortmund remain in fourth place in the Bundesliga as third place Hoffenheim beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 5-3 this afternoon.

Next up for Dortmund in the Bundesliga will be Borussia Mönchengladbach next Saturday. But, Dortmund will travel South to Monaco to face AS Monaco in the second-leg of their Champions League tie (aggregate 3-2 Monaco.)