Pre-season friendly preview: Borussia Dortmund face VfL Bochum

Borussia Dortmund return to action on Saturday as they go up against newly promoted Bundesliga side VfL Bochum in the Cup der Traditionen.

Fresh off their 2-0 win against FC Gießen in Marco Rose’s first game in charge, Borussia Dortmund will be aiming to continue to build their fitness levels ahead of the new season as they face local rivals and newly promoted Bundesliga side VfL Bochum in the Cup der Traditionen.

The mini-tournament was originally scheduled to be a three team event. But MSV Duisburg had to pull out on Friday after three of their players tested positive for COVID-19. Borussia Dortmund will now face VfL Bochum in a 90 minute match that will take place at the Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena in Duisburg. More than 10,000 spectators are expected to be in the stadium to watch the action live. Kick-off is scheduled for 15:00 CET.

Borussia Dortmund will once again be without ten of the players who were involved in the European Championships, as well as Reinier Jesus (who is in the Brazil squad for the Olympic Games).

But there is hope that Gio Reyna and Gregor Kobel will be able to play some part in the game. All three players are back in training and could give Marco Rose some more options to choose from. Marius Wolf could also return to the team after missing Tuesday’s game. The game will also come too soon for Marcel Schmelzer and Youssoufa Moukoko.

A number of players from the U-19 and U-23 teams will also get some playing time over the course of the 90 minutes. Highly rated youngsters Nnamdi Collins, Albin Thaqi and Göktan Gürpüz could all be in the starting XI once again for the Black and Yellows.

Marco Rose went with a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 formation for the game against FC Gießen. And we will likely see a similar system in place on Saturday.

Expected Borussia Dortmund Starting XI vs VfL Bochum: Kobel – Wolf, Collins, Thaqi, Schulz – Dahoud, Brandt – Knauff, Reyna, Reus – Tigges