Opinion: Reasons for patience and optimism for Borussia Dortmund fans

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DORTMUND, GERMANY – AUGUST 20: General view outside the stadium prior to the Bundesliga match between Borussia Dortmund and SV Werder Bremen at Signal Iduna Park on August 20, 2022 in Dortmund, Germany. (Photo by Christof Koepsel/Getty Images) /

Here’s a cliché for you: Rome wasn’t built in a day. Now who saw that one coming? Seriously, European football seasons are long, and we’re only at matchday four of the Bundesliga season. There is still a lot of time left for this squad to get themselves figured out and right the ship. If the season were over right now, Arsenal would be crowned Premier League champions and Liverpool would be two spots up from relegation. Yeah, really.

So, we’ve got to be patient with this club. Believe me, I’m frustrated too. Borussia Dortmund have been flirting with disaster these first few weeks, and it finally caught up to them. I’ll be one of the first ones to tell you that I was swept up in all of the excitement and really thought that this would be the year that BVB knock off Bayern Munich for the title. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. The night is still young. It’s not over until the fat lady sings. Had enough yet?

I’ll go on record here and say that at this point, it really does seem like a long shot for Dortmund to pull off winning the Bundesliga title. There are so many adjustments that still need to be made for the Black and Yellows, and the Bavarians are clicking on all cylinders after winning their first three Bundesliga matches by a goal differential of fourteen goals. Borussia Dortmund need all the points they can get, and dropping three to Werder Bremen is one of the worst things they could have done.

At the end of the day, however, I fully believe that the changes that were made this summer were not exclusively intended to reap success this season, but were actually designed to build Dortmund into a legitimate contender for years to come. If success – and by success I mean the Bundesliga title and nothing short of that – was desired for only this year, I think there were many things that could have been done differently. Dortmund were tied to nearly every name under the sun in the transfer market this summer, but chose only a select few. Why? Because the focus is on the future.

For Dortmund fans, this is probably not at all what we want to hear, though. We’ve been waiting for years for the moment that we wrestle control of the Bundesliga away from Bayern. It seems that year after year we say the same thing and see the same articles about how this might finally be the year.

In all reality, though, this season may not be the one where we see the Bavarians fall and the power shift to another club. But that doesn’t mean that this season cannot be a success for Borussia Dortmund. If the goal is long-term success, meaning Bundesliga champions, perennial Champion’s League appearances, and a few more DFB-Pokals to add to the trophy case, then how we measure what happens this season should reflect that.

Let’s also keep in mind that the FIFA World Cup starts in November of this year, which means that Dortmund will have just over two full months off before picking back up in January. That’s a lot of time to make up for missed training in the preseason this summer. Having such a break could prove to be really crucial in helping the team gel.

This team needs room to breathe. Terzic and co. need space to weave the players and their play-styles together and create a squad that can challenge not only Bayern, but teams across Europe’s biggest stages, year after year. This season is far from over, and I think that the conversations surrounding Dortmund near the end of the year will be far different than they are now. I still think there is a great deal to be excited about, and I am continually looking forward to what this squad can accomplish – even if that doesn’t quite look the way I thought it was going to.

Next. A six-minute reality check: Borussia Dortmund’s collapse vs Werder Bremen. dark

In the meantime, I think that patience is our best course of action as fans, as hard as that might be. At the end of the day, I trust that Sebastian Kehl and Edin Terzic are the right men for the job. The squad has a good deal of talent in it, and it should be only a matter of time before things start to click and the potential is realized. Let’s hope that this season will be successful in many ways, but if nothing else we should remain optimistic that if not now, our time will come, very soon.