Borussia Dortmund were beaten 1-0 by Cerezo Osaka in their first game of the BVB Evonik Japan Tour on Wednesday. The loss marks their second in a row after having gone down 2-1 against Fortuna Dusseldorf last weekend.
Solomon Sakuragawa struck the only goal of the game in just the eighth minute of the kick-off as it proved enough to see off their mighty visitors at the Yodoko Sakura Stadium.
BVB head coach Niko Kovac made five changes to his lineup, with Luca Reggiani replacing Jan-Luca Riedl in defense while Yan Couto, Jobe Bellingham and Justin Lerma coming in the midfield in place of Marwan Mirza, Enzo Duarte and Ayman Azhil.
Mathis Albert, who struck Dortmund's only goal against Dusseldorf, was relegated to the bench in favor of Samuele Inacio.
Despite a strong lineup, the visitors fell behind early on when Sakuragawa converted a corner that resulted from an earlier attempt by former Borussia Dortmund ace Shinji Kagawa.
Unlike like their game in Dusseldorf, the BVB showed encouraging attacking spark here but struggled to finish their goalscoring opportunities. Justin Lerma curled a wonderful shot narrowly wide off the post in the 15th minute while Serhou Guirassy failed to connect with a nice layoff by Takato Yamamoto, who was back in his native.
The half went from bad to worse for Dortmund when Filippo Mane went off with an injury after 35 minutes as Kovac was forced to make an early change.
Even as Dortmund struggled to find fhe equalizer in the second half, the Croatian manager waited until the hour mark to ring in further changes as Fabio Silva along with seven other substitutes were thrown into the game.
17-year-old BVB youth team star Romeo Ritter supposedly equalized for Die Borussen with a header just seconds before the final whistle, but it was ruled out for a narrow offside play in the buildup.
Goalkeeper Alexander Meyer and summer signing Joane Gadou were the only two players to complete full 90 minutes in the match as Dortmund were beaten yet again.
Although it's still only a friendly, the defeat was their second in a row and further diminishes their momentum while raising questions on the squad's fitness as well as Kovac's tactical systems.
As for Cerezo Osaka, the J1 League side have their revenge for the 3-2 loss they suffered at the hands of Borussia Dortmund two years ago on the same turf and wrap-up their preseason campaign on a positive note ahead of their league opener against Fagiano Okayama on 8 August.
The Black and Yellow fly to Tokyo for their next match of the BVB Evonik Japan Tour as they face FC Tokyo on Saturday, 1 July at the Japan National Stadium before flying back home the following day.
Borussia Dortmund were beaten 1-0 by Cerezo Osaka in their first game of the BVB Evonik Japan Tour on Wednesday. The loss marks their second in a row after having gone down 2-1 against Fortuna Dusseldorf last weekend.
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