"Good lineup" - Fans react as Borussia Dortmund announce lineup for first game of Japan tour

Borussia Dortmund play their first game of the BVB Evonik Japan Tour today in Osaka against local side Cerezo Osaka at the Yodoko Sakura Stadium.

It marks their first match outside of Germany this preseason as Niko Kovac's side up the ante in preparations ahead of the 2026-27 season.

The club announced it's official lineup for the clash with five changes from last time.

While Alexander Meyer starts for the third time in a row, Luca Reggiani replaced Jan-Luca Riedl. Yan Couto, Jobe Bellingham and Justin Lerma replaced Marwan Mirza, Enzo Duarte and Ayman Azhil in midfield while Samuele Inacio joins Takato Yamamoto in attack, replacing Mathis Albert as Serhou Guirassy starts as the lone striker again.

Fans took to X to make their toughts clear on the linup, with most of them receiving it positively and sounding optimistic about the outcome of today's clash. Here are some of the reactions from the BVB faithful on X:

A verified account by the name Musa Bin Adam wrote:

""Osaka ready, Borussia ready! 🌼⚽Wishing the team a strong performance and an exciting match. Let's go BVB! 🖤💛""

Another user said:

"Hope you win this""

However, one fan was a bit skeptical upon seeing one player in the lineup today as they tweeted:

""With Reggiani, that ain't gonna work.""

A fan from Asia left some love in the comments for Dortmund:

""Love Dortmund from Kurdistan 🖤💛""

One more fan wasn't too happy to see the lineup, as he wrote:

""Looks like Kovac football right now… 🤮 The whole preparation probably hasn't even seen a ball yet…""

One fan appeared perplexed to see a few of their first-team stars who played at 2026 FIFA World Cup, missing in action here:

""Where are Anton, Sabitzer, Chukwuemeka and Co.?""

And finally, another X user was optimistic about today's result:

""today, a nice crisp win :D""

Dortmund bolstered by World Cup returnees

One big change in Borussia Dortmund's squad for the Japan tour is the return of some of their 2026 FIFA World Cup stars as Waldemar Anton, Maximilian Beier, Felix Nmecha, Carney Chukwuemeka and Daniel Svensson have all reported back to work.

The stars resumed training last week following their 2-1 friendly loss to Fortuna Dusseldorf but have been omitted from today's matchday squad as Kovac perhaps doesn't want to throw them at the deep end right upon their return.

Die Borussen are supposed to play FC Tokyo later this week before matches to Arsenal and AS Roma upon returning to Europe. So the manager is perhaps keeping them for the games closer to their season opener against Bayern Munich on 22 August.

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