SThey escaped with a fright and yet drove back to their territory troubled. Four days after the gray appearance during the 2-1 cup defeat at second division FC St. Pauli, Bundesliga runners-up Borussia Dortmund was lucky after the 3-2 win at sixth TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. Coach Marco Rose made no secret of this when he admitted after the duel dictated by Hoffenheim for long stretches: “In the end we fought home the win, which was flattering for us.” All is well that ends well?
This narrowed perspective, which spoke for BVB, was adopted by no Borusse this Saturday. The last pursuer of first-class FC Bayern Munich had seemed too vulnerable for that. In addition, there was concern about Erling Haaland, Borussia’s Norwegian parade striker. The 20-year-old goal scorer on duty, who scored his fourteenth league goal this season with his unadorned goal from close range to make it 1-0 (6th minute), had to go after 63 solid minutes. Groin pain bothered him.
The first diagnosis didn’t bode well either: a torn muscle fiber in the adductor area. This would mean that the indispensable Haaland would be out for weeks – a serious weakness for this team, which always seems too unstable to be really dangerous for Bayern Munich. Luckily for BVB, Dutchman Donyell Malen, who switched from PSV Eindhoven to Dortmund last summer for a transfer fee of 30 million euros, made it very clear on Saturday that he has now arrived in the Bundesliga and can become the X-factor of Borussia .
“Victory of Effectiveness”
Malen prepared the 1-0 after the most impressive combination of the black and yellow with the last pass as well as the 2-1, which captain Marco Reus scored with a powerful finish (58th), and finally the 3-1 after the Hoffenheim international David Raum maneuvered the sleek cross from the left winger into his own net (66′). There are some indications that the Netherlands international will soon also make a name for himself as a goalscorer. His Bundesliga quota of three goals is clearly expandable.
It seems narrow like Dortmund’s shot rate in Sinsheim with just four shots on goal compared to TSG’s 16. The fact that three goals came out of it says a lot. In any case, everything spoke for the dictum of Reus, who recognized a “victory of effectiveness”. Against a team that was ahead of BVB in terms of enthusiasm, goal scoring and determination, but didn’t make enough of it.
Helpful system changeover
The Hoffenheim team, led by captain Benjamin Hübner, who recovered from a complicated ankle injury and was called up to the starting XI again after 574 days of deprivation, may have rightly recognized that they were “the clearly better team”, so the B grade replaced the beauty of the game but not the bare result. And so it remained, despite numerous opportunities, with the two worthless goals by Andrej Kramaric (45 + 1), his hundredth competitive goal for TSG, and Georginio Rutter (77).
A system change also helped BVB to win despite a goal record of 14:3 for Hoffenheim. Rose, who started his team in a 4-3-3 formation, opted for a 5-3-2 formation after about an hour to better protect against Hoffenheim’s intense attacks. When Kraichgau’s defense hadn’t really adapted to the slightly different assignment of opponents, Borussia capitalized on the brief instability of the TSG defense and made it 3-1. In other words: pure luck and pure bad luck alone did not lead to a final result that brightened up a little the changeable week of Borussia, 5-1 against Freiburg, 1-2 on St. Pauli, 3-2 against Hoffenheim.
“When you win in Hoffenheim, no matter how, that’s always good,” was Hans-Joachim Watzke‘s pragmatic assessment of the day. The Dortmund managing director will, he indicated on Saturday, also try to keep his currently injured superstar Haaland for another year. He could leave BVB for the new season for a fixed transfer fee of 75 million euros.
In an interview with the Sky TV station, Watzke announced that “we have a few basic ideas that we would like to put to Erling and his advisor. If they bear fruit, we’re even more pleased. One thing is for sure: we will remain creative.” The center forward, who recently appeared to have taken a cold because he accused Dortmund of having built up the pressure to decide between staying or going, which BVB denies, has the last word. Watzke continues to fight, Haaland is initially suffering from his injury, and his advisor Mino Raiola is in a Milan hospital with pneumonia. The decision in the case is still a long time coming.
