Dortmund in Trouble

Scoreless draws are usually boring as hell to watch. When they’re on, I usually “speed watch” them. Today’s Matchday 22 game between Borussia Dortmund and FC Nürnberg was not one of those games. At kickoff, Dortmund were sitting at the top of the Bundesliga standings [51 points], two points clear of Bayern Munich. FC Nürnberg are bringing up the rear, sitting in last place with a measly 12 points. At this stage of any Bundesliga season, no team with as few points as FC Nürnberg have avoided relegation to the second division. Today was a “first vs. last” clash. I expected Dortmund to win in a blowout like they did the first time the two teams met this season [Dortmund won at home, 7-0]. That didn’t happen today.

FC Nürnberg goalie Christian Mathenia more than earned his pay today. For the first half, he was Nürnberg’s only defense [or so it seemed to me]. Mathenia made two brilliant saves against Dortmund’s lone striker Mario Götze. Götze had fired off five of his side’s six efforts on goal by the hour mark, In the second half, Nürnberg’s defenders woke up. It looked as if Nürnberg were happy to settle for a draw, so they packed their defenders in their own penalty area. This made it difficult for Dortmund to break through with a goal. Paco Alcácer substituted for Maximillian Phillip at the 63-minute mark. He narrowly missed scoring when he pushed a shot just wide of Nürnberg’s net. Jacob Bruun Larsen substituted for Dortmund’s Thomas Delaney at the 80th minute. At the 86th minute Bruun Larsen took a pass from Alcácer and put it in the back of Nürnberg’s net, but the goal was disallowed – Alcácer was clearly offside when he received the ball before he passed to Bruun Larsen. Four minutes of extra time were added, but Nürnberg fended off every Dortmund challenge. Nürnberg earned that one point with the draw. Christian Mathenia earned his first “clean sheet” against Dortmund.

Borussia Dortmund are in trouble. At one point in the season, they were nine points ahead of Bayern Munich in the standings. Now they are only three points ahead. Dortmund have racked up numerous injuries. Team captain Marco Reus has missed several games with a thigh injury. Christian Pulisic injured his hamstring in last week’s UEFA Champions League loss to Tottenham. Key defenders Lukasz Piszczek and Manuel Akanji have missed games, and Dortmund’s defense [lack thereof] shows. Last week, they snatched a draw from the jaws of victory against Hoffenheim. Days before the Hoffenheim game, Werder Bremen eliminated them from DFB-Pokal competition. Tottenham hammered them last week 3-0, and now the scoreless draw against a last-place team. They need to right the ship quickly. By the way, their next Bundesliga game is against Bayer Leverkusen, the hottest team since the end of the winter break. Since losing the first game after the winter break 1-0 to Borussia Mönchegladbach, Bayer Leverkusen have won four straight, including a 3-1 Matchday 21 victory over Bayern Munich.

Meet Claudio Pizarro

Meet Claudio Pizarro. He is the fifth-highest goal scorer in Bundesliga history with 195 goals, the latest of which he scored today. He’s been around a long time. By soccer standards, Pizarro is ancient [40 years, four months and 13 days old], and he is well-traveled. After spending the first four seasons of his professional career playing club football in the Peruvian First Division [Primera División Peruana – 1996-1999], the Peruvian striker came to the Bundesliga. Since coming to the Bundesliga, Pizarro has played for Bayern Munich [twice], Werder Bremen [four times], and one season at 1. FC Köln. While bouncing around these teams, he managed to squeeze in one season at Chelsea in the English Premier League.

Today I was watching the Matchday 22 game between Hertha Berlin and Werder Bremen. At the 25-minute mark, former Bremen striker Davie Selke put Hertha ahead 1-0. As the game progressed, it looked as if Hertha’s defense would make this slimmest of leads stick. Whatever Werder tried to break through Hertha’s defense didn’t work. Bremen coach Florian Kohfeldt brought Pizarro off the bench just past the hour mark [Pizarro rarely starts anymore]. Werder began to dominate possession in the second half but couldn’t score. As the game got to 90 minutes, one of the officials flashed the amount of stoppage time added – four minutes. Hertha was still leading 1-0 when Hertha’s Fabian Lustenberger fouled American Josh Sargeant just outside the penalty area five minutes into stoppage time. The referee awarded Werder a free kick. Claudio Pizarro took the free kick. Two deflections off Hertha players later, the ball found the back of the net. Werder Bremen snatched a point on the road. Hertha Berlin let one get away.

Claudio Pizarro is now the oldest goal scorer in Bundesliga history.

Hoffenheim win 3-3

Those who say there are no “moral victories” in sports didn’t watch the Bundesliga Matchday 21 game between Borussia Dortmund and Hoffenheim. Dortmund were in complete control of the game at halftime, leading 2-0. Captain Marco Reus was out for today’s game with a thigh injury, but Dortmund has an embarrassment of riches with the young players acquired during the last off-season [Jadon Sancho, Paco Alcácer]. Hoffenheim were lucky the score wasn’t twice that, because they didn’t have it together at all in the first half. Things didn’t look much better for Hoffenheim when Dortmund went up 3-0 at the 66:58 mark. Dortmund were playing at home at Signal Iduna Park, where they rarely lose. Hoffenheim were as good as dead. Today’s match commentators implied as much. Dortmund were toying with Hoffenheim like a cat does a squirrel before going for the kill. At 69:17 Paco Alcácer came off the bench for Dortmund, replacing Maximillian Philipp. Since coming to Dortmund on a loan from Barcelona, all he does is score goals. This season he’s scored ten, and is in the hunt of the Torjägerkanone, awarded to the league’s top goal scorer.

Sancho nearly made it 4-0 when his shot hit the post at 74:04. But at 74:39, Hoffenheim striker Ishak Belfodil, a second-half substitute, made the score 3-1. The ball barely got past Dortmund keeper Roman Bürki, but it was enough. Finally, the game was interesting. Commentator Phil Bonney said it was a shame Hoffenheim didn’t get their first goal when the game was 2-0, but there were still fifteen minutes to play. A lot can happen in the Bundesliga in fifteen minutes – just ask anyone who plays Bayern Munich. At 82 minutes, Dortmund substituted defender Ömer Toprak for midfielder Mario Götze, who had one goal and one brilliant assist before coming off. It seemed as if Dortmund were slowly locking down Hoffenheim and would take the three points with a victory. However, almost immediately after Toprak came on for Götze, Hoffenheim defender Pavel Kaderábek put a fantastic header past Bürki to make the score 3-2. In an instant the game seemed to be slipping away from Dortmund. They were still leading, but there was a sense of impending doom in front of the home fans. Suddenly, it was “game on” again.

Paco Alcácer nearly made it 4-2 with a shot that went just wide. Dortmund were awarded a corner kick off the play but couldn’t capitalize. They had two more corner kicks in rapid succession and still could not score. This would come back to bite Dortmund. After a foul in Hoffenheim’s end, Hoffenheim brought the ball into Dortmund’s end. A Dortmund foul resulted in a free kick for Hoffenheim. Unlike Dortmund just minutes before, Hoffenheim capitalized on the foul. Midfielder Dennis Geiger, another second-half substitute for Hoffenheim, delivered the free kick into the Dortmund penalty area. Ishak Belfodil made a diving header at 86:49, tying the score 3-3. To give you an idea how significant this is, Hoffenheim have been horrible at scoring from set-piece plays. This time they did, against the league-leaders in their own yard. There the score remained until the referee blew the whistle at the end of two minutes of stoppage time. This game was reminiscent of last year’s Revierderby against Schalke, when Dortmund blew a 4-0 halftime lead and drew with Schalke 4-4. This was a massive comeback by Hoffenheim. Dortmund had the three points in the bag, and they let them slip away. It was a very hard-fought point for Hoffenheim.

Roman Bürki did not have a bad game. He made some brilliant saves in the first half to keep Hoffenheim scoreless. His defense let him down in the second half – again. Defense has always been Dortmund’s Achilles’ Hell, and so it was today. This hasn’t been a good week for Borussia Dortmund. Earlier this week, Werder Bremen eliminated them from the DFB-Pokal. With today’s draw, and Bayern Munich’s 3-1 win over Schalke, Dortmund are only five points clear of Bayern. There are thirteen games left to play this season, and the title is still Dortmund’s to lose. Dortmund has to put this result out of their minds of they are to keep ahead of Bayern. Mario Götze said this on his FB page:

“Happy about the ⚽️ and the 🅰️ but the result feels like a defeat...”