On paper, this would be a blowout. Borussia Dortmund ended their five-game winless streak last week against a very good Bayer Leverkusen team, 3-2. On the other side, FC Augsburg got hammered by SC Frieberg, 5-1. At kickoff, Borussia Dortmund stood at the top of the Bundesliga standings with 54 points, 3 points clear of second-place Bayern Munich. FC Augsburg stood fourth from the bottom at 18 points. They were only two points clear of Stuttgart, who currently are locked into the relegation playoff spot. Dortmund captain Marco Reus returned from his injury. One would think this would be an easy game for Dortmund. That turned out not to be the case.
In the first minute, it looked like this game would go as expected when an early defensive lapse almost resulted in a Dortmund goal. Luckily for Augsburg Dortmund couldn’t capitalize. Dortmund continued to press Augsburg’s defense. At 16:28 Augsburg had to make a defensive change due to defender Kostas Stafylidis getting injured [Austrian defender Georg Teigl came on in his place]. Augsburg’s defense settled down after the first 20 minutes and began to play fairly well.
South Korean striker Dong-won Ji [subbing for the injured Alfreð Finnbogason (calf)] opened the scoring for Augsburg at 23:45. Dortmund defender Dan-Axel Zagadou made a critical error, allowing Augsburg midfielder André Hahn to get around him to make a cross to Ji, who was positioned in front of Dortmund’s goal. The score remained 1-0 in favor of Augsburg at the half. Dortmund controlled possession of the ball 65 percent of the time, but could not score. Augsburg keeper Gregor Kobel was very busy in the first half, but he and Augsburg’s defense held Dortmund scoreless. Dortmund kept pressing but couldn’t break through.
Playing conditions were not ideal. It was 46F at kickoff. It started to rain, and the rain got steadily worse in the second half. At 65 minutes, Dortmund substituted defender Raphael Guerreiro for Marco Reus, and they also brought on striker Paco Alcácer for midfielder Thomas Delaney. Shortly thereafter, Dong-won Ji scored his second goal against Dan-Axel Zagadou at 68 after another Dortmund defensive miscue [Achraf Hakimi]. Zagadou was not having a good game. Augsburg were up 2-0. It was Ji’s first brace in six years. The field was wet and slippery, which made Dortmund’s task of catching Augsburg that much harder.
At 75 minutes Paco Alcácer [all he does is score goals] made a shot on goal that was denied by a brilliant save from Gregor Kobel. Alcácer had begun to celebrate when he realized he was denied by Kobel. It was the second brilliant save Kobel would make today. Alcácer’s celebration would have to wait. Alcácer didn’t have to wait long as he did score at the 81st minute. His goal cut Augsburg’s lead in half, making the game 2-1. Things got a bit chippy between André Hahn and Raphael Guerreiro, both of whom received yellow cards for their trouble. Dortmund made a ferocious charge to try to rescue a point in the standings, but Augsburg were too tough and too inspired for them today. After four minutes of stoppage time, Augsburg upset Dortmund, 2-1. Augsburg earned their first win at home against Dortmund ever.
Dortmund’s grip on first place is tenuous at best. At one time they were nine points clear of their nearest competitor. But now defending champion Bayern Munich are breathing down their necks, and Dortmund is starting to feel it. Bayern Munich will have to beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 7-0 to take over first place. I don’t see that happening since BMG beat Bayern in the fall at the Allianz Arena. BMG are tough this year.
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