Borussia Dortmund - Time to Panic?

What has happened to Borussia Dortmund? They started the current Bundesliga campaign in beast mode. Through the first seven weeks, they won six and drew once. They scored 21 goals while surrendering only two. They gave up zero goals in the first four matches. They seemed to be running away with the Bundesliga. Then the wheels fell off. Their last win in Bundesliga play came on Matchday 7 against Augsburg. That was September 30th [it’s mid-November now]. Since then, they’ve lost [including today] to RB Leipzig [at home!], Hannover 96, Bayern Munich [at home!] and VfB Stuttgart. The best they could manage was a 2-2 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt. In their last two UEFA Champions League matches, they managed two 1-1 draws against APOEL Nicosia. In four days they play Tottenham in the UEFA Champions League, then Schalke four days later. Schalke is the team immediately behind them in the Bundesliga standings. They might catch a break the following week against Bayer Leverkusen [they’re currently 9th in the Bundesliga].

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is but one barometer to measure Dortmund’s success. As he goes, so goes Dortmund. But lately, he’s been in a bit of a funk. He hasn’t scored since Matchday 8. For reasons unexplained he was suspended for the Matchday 12 match against VfB Stuttgart. That’s not to say that Dortmund’s current slide is Aubameyang’s fault – it isn’t. Since that Matchday 7 victory against Augsburg, Dortmund have surrendered 14 goals while scoring only eight. After seeming to runaway with the league in the first seven weeks, Dortmund now find themselves in third place behind Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig [same as last year]. Bayern Munich fired Carlo Ancelotti for lackluster play – could Peter Bosz be next? Since replacing Thomas Tuchel, Bosz introduced an always-pressing style. Is the team already exhausted? I don’t know, but during today’s Bundesliga telecast, Bosz was quoted as the rest of the league have “figured out” Dortmund. I just got back from two weeks in Korea and last night I watched Der Klassiker against Bayern Munich [Bayern won 3-1]. Dortmund’s defense wasn’t pretty. They kept giving Bayern too much space to operate, and Bayern made them pay. Today against Stuttgart, Stuttgart ran Dortmund into the ground. If Bosz doesn’t make any adjustments to the league’s having “figured out” his team, he could follow Ancelotti to the unemployment line.

Nov. 19th note - Between September 30th and now, Borussia Dortmund have fallen from first place to fifth. Meanwhile, Schalke now sits in second place. Good luck Dortmund, you’ll need it.

Bundesliga Match Day 4

Fox Sports televised six Bundesliga games this weekend. On Friday, Hannover defeated Hamburg 2-0. After spending last season in 2. Bundesliga, Hannover are in surprisingly good form. They’re so good right now that for the first time since Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon, Hannover found themselves in first place, even if it was for only two days. Three of the televised games were blowouts: Bayern Munich 4, Mainz 0; Bayer Leverkusen 4, Freiburg 0; and Borussia Dortmund 5, FC Köln 0.

Robert Lewandowski scored a pair for Bayern, which puts him at 5 goals thus far season. Maximilian Philipp and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang each scored a pair for Dortmund. That puts Aubameyang at four goals to date. Dortmund are in beast mode this season, scoring ten goals without allowing a single goal in four games. New coach Peter Bosz’s always-pressing style is paying dividends for now. I don’t know how long Dortmund can keep up the pace, but right now they don’t appear to miss Ousmane Dembele. Dembele made the move to Barcelona for a truckload of money, but in his La Liga debut yesterday he severely injured a hamstring, which will put him out of action for three to four months. FC Köln hasn’t shown any offense so far – in four matches they’ve scored only twice. They miss Anthony Modeste, who transferred to Tianjin Quanjian of the Chinese Super League this summer.

Timo Werner [pictured above] has been playing extremely well as of late. Having been awarded the Golden Boot for the most goals scored during this summer’s Confederations Cup [3], Werner recorded his fourth goal of the season in RB Leipzig’s match with Borussia Mönchengladbach. His is the top German scorer in the Bundesliga. Of the six matches televised this weekend, the RB Leipzig-Borussia Mönchengladbach match, which ended in a 2-2 draw, was the most entertaining. Werner drew first blood in the 17th minute, but seven minutes later Borussia Mönchengladbach equalized after Belgian midfielder Thorgan Hazard converted a penalty shot. Jean-Kévin Augustin [signed this summer from Paris Saint Germain] restored Leipzig’s lead in the 34th minute. Leipzig held the lead until Lars Stindl hammered home the equalizing goal from outside the penalty area. Leipzig’s goalie Péter Gulácsi did everything right, going airborne in the direction of Stindl’s shot, but Stindl’s thunderbolt was in just the right spot, out of Gulácsi’s reach. Leipzig kept pressing, but Mönchengladbach’s defense responded to each challenge. It was a riveting contest. With RB Leipzig’s second place finish n the Budesliga, they are playing in the UEFA Champions League, just like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. They’re playing with the big boys in Europe now. They played Monaco to a 1-1 draw last week.

Last week Hoffenheim stunned Bayern Munich at home 2-0. They started today’s match against Hertha Berlin in 7th place with the chance to move up to third with a win. They had a very good season last year, which was good enough to earn them the chance to get into the UEFA Champions League. They lost a two-game playoff to Liverpool, so now they’re playing in the Europa League. As it is, Hoffenheim, like RB Leipzig, are doing double duty in the Bundesliga and European football. It’ll be interesting to see how both of these clubs last. They no longer have the luxury to rest while Bayern and Borussia play the extra games with the rest of Europe. Hertha Berlin are no strangers to European play. Like Hoffenheim, they too are playing in the UEFA Europa League. Last week they played Athletic Bilbao to a 0-0 draw.

As for today’s match, Sandro Wagner put Hoffenheim ahead early with a header in just the sixth minute of play. Hoffenheim held the lead until Hertha Berlin’s Alexander Esswein equalized in the 55th minute. Both teams seemed to play like they were tired, and they probably were. After the equalizer, it was a pretty dull game. I know, for a lot of people this is a dull sport.