Into a new season - starting with a win up in Northern Germany

The waiting time is over. We had more than three months of non-BVB time. With the last - more than astonishing - season all the BVB supporters maybe needed this time to get back to earth and chill for a while. While the Euro in Poland and Ukraine was at least for some of us only a minor comfort, this weekend real business started again. Borussia Dortmund had to play the first round of this season's DFB cup and came up to their duty with beating fourth division side FC Oberneuland 3-0. New signing Marco Reus contributed one early goal.

Boy, what a incredible 24 months we've experienced. Can you remember July/August 2010? Some of us hoped for a spot in Bundesliga somewhere between 4 and 6. Some even hoped for a Champions League chance. But I guess, that no one imagined, what happened then. A superior league performance, that saw us winning the league title by miles. And to top that fairy tale, the last season was even better. Winning the Bundesliga race with incredible 81 points, being now undefeated for 28 (!) league matches and as the icing on the cake snapping the DFB cup....what more do you expect? Do get it straight: Normally we all should quit watching football and look for something else. Maybe chinese checkers, gymnastics or chess. But as you can't choose your club or sport....we have to stick to Borussia Dortmund.

So let's see, how things developed over the summer break. Some players left Dortmund. Lucas Barrios, BVB top striker of 2010/11, was sold to Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande for about 8 million Euro. He wasn't comfortable with having lost his starting spot to Robert Lewandowski. As a replacement young striker Julian Schieber was bought from VfB Stuttgart for about 5.5 million Euro. Then we sold Kagawa Shinji, as his contract was valid for only 12 more months. As he refused to sign a new contract, we had to sell him in order to get a transfer fee at least. Manchester United secured his signature and will pay a minimum fee of about 16 million Euro. For more or less the same money we bought attacking midfielder Marco Reus from Borussia Mönchengladbach. The young German national is a versatile and quick player, who can start as central midfielder, winger or striker. To give our squad some more depth, Leonardo Bittencourt, a 18 year old midfielder, was signed from Energie Cottbus and Oliver Kirch from Kaiserslautern as a backup for Lukasz Piszczek. Florian Kringe, a long term BVB squad member, who came from our own youth teams, had to leave the club, as the officials didn't offer him a new contract.

So, the new team is in training since July 4th. Some friendly were played and as a first minor highlight the so called official super cup against Bayern München. While some friendlies weren't really promising, the super cup match showed two different sides of Borussia. In the first half we played disastrous in defense and received two early goals. But in the second 45 minutes we were able to raise the pressure and had some really nice chances. As we converted only one, it was still a 1-2 defeat. Nonetheless, the match showed, that we still had some work to do.

Scenario/Line up

The first real duty was then the first round of this season's DFB cup. We had to face FC Oberneuland, a fourth division side from a noble part of the city of Bremen. Somehow funny, that Oberneuland's coach Moussalli stated, that he is a fan of Borussia Dortmund. Moussalli had to cope with two injured players. Kniat and Artmann weren't able to play against BVB. On the other side three Dortmund players were injured. But Kuba and Subotic got back in time. Mats Hummels stilled suffered from a neck injury he got during the week when he played for Germany against Argentinia. Felipe Santana started instead. Up in offense Perisic won the battle with Großkreutz for the starting place on the left wing, while Mario Götze found himself also on the bench. As Götze was injured the last two weeks, Kuba started on the right wing. FC Oberneuland moved this highlight match of the season to the much bigger Weserstadion, home of Werder Bremen.

First half

With temperatures above 30°C Borussia Dortmund started the match as expected with much ball possession. But it was the Oberneuland team, that had the first approach. Skipper Muzzicato took a shot from about 20 meters, which was wide. Kuba on the other side initiated our first chance. He tried a lob over goalkeeper Mandic, but also missed the goal. Reus made it better a couple of minutes later. In minute 10 Robert Lewandowski deflected a pass straight to him. The fast new signing outpaced Mandic and scored the first goal - 1-0 BVB!

Oberneuland reacted with some rudeness, when Krogemann axed Lewandwoski. That could have been the first yellow card of the match. Referee Meyer had a different opinion. In minute 16 Kuba's next try only hit the wrong side of the net, while Laabs wasted a chance on the other side, when his shot from narrow angle didn't find the way into the goal. Though Borussia Dortmund was now in control, the black-yellow boys weren't going for the next goal with full force. In needed until minute 38, when a long distance pass found Piszczek on the right side of the box. The Polish right-back headed the ball towards national team mate Kuba, who dribbled past Yücel and scored from short range - 2-0 BVB! To be true...there weren't much more highlights during the first 45 minutes and so Borussia Dortmund went into the halftime break with a more or less comfortable lead.

Second half

Both teams started the second half with the same players. And it was again Kuba, who set the first highlight, but his shot was too high. Only two minutes later Marco Reus took a free kick from only 18 meters. As he had scored a nice goal during a preparation friendly, he somehow knows to score from this distance. Unfortunately this time the ball was deflected. On the other side of the pitch Oberneuland played an attack over the right wing. Weidenfeller tried to clear the crossing pass, but was hit hard by Oberneuland striker Laabs. Weidenfeller needed medical treatment, but was able to stay on the field. As nearly one hour was played the home team made their first substitution. Aktas left the pitch, while Zengin entered. A couple of minutes later Borussia Dortmund also made their first exchange and Mario Götze to his chance to shine, while Reus went to the showers. Perisic then added a third goal in minute 67. Kuba with a pass to the Croatian left-winger, that saw Perisic unmarked on the left side of the box. His shot from narrow angle hit the net - 3-0 BVB!

Schieber later replaced Lewandowski. But the match was now not really entertaining. Borussia Dortmund knew, that they would win and Oberneuland wasn't able to react. It took until minute 81, when Julian Schieber fired a fierce shot from 13 meter, that was wide several meters. Santana had another approach by head, but also didn't manage to hit the net. And so finally the match ended with a 3-0

Summary

At all it was an easy win. Our players were concentrated and went for an early decision. Despite the high temperatures Oberneuland wasn't able to be a real threat to us. Surely a solid start into the new season for our black-yellow boys.

Voices

Jürgen Klopp: "Those high temperatures weren't really contributing to our style of gameplay. But in the end the performance was ok as the team delivered."

Marco Reus: "It were really hot temperatures, but that was the same for the opponent. We did our duty and promoted safely to the next round."

Roman Weidenfeller: "We are able to play good football even when it is a little bit warmer, that is no problem."

Statistics

FC Oberneuland: Mandic - Adewumni, Hessel, Krogemann, Yücel - Kilicaslan (73. B. Muzzicato), F. Muzzicato, Seidel (63. Ö. Aktas), Minns - Laabs, M. Aktas (57. Zengin)
Coach: Peter Moussalli

BVB: Weidenfeller [3] - Piszczek [3], Subotic [3], Hummels [3], Schmelzer [3] - Kehl [3], Gündogan [2] - Kuba [2] (84. Großkreutz), Reus [2] (65. Götze), Perisic [3] – Lewandowski [3] (69. Schieber)
Coach: Jürgen Klopp

(Marks: 1=world class, 2=did very well, 3=performance was ok, 4=not enough but not too bad at all, 5=not worth the money, 6=should pay money for playing football)

Goals: 0-1 Reus (10., right foot, assist Lewandowski), 0-2 Kuba (38., right foot, Piszczek), 0-3 Perisic (67., right foot, Kuba)

Yellow cards: - / -

Referee: Florian Meyer

Attendance: 19.325 (Weser-Stadion)

jonam, 19.08.2012

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