Next task: Flip the switch

After the exhausting and quite disappointing confrontation with the FC Arsenal in the Champions League our Borussia now is forced to flip the switch and concentrate on the next challenge in the League where the Vfl Wolfsburg is already waiting for the masterly BVB. This Saturday at 3.30 pm the wolves welcome our team in their Volkswagen-Arena where they will hopefully be rolled over by Rolls Reus and his team mates. The pain being caused by the unlucky defeat against the club from London has to be put aside to make sure that Dortmund takes 3 points with it from Wolfsburg.

This task won’t be solved easily as you can see at the results of former matches in the Bundesliga that took place directly after a game in the European competition: The 1:2 against Naples was followed by a draw in Nürnberg and after the 3:0 victory over Marseille there was even a 0:2 defeat against Gladbach. These two matches in the direct aftermath of Champions League encounters were the only losses of points that Borussia had to suffer from in the current season. This shows that special concentration and caution is demanded to secure a victory against Wolfsburg standing on place 5 in the table and therefore should not be underestimated and washed up as an easy opponent in comparison to Arsenal. Furthermore, we still have a score to settle with the Vfl because the last match in their stadium ended in a 3:3 draw that had even appeared to end in a defeat of our team at the intermediate result of 3:1 against us.

The match at this 12th day of the season is an optimal possibility to work at the few deficits of the BVB. Apart from the fact that schwarzgelb has problems in defending standard situation, there is also the ‘problem’ of losing points in away games (Nürnberg, Gladbach). Although these facts may foreshadow an uncomfortable situation for us, the statistics also say that Wolfsburg could not win any of its last 4 home games against Dortmund and that their coach Hecking already waits for a win against the club for 9 matches in the League. Putting all former matches of the two opponents together, Dortmund can be considered as superior (17 victories, 8 draws, 9 defeats), but it was shown many times before that you can never rely on statistics and what appears likely to happen.

The personal situation of Borussia Dortmund isn’t clear yet, because Jakub Kuba is suffering from an illness and possibly cannot participate at Saturday while Mats Hummels is expected to return into the squat. Besides these two questionmarks, Piszczek and Gündogan are still missing. Our captain Sebastian Kehl could replace Sven Bender, who could need a little breather, in the starting 11. On the side of the VflW the middlefield-star Diego is missing as a consequence of an injury in the muscle of the stomach and in addition Koo, Träsch and Vierinha will not be part of the squat.

Coach Dieter Hecking is optimistic about a realistic chance of succeeding against our team as the wolves want to extend their 3-games-winning-streak. They aim to fulfill this challenge by not allowing our players to control the ball for a long time so that they cannot show their extraordinary skills in the attacking play. Furthermore, the solidarity throughout the team is regarded an advantage that may help to steal 3 points from Dortmund.

Nevertheless, we can expect our team to invest everything so that a positive result can be achieved which would secure our high position in the table. One thing that hopefully will not affect the atmosphere and the match on Saturday in a negative way is the decision made by the authorities of the BVB concerning the riots in the Derby: Three groups of ultras have revoked their season tickets for away games as a consequence of the pyrotechnics attacks against the blue supporters. Besides this bitter off-taste there is also good news: National coach Löw made the overdue decision to convoke Roman Weidenfeller for his team!

Possible Line-ups:

Vfl Wolfsburg:
Benaglio - Ochs, Naldo, Knoche, Rodriguez - Medojevic, Luiz Gustavo - D. Caligiuri, Arnold, Perisic - Olic

Coach: Hecking

Borussia Dortmund:
Weidenfeller - Großkreutz, Subotic, Hummels, Schmelzer - S. Bender (Kehl?), Sahin - Aubameyang, H. Mkhitaryan, Reus - Lewandowski

Coach: Klopp

Referee: Dr. Jochen Drees

Stadium: Volkswagen-Arena

Kick-Off: 9th November, 3.30 PM CET

Matchday bets - You vs. the Editors: Ehab (Dubai) vs. Veramariko

12th day of the Season 2013/14

Hannover – Braunschweig: 3 - 0 / 2 – 1
Hoppenheim – Hertha: 0 - 2 / 0 – 1
Wolfsburg – Dortmund: 2 - 3 / 0 – 2
Leverkusen – Hamburg: 1 - 2 / 1 – 1
Sch**** - Bremen: 1 - 1 / 1 – 3
Bayern – Augsburg: 4 - 0 / 0 – 1
Gladbach – Nürnberg: 2 - 1 / 3 – 0
Mainz – Frankfurt: 2 - 2 / 2 – 0
Freiburg – Stuttgart: 0 - 1 / 1 - 1

veramariko, 8.11.2013