A Glorious Night

While standing on the Südtribüne, the guys around me joked that Santana had finally shaved his hair again- it could only be a good performance by him then. I do not think any of those guys took seriously what they had just said but only around an hour later their words would become true and Santana would lay the base for- what I consider- a perfect night.
The day could not have been better actually. The weathergod had finally decided that we had suffered enough hours of darkness, rain, snow and cold and let spring come out again and so the walk to the stadium was lighthearted and enthusiastic. After all we had managed to draw Donezk in the first game in the Ukraine and scored two away goals. A victory would be enough in any case, but also a draw could have been the ticket to the quarterfinal for us. But it came as it came so often. Our Ballspielverein decided that it would not be enough to simply try and play down a 1:1 but to give it all and show all of us and the people in Europe that we are not done, yet

Since Hummels was not feeling well again, yet, Santana- with the reported shaven head- started for him once again. Other than that the line up pretty much looked like everyone had expected it to look. Piszczek was back for business after Kevin had replaced him in more than a better way last Saturday. In the offense our youngster Götze swirled around again after he also had a break against Hannover.
The mood on the pitch and on the stands was great- all was set for a great football night.

First Half

The team began in the very same way you expected them to begin. Furiously, eager and full of passion in order to make their and our dream come true. Lewandowski was the first person to show Donezk that they had actually arrived in order to lose. After a great pass by Götze, Lewandwoski could only be stopped by DOnezk keeper Pyatov. Only a few minutes later Schmelzer played a great cross onto Mario Götze, who, like Lewandwoski before, did not manage to get the ball behind the goalline. Still- Donezk was warned, this was the game Dortmund intended to play, not time to rest for the team from the Ukraine. It was not necessarily as if we created one chance after the next, but it became visible quite quickly that Donezk was overcharged with the way Dortmund controlled the game.

Their defense looked terribly out of order most of the time and their offense tried but failed since our defense did their job as well. It took around ten more minutes until our players played their way in front of Donezks goal. But as so often the past years, it sometimes seemed as if all our players still want the other to score the goal if they are not in the absolute best position to do so. After Lewandowski had basically danced his way through the pitch, he forwareded the ball onto Piszczek who could have shot but decided to pass the ball to Götze instead. At one point the ball was lost. Bummer. Still, the outcome was a cornerkick that Götze decided to take over. A good choice since almost everything he did on that day somehow turned to something great. We are telling the story of the 31. minute of the game and Santana is bringing himself into position. Götzes cornerkick finds its way exactly onto Santans head who heads it precisely into the upper right corner of the goal. 1:0 for Dortmund and the stadium and the players on the pitch are going mental. Was it the shaven head after all? If that's the case, I am sending Santana his own personal barber straight away.

Only six minutes later it was again a great combination by Lewandowski and Götze who increased the score. Noone seemed able to stop Lewandowski approaching on the right side, while even less players intended to stop Götze in the center of the penalty area to score after a great pass from Lewandowski. This looked so easy that you started to wonder how DOnezk actually managed to get this far. 2:0 for our black and yellow ones. This was feeling like a great night. Donezks Fernadinho tried Weidenfeller with their first real chance, shortly before the end of the second half, but the was too little in order to jeopardize our 2:0 lead. After that, it was time for the well deserved break.

Second Half

Unfortunately the second half began with the realization that Bender would not continue after suffering from an attack in the first half. For him Kehl came in, who was not in a great state either since he was curing a broken groin. Maybe this was the reason why Dortmund seemed to have lost focus for a few minutes after the referee had started the second half of the game. Donezk had a few strong minutes and Costa (48), Teixeira (50) and Fernandinho (50.) tried Weidenfeller more than once in these first minutes. But thank Footballgod our keeper stayed calm and so DOnezks strong storm had no further consequence for us. The team from the Ukraine also seemed to think that this little bit of work should be enough for the day and let us play the game again from then on. For a few minutes the game dazzled away for a bit. A free kick from Reus was pretty much the most exciting thing, but then again, nothing came out of it.

Luckily for us, Donezks defense seems to have more than one terrible moment per game and this time it was their keeper Pyatov who thought that holding the ball that he had just saved from GÜndogans shot was a bit too much to ask for and hence let it slip again out of his hands- right in front of Kubas feet who had no difficulties at all, shooting it into the goal. 3:0 for us after 56 minutes played. What a night. Our players were celebrating and we were exploding from joy. A song that we have not heard in a while in our beloved Westerfalenstadion was sang- "Ballspielverein Borussia aus Dortmund..." with the whole Südtribüne and a lot of people on the other stands jumping up and down. It seemed as if our players decided to step down from the gaspedal a bit, which was understandable after they had worked so hard throughout the whole game. There was not one moment of danger for us since Donezk big words before the game, that they would try everything in order to defeat us simply faded away into thin air and Dortmund played this down calmly.

Thoughts

Since we had not jumped enough during the second half of the game, we sang our Ballspielverein song with our team as well after the game. It was a great picture and somehow brought back memories from two years ago. Back then, everything was new and everything was as fantastic as it could be- a dream. But somehow the Bundesliga has become every-day business. Applause and a bit of celebration after a victory with the Süd, but somehow no enthusiastic "going nuts" anymore in the Bundesliga. Bayern is too far away by now and it sometimes seems as if our every-day business is only played down since it has to be done. It is quite sad at times but somehow also understandable. None of our players have ever been to a Championsleague quarterfinal and they have managed to get this chance on this very evening. Maybe it is normal to always crave for the next best thing. And in Europe? We all know that there is something going on. We know that it is a dream and we know the it is more than only a long way to get there. But it is alright to dream, together, with our team.

One more thing: for all of you who had wished Santana to every other team but Dortmund and cannot wait for Hummels to get back- rethink! You cannot expect a player to come in and substitute the injured one 100 percent. It is simply not possible. In Dortmund- so far- every player had gotten the time to develope and find his way into the team. Lewandowski was not our hero during his first six months as well. Don't be so quick to judge. Jürgen Klopp knows what he does. Why not have a little faith? In Santana, in Schieber and in everything that has yet to come. But for now, let's remember this night as a magical night. Thank you Ballspielverein!

Stats

BVB: Weidenfeller - Piszczek, Subotic, Santana, Schmelzer – Gündogan (82. Sahin), Bender (46. Kehl) – Kuba (69. Großkreutz), Götze, Reus – Lewandowski.

SchachtjorDonezk: Pyatov - Srna, Kucher, Rakitskiy, Rat – Fernandinho, Hübschmann (82. Stepanenko) – Teixeira, Mkhitaryan, Taison (46. Douglas Costa) – Luiz Adriano.

GOALS: 1:0 Santana (31.), 2:0 Götze (37.), 3:0 Kuba (59.).

Referee: Skomina (Slovenia).

Westfalenstadion: 65413 almost sold out, unfortunately not in the Donezk-area


Ida, 07.03.2013

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