Let's get ready to rumble

What have the weekends been painfully empty in the past months. No World Cup can ever come close to fill the gap that any weekend without our Borussia leaves. We had some test games, even won some titles. The Supercup could even be considered an offcial game. But we are not fooling ourselves, it's not the same. The trip to Liverpool was nice, too. And don't forget about the Helmut-Rahn-Cup we won in Essen with an impressive 5:1 victory against Rot-Weiss. None came even close to the real deal.

Agreed, the first round in the cup usually is not the same as a Bundesliga game, but at least it comes as close as it can be and we have made a fool of ourselves in this first round often enough to not underestimate any opponent, no matter how insignificant it may look like. And the opponent we are facing tomorrow in the stadium of VfB Stuttgart is one of the best we could have drawn from the pot. And then again, they are usually facing our U23 team in the third division, so anything else than a clear victory would be a disappointment.

We come as the old and new Supercup winner, having beaten Bayern with an easy 2:0 on Wednesday in the Westfalenstadion. After the only set-back of the pre-season in Liverpool the Sunday before, it has shown that we are, even if not yet in state to compete with the early starters of Europe, at least prepared enough for our opponents in Germany. Mkhitaryan has played an incredible pre-season and looks exactly the strong playmaker we have been hoping for he would become this season, but also the rest of the team looks quite prepared. Sokratis had no difficulties whatsoever to stop the best forward in the world from scoring and the attacks of Immobile and especially Aubameyang were dangerous at all times. Further, the trick with Hofmann playing inbetween the two of them when attacking should usually be a weapon that a third division club can't compete against. In the back, the world champions Hummels and Weidenfeller will probably still get another week off, so Langerak is expected to start in the goal with Piszczek, Sokratis, new signing Ginter who played some impressive games as well and Durm building the back four. Kirch and Kehl will complete the team. It is expected that Klopp would play the new 4-4-2 as he did in the Supercup.

So, even though we do not have a lot to win in the first round of the cup, let's get ready to rumble! Finally it's football again, our beloved Ballspielverein is entering the stage!!!

Go, black and yellow boys!

Line-ups

Stuttgarter Kickers: K. Müller - Leutenecker, Fennell, Stein, Baumgärtel - Halimi, Marchese, Braun - G. Müller, Soriano, Badiane

Borussia Dortmund: Langerak - Piszczek, Sokratis, Ginter, Durm - Kirch, Kehl - Hofmann, Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang - Immobile

Referee: Peter Sippel (München)

Nadja, 15.08.2014