Streak vs Streak

Thinking about the start of the season is always connected to strange feelings. Things seem to be as worse as haven’t been for a long time. But still, the first goal is reached: We are in the round of the last 16 in the Champions League or as stated in the season’s goals: be in the Champions League after the winter break.

Unbelievable but true, we have the best record of all teams in the Champions League (alongside Bayern). We won all matches and conceded just one goal. It seems like a different team is playing in the Champions League. The best start in the European competitions and the worst start in our Bundesliga history. A moment of celebration for most of the stadium and an embarrassing performance by the Galatasaray fans. It seems like the weeks of opposing thing. 30,000 Euros of damage were made and luckily, no one got harmed when flares were fired to the ranks.

These opposing streaks continue on Sunday. Gladbach playing a great season so far are still undefeated. On the other side there is us, uncountable defeats. The second of table against the second last. Unfortunately, we are the ones on the wrong end of the table. Nonetheless, the last two matches gave us some hope that we won’t be in that spot at the end of the season. A better performance against Hannover, just to get punched in the face with a free-kick. Then, we tried to beat Bayern and with a bit more luck and Hummels in the second half we could have won that as well. Still, no points and no Hummels for three weeks. It was a well-timed Champions League match to experience a win again and Klopp said that the boys should celebrate it to get the feeling back what it feels like to be on the winning end. Hopefully, we’ll continue the development. Our defence has become more stable compared to a couple of matches ago. Obviously necessary when having a look on the goals we already conceded in the Bundesliga.

Now, we have to take on Gladbach. As said before, Gladbach started brilliantly being named number one opponent of Bayern Munich this season. Unbelievably, they were in a very serious position a few years ago. Only rescued in the relegation play-off matches, shortly after Lucien Favre took over, they have now a team that has an idea, is stable and has a fair share of talent as well. Favre being an expert in developing defensive stability and winning matches with just a few counter attacks implemented this perfectly at Gladbach as well. With the quick wingers Hahn, Herrmann and Traore and the creative mind Raffael, the other Borussia has shown on several occasions that they can play a successful and fast paced football. Even at our best form we have often played rubbish against Gladbach which does not leave too much hope for Sunday.

Additionally, Weidenfeller who improved his form in the last matches and Reus who scored against Bayern and Galatasaray are doubtful due to a flu. Hopefully, this is just a minor illness and they can play on Sunday.

9,000 fans from Gladbach are expected and the stadium should be sold out. Good news for everyone: The strike at Deutsche Bahn is meant to be over on Saturday, meaning trains are back on track. And on Sunday we can say the same thing about our Borussia: Back on track.

Possible line-ups

Borussia Dortmund:
Weidenfeller (Langerak) – Durm, Subotic, Sokratis, Piszczek – Kehl, Bender – Reus (Großkreutz), Kagawa, Mkhitaryan – Aubameyang

Borussia Mönchengladbach:
Sommer – Korb, Jantschke, Stranzl, Wendt – Kramer, Nordtveit – Hahn, Hermann – Raffael, Kruse

Seb, 08.11.2014