Birthday present?!

Who would have thought of this 105 years ago? Borussia Dortmund playing in the Bundesliga, Champions League and Cup, struggling a bit at the moment but all in all one of the most successful teams in German football. Stunning what developed from an idea you had and pushed forward with some others, Mr Jacobi, isn’t it? But before we get back to the current situation, let’s take a look back five years ago.

It was the 100^th birthday of our beloved Ballspielverein. The stadium was covered in a beautiful choreography and the fans were loudly celebrating Borussia Dortmund. But not only were we celebrating the birthday of our BVB, we were celebrating the whole situation. Years of painful events seemed to come to an end. The season before we just missed qualifying for the Europa League because of an offside position! Klopp gave us hope. A talented team gave us hope. A better financial situation gave us hope. Hope that better times were waiting in the future. Full-throttle football was on the rise and Klopp’s promise he made one and a half years ago were visible on the pitch. Although the hope was borderless, nobody would have expected where it led to. What does the situation have to do with tomorrow’s match against Bremen?

In short words: Five years later the situation has turned from white to black, from hope to frustration:
Rumours about personal problems between players. Players that are not fit enough anymore to play full-throttle football. Klopp is losing control of the situation. Our tactics lack variability. All players make several mistakes. Defence is a joke and so is the offense. Basically, everything sucks. In conclusion that means place 16 in the Bundesliga.

Enough of drama and dramatizing! Time to face the facts again and concentrate on the next match. The game against Wolfsburg gave at least a glimpse of hope that things could get better. But so did the matches against Gladbach and Paderborn. Nonetheless, there is a team that is even worse off this season: Bremen. Our next away match brings us to the hansa town of Bremen. Werder Bremen is experiencing our current situation for the last few years. From a constant competitor in the Champions League they somehow got caught in a down-force drawing them nearer and nearer to the second Bundesliga. Although they got by far the worst defence we are just one point clear. Bremen is trying to redevelop themselves bringing in a lot of players from the youth, most remarkably Davie Selke. This is partly because of Skripnik’s philosophy but also induced by some injuries and mostly by players lacking form (e.g. Elia, Petersen). Dortmund on the other hand had some players coming back from injuries. Nonetheless, these players are not really match fit again. Bender picked up a knock and won’t be able to play. So is Subotic as well due to a ban because of his fifth yellow card during this season. As Sokratis hasn’t recovered, yet, Ginter will probably be playing alongside Hummels in the defensive line. Bender could be replaced by either Kirch who assisted for Immobile’s goals against Wolfsburg or Sahin. Gündogan might be an option as well, bringing Kagawa back into play. However, the team on the pitch should be able to win against Bremen. And this brings us back to the beginning of this match preview.

We need to rebuild our hope. The glimpse of hope from the Wolfsburg match, the good performance of Immobile, the fighting spirit: All this should be giving us some hope. But hope has always the downside of getting disappointed when it is not met. We still got Klopp, we still have a very talented team and hopefully, we are able to pull off a last full-throttle match before the winter break. Three points would be a great birthday present and a good start for new hope!

Possible line-ups:

SV Werder Bremen:
Wolf – Gebre Selassie, Galvez, Lukimya, Garcia – Bargfrede – Fritz, Junuzovic - Aycicek, Bartels, Selke

Borussia Dortmund:
Langerak – Schmelzer, Ginter, Hummels, Piszczek – Kehl, Sahin - Aubameyang, Gündogan, Großkreutz – Immobile

Seb, 19.12.2014