In the fifth and 34th minute it was clear why Borussia Dortmund went through an extremely difficult afternoon. In the fifth minute, Julian Ryerson looked for a yellow and black pass near the corner flag, but by then it was too late. The BVB defender had long since been surrounded by two green and white players from Bremen and the ball was out a little later. In the 34th minute, Giovanni Reyna received a pass in the SV Werder half, it wasn’t a dangerous situation, but it could have been one from Dortmund’s point of view. Reyna then tried a back-heel that was well thought of but done very poorly – and the ball was gone.
In a condensed form, these scenes illustrated the hurdles that BVB had to overcome to make it 2-0 on Saturday after goals from Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Julian Brandt. The visiting team couldn’t really do anything for the most difficult hurdle. Werder were focused and really dared to do something without letting themselves be carried away by negligence worth mentioning on the defensive. The other hurdle was a pure BVB brand: Dortmund showed interesting approaches, which often lacked consistent implementation, unless the steely Jew Bellingham or the once again bustling Brandt were involved in the actions.
At first glance, this sounds like the symptoms that BVB has been suffering from for several years and that contribute to the club not being able to fully meet its great ambitions. Ordinary phases were always followed by phases in which the team suffered from notorious unproductivity.
But since the 2023 calendar year, BVB has also been able to win at work, and it is currently producing them in large numbers: it has now won five times in a row in the league, plus the cup win in Bochum during the week. The Dortmund team had such a good start to the year for the last time in 2012 – and the run of success continued until they were champions at the end of the season.
“I’m very satisfied,” said BVB coach Edin Terzic. “Not only with the result, but also with the way. We wanted to show that we are ready to invest everything.” The Dortmunders’ work ethic was indeed high right from the start, but precision was still an issue. The promoted BVB full-backs Ryerson and Raphael Guerreiro created small scoring chances, but over time Bremen managed to close their spaces better and time their tackles better. The slender striker Youssoufa Moukoko is well guarded by the robust Werder defenders, there was (still) too little time and space for the flashes of inspiration from midfielder Bellingham – and Dortmund therefore lacked the escalation in attack.
The Dortmund defense tends less often to sloppiness
That changed somewhat after 29 minutes when the very robust centre-forward Haller came on to replace the injured Moukoko. Both teams then became more offensive, but the game also became more balanced. Emre Can had the best chance for BVB with a flick, a volley from Bremen’s Mitchell Weiser was just deflected over the crossbar by Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel. “The first half was very balanced and in the second half we got Bremen going and played tiredly,” said defender Nico Schlotterbeck. “We defended it well and played as a team.”
Exactly that is one of the strengths of the 2023er-BVB: The defense tends less often to those sloppiness that can cost a lot of points. Schlotterbeck and Niklas Süle again formed the central defense and did their job routinely and cleverly, while Mats Hummels’ activities were limited to stretching exercises on the sidelines. This is currently good for Dortmund, because they can push forward when they have the ball without having fast opponents constantly escaping when they lose the ball. Above all, the individual players on the offensive seem to generate additional security from this – a security that helps them to take risks at the right moments.
In Bremen, Terzic also contributed with bold changes: He brought on the 18-year-old Bynoe-Gittens for the more reserved Marco Reus, and it can be said that he also substituted the win. Bynoe-Gittens scored with a powerful shot from a tight angle (64th minute), it was practically his first ball contact. “If we take the lead at the moment, it will be very difficult for the opponents,” said Brandt, who still has the image of sloppy talent. But the 2023 Brandt – like his teammates – is also a disciplined worker who thinks first about the result and only then about the aesthetics.
In any case, after the lead, Dortmund presented themselves as experienced as one can expect from a top national team. As is so often the case, Bellingham was the reliable provider of structure, while Brandt was responsible for refining the work victory that was deserved in the end. The offensive man scored after a nice dribbling to make it 2-0 (85th) and afterwards summed up the Dortmund situation very precisely: “We are very efficient on the pitch, but there are still a few hairs in the ointment .”
