Despondent and full of fear in Paris
BVB is on the verge of the next panic attack
By Stephan Uersfeld
September 20, 2023, 8:37 a.m
Borussia Dortmund presented a desolate picture against Paris Saint-Germain at the start of the Champions League. The Bundesliga team wants to wall themselves in and still score a goal. But since even the simplest things don’t work, things go completely wrong. What now, BVB?
That was nothing again. A frightened and discouraged BVB made a false start to the Champions League in Paris. The game is lost 0-2. At this point there is little hope for improvement. In Europe, things will be critical in the next game against AC Milan and the league urgently needs a playful break.
“We can put it nicely and say: The respect was too great. Or address it clearly and say: We weren’t brave enough,” said BVB coach Edin Terzić after the game and one wondered a little who lacked courage in the first place had? Against the Parisians, who had a weak start to the domestic league and started with the recommendation of a 2-3 defeat against Nice, Terzic left Sébastien Haller, Niclas Füllkrug, the former prodigy Youssoufa Moukoko and Marco Reus on the bench and stonewalled.
As has often been the case in the Champions League, Dortmund started the game with a five-man chain. The plan: Give the offensive trio Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé and Randal Kolo Mouani as little space as possible. After winning the ball, the team should quickly switch to the leaders Donyell Malen and Karim Adeyemi. That never happened. The balls were lost just a few meters from their own penalty area due to sloppy passes, and Dortmund barely got over the halfway line.
Nmecha with a desolate debut in the Champions League
After 30 minutes, BVB only managed 70 passes, only two thirds of which reached a teammate. After 45 minutes they had 107 passes and a 63 percent pass rate. Numbers of horror that were only pushed up due to the Parisians running out in the final stages of the game.
“We gave the ball away far too quickly. We had exciting ball conquests where we had space, but played it far too poorly,” said Terzić about the match plan that didn’t work: “That’s why we deserved to lose. We have the situations in some cases also not seen well, played into the foot instead of into the space.”
The Dortmund defeat can also be pinned on Felix Nmecha. The 22-year-old midfielder came on early for the injured Marcel Sabitzer. He applied for the Standing Footballer of the Year vote for the rest of the game. At no point in his 86 minutes of playing time did the former Wolfsburg player prove that his performances could make him forget the upheavals during the summer break. On the contrary: he stood by Achraf Hakimi in the 0-2 defeat. He let the Moroccan have his way. It was just the symbolic climax of a desolate performance.
Höwedes destroys BVB
However, it would be too easy to look for a scapegoat for this performance. Neither the referee nor Nmecha were responsible for Dortmund’s defeat. Rather, it was a disturbingly bad performance, riddled with fear, by a completely unsettled team. Karim Adeyemi is miles away from acceptable form, Julian Brandt acted as a ball-carrier, and little can be said about the offensive qualities of the full-backs Julian Ryerson and Marius Wolf. They weren’t visible. And captain Emre Can? Also delivered defensively at best.
“Dortmund’s biggest weakness is playing with the ball,” said DAZN expert Benedikt Höwedes towards the end of the first half. A devastating verdict for the Bundesliga club, who will have to compete against the defensive artists from Wolfsburg at the weekend without any self-confidence and whose defeat in Paris could also rob them of their last faith. Turbulent weeks are already behind the runner-up.
They are still unbeaten in the league, but got off to an extremely bumpy start with two draws against Bochum and Heidenheim. Little remains of the team that navigated the first half of 2023 with great skill and luck and gave away the championship against Mainz on May 27th. Coach Terzić is not only criticized on social media – but extremely so – week after week for his lack of game idea and the squad once again offers little hope of improvement.
Sammer’s diversionary maneuver comes to nothing
BVB consultant Matthias Sammer, in his role as an Amazon expert, tried a diversionary tactic after the game. He complained bitterly about Spanish referee Jesus Gil Manzano’s highly controversial penalty whistle and called for artificial intelligence. Otherwise, he seemed to suggest, Borussia Dortmund would have finished 0-0 at Paris Saint-Germain.
Despite an underground possession rate, despite a festival of bad passes and a catastrophic transition game. The people of Dortmund were too outnumbered and too discouraged for this attempt at distraction to be more than unsuccessful. It was the final bad pass that was not taken into account, at least by the others responsible. They didn’t want to say much about the referee. It would also have been out of place.
Once again, BVB is only one defeat away from major unrest. In Dortmund, fear doesn’t rule on the field. It has been going on since the lost championship. It was reinforced by a botched transfer phase in the summer and is slowly being taken to the extreme. Fear is usually followed by panic. Dark times again in the district.