Dhe number two in soccer Germany is a goal worth striving for. Number one has gone to the all-time champions FC Bayern, even if, as is currently the case, they are not in first place in the Bundesliga table. The number two status belongs to Borussia Dortmund, and not just because the team is currently second in the table. More than ten years have passed since the last championship, but no club is so close to the people of Munich, even if they are actually so far away.
Some teams tried to replace Dortmund at the top of the hunters. In 2015 Wolfsburg was second in the final table, 2017 Leipzig, 2018 Schalke, 2021 Leipzig again, otherwise BVB. Since then, Wolfsburg and Schalke have got to know completely different, deeper regions of the tableau. Leipzig, meanwhile, didn’t just show with the DFB Cup victory last season that their ambition is not that wrong. Since then, however, things have not worked out for the Saxons. After the 0: 4 in Frankfurt on Saturday, Leipzig is only eleventh in the table with five points from five games.
In fact, the people of Leipzig achieved something that evening that was previously a Dortmund specialty: the mentality debate. When the common observer of the Bundesliga got bored in the fight for the title because Dortmund simply couldn’t overthrow Bayern despite all the quality in the squad, the mood changed. If Borussia lost unexpectedly, it was sometimes simply due to the bad mentality of the team – or, to use the Latin word: the spirit was too weak. Dortmund haven’t bottled this spirit for a long time.
“We deservedly lost”
Well, after the debacle in Frankfurt, the people of Leipzig opened the box themselves – Pandora’s. Your coach Domenico Tedesco said his team’s mentality. “If you play three systems here and nothing changes, then that’s just because of the mentality, because of the basics,” he said. “We weren’t even on the pitch, we completely slept through the first half.” At the break Leipzig were behind with goals from Daichi Kamada (16th minute) and Sebastian Rode (22nd). In the second half, Leipzig increased, but again only Frankfurt scored, this time through Tuta (67th) and Rafael Borré (84th, penalty). “We deservedly lost. That was very, very sobering,” said Tedesco.
The coach had tried a few things tactically. After conceding the first goal, he switched from a 3-4-1-2 system with a flat row in midfield to a diamond, then to a 4-2-3-1 at half-time. It helped little – in the form of a better performance – to nothing – with the score. Therefore, Tedesco began to reckon: “In terms of basic virtues, it was just far, far, far too little,” he said. “Today there is nothing positive at all. This is a novelty for us. We have to make sure that we get this sorted out immediately. In football, nothing happens by itself. You always have to do something about it. We really, really missed the basics today.”