Thursday, December 16, 2021
Wild rumors about Haaland
Borussia Dortmund wins and everyone loses
By Stephan Uersfeld
Borussia Dortmund struggled to win a 3-0 win against Greuther Fürth, who had been knocked out from the bottom of the table. Then things happen that only happen when everyone is dissatisfied. The coach struggles on TV, the star striker pulls off his show and the people of Fürth feel taken aback.
Dortmund coach Marco Rose blew the attack. The words of TV expert Didi Hamann were a thorn in his side. He had done on Sky again what he is likely to be paid for: knock out the controversial thesis, go for maximum indignation. He always does that against BVB. He recently issued a ban on Qatar to Marco Reus, the captain of Borussia, after the EM waiver. Hamann likes it polemical and Rose likes it, it annoys him. “Didi Hamann nails against us, actually from the beginning of this season,” said the BVB coach on Sky: “Standing up every week and shooting against us is difficult. Maybe I’ll invite him to the stadium or to me . ”
Hamann accepted and was happy. Once again broke out of the sky cosmos. That was sure to come in handy for Rose. He could divert attention from the performance against Fürth and speak in general, complain a little and straighten things out: the lamentation of a winner who couldn’t feel that way.
Lamenting is almost in the Dortmund’s DNA. So often it is the circumstances and the circumstances that prevent the great attack, the great attack. If it was against Bayern and the referee in the decisive home bankruptcy in the Champions League against Ajax, it was the innumerable injuries on the line who had not made it easy for the new coach in the new environment and the rose was now pulling in. “If you go into the season with very few players because of international matches and injuries and then guys keep breaking away,” he said, “then you can understand a few things.” Certainly not the performance against Fürth, which in its sadness awakened memories of very old times, including the 1: 1 against SSV Ulm on February 12, 2000.
After all, stadium announcer Dickel is happy
And Erling Haaland? The met. Once from the point and once with the head. Dortmund stadium announcer Norbert Dickel did what he always does when he sees Haaland meet. He shouted the name into the microphone: “Ööööööörling” and “Haaaaland” echoed back from the stands. Three times after the second goal, his 53rd goal in the Norwegian’s 53rd Bundesliga game, and then again during the subsequent substitution. Haaland later turned a lap of honor without the team.
Because it was the Norwegian who existed once as a player and once as a transfer object, people speculated happily afterwards. “Is he saying goodbye to Dortmund”, not only asked the Spanish postil “Mundo Deportivo”, but also asked the BVB fans, who are increasingly annoyed by the 21-year-old’s ego show. The Norwegian was silent. His fate is now in the hands of the hyperactive advisor Mino Raiola. Everything points to a farewell. Not in winter, but next summer. Maybe then even to Bayern? It would fit the upside-down league.
But the Dortmund fans weren’t just annoyed by Haaland. It only served a permanent state. They are always annoyed: Because they have rarely felt anything for years. The team remains on a high plateau, cannot move forward (because Bayern are there) and not out of the top four (because they are the Bavarians of the rest of the league). You feel nothing. And they haven’t been able to feel anything for almost two years. The pandemic, like all other fans, ruled her out. Only 15,000 spectators are allowed to watch the games in Germany’s largest stadium and they were dissatisfied.
They whistled and quarreled with their team, who quarreled with themselves on the pitch, looked dissatisfied, did not want to celebrate together, cursed, rebuked themselves and of course won anyway. Because it went against Fürth, this team, of which the Dortmund fanzine schwatzgelb.de wrote, much to the displeasure of the Internet community, which is hungry for displeasure, that they have lost nothing in the first division. They are also annoyed by the VAR, which does not make them cheer, and the pandemic, which does not allow them to enter the stadium. After everything that’s on the table, they like to be annoyed. Only a few viewers love every second. Which is also disturbing, because this team rarely lets love.
A messed up evening
For Fürth there was not enough in Dortmund. They even got a few scoring chances that were not worth mentioning, while they worked eight corners to Dortmund’s five, but he lacked quality and referee luck. The people from Fürth later said that he had sided with Borussia. Less than two weeks after the controversy over Felix Zwayer, Daniel Schlager did not seem as if he was interested in a confrontation with Borussia Dortmund. Early on he made many small decisions in favor of the giant, tried the VAR before the Dortmund opener and decided against a dismissal for Bellingham, a main actor in the Zwayer debate. The young Englishman who had already been warned had entered a duel very energetically and could not have complained about a second yellow card.
But as it was, it was Fürth’s turn to complain. And they did. First manager Rachid Azzouzi appeared behind the Sky commentator, involved him in a live conversation on TV during the penalty decision, then he cursed at half-time. “We would have been thrown off the pitch. I can give you a seal. If it had been a blue player, he would have been gone,” said Azzouzi. Later on, coach Stefan Leitl followed suit. “I have the feeling that in one situation or another my eyes are closed,” he said after the game: “I’m really angry that Jude Bellingham didn’t see a yellow-red card shortly before the break.” Rose even interrupted his conflict with Hamann and agreed with his colleague: “If I were a Fürth coach, I would be upset too.”
So everyone could get a little upset, speculate a little and be annoyed on this thoroughly desolate evening in the Dortmund stadium. Pure escapism. The game, the atmosphere in the stands and the mood of most of the players? All desolate. The 3-0 of BVB against the knocked-down Greuther Fürth was three goals too high, scolded a few fans in the Dortmund forums, as if they would actually have preferred the big bang. So that they feel something. Not even that happened.
And that’s why the things happened that were just happening: Erling Haaland, who did Erling Haaland things. The Fürth people who scolded. Rose, who fought with Hamann and the table, which both clubs left in their competition-free zones. Fürth has four points, BVB 34. Fürth will be relegated and BVB will continue to justify themselves, look for excuses and again put Champions League participants on their letterhead. The show has to go on and on.