Silent week, waiting for Bayern

It’s really strange. Normally the week prior to the Bayern match is stuffed with BVB news, player interviews, speculations and supporters getting excited. Though it is still not a normal match, but the hype, we saw the last years, isn’t there anymore.


Of course we aren’t playing on Bayern’s level at the moment. Back in the mid-90’s to 2002, our last German championship, we were more or less on eye height. That isn’t the case anymore. Adding to that we are stuck in the middle of the table while Bayern reigns the Bundesliga from top of it. Everybody, even many Borussia Dortmund fans, just wonder by how many goals difference we lose the clash. Maybe Sunday evening those guys were right and we really lost against mighty Bayern Munich. But from what we’ve seen of BVB throughout the last couple of months, the team has the absurd ability to shine against the big ones. So we beat Bayern in last January, we smashed Sch*lke’s title dreams and we trashed Werder Bremen only 6 weeks ago. On the other side of the medal we saw horrible performances even at home, like the 1-3 defeat against MSV Duisburg.
Maybe the couple of poor matches were the main factor why our team decided to boycott the media over the last weeks until after the Bayern match. Our skipper Christian Wörns explained in a last statement, why the players decided to deny any interviews. According to the central defender, the team wanted to concentrate on their job. In addition they weren’t very happy with the media coverage, especially with the harsh critics, that were related to Kovac and Wörns. The media, and especially the newspapers, in return weren’t very happy with this decision as they depend on player statements. So the week was dominated by sarcastic commentaries bashing the team. Most of the newspaper even argued the players betray the supporters. But from all the reactions, that were seen, most of the supporters don’t care or are even happy, not to hear the same dump platitudes over and over every week.
The week had even some news absolutely off the pitch. Our long-term left back, Leonardo de Deus Santos, finally got the German citizenship. The 29-year old, who has already 269 Bundesliga matches over the last 9 ½ years with BVB, applied some time ago and even had to do a German language test. Normally footballers aquire a second citizenship because they want to be eligible for another national team or because the do not want to block a Non-EU spot in their club team. With Dede you don’t get the feeling that he opted for Germany because of football reason. First of all he isn’t eligible for Germany’s national team as he has 1 Brazilian Selecao cap. Second Borussia Dortmund has still Non-EU spots unused, so that can’t be the driving force. The real deal is a look off the pitch. Dede stated many times that he really feel home in Germany. Though he won’t forget his home country and will visit Brazil often or even live their later in life, he wants his children to be raised in Germany. In his opinion Germany is much safer and has far better schools. Maybe just one sentence describes it best: “In Brazil I was raised, in Germany I developed…on and off the pitch”.
Christian Wörns will be available after his suspension against Leverkusen. So it looks like in front of goalie Roman Weidenfeller Degen will defend on the right back position, Wörns and Kovac in centre defence and new-German Dede starts as left back. In midfield Thomas Doll has 2 options. Normally he plays a 4-men diamond formation with Tinga as holding midfielder, Kringe on the left, Kuba on the right and Federico behind the strikers. Though it may be possible that he switched to 2 holding midfielder. That could be either Kruska or Kringe. Our attack will be made by by marksman Mladen Petric and Diego Klimowicz.

FC Bayern Munich had a Thursday UEFA cup match at Red Star Beograd. Coach Ottmar Hitzfeld had to deal with many injured players like Ribery, Toni and De Michelis. Though all of them are expected to join the team for the Sunday clash. Hitzfeld favours a 4-4-2 tactic with Ze Roberto and van Bommel as holding midfielders. Schweinsteiger and Ribery are adding fire power on the wings.
Date: October 28th, 5pm CET

BVB: Weidenfeller – Degen, Wörns, Kovac, Dede – Tinga, Kruska (Kuba) – Federico, Kringe – Petric, Klimowicz

FCB: Rensing – Lahm, De Michelis, Lucio, Jansen – Ze Roberto, van Bommel – Schweinsteiger, Ribery – Klose, Toni

Venue: Westfalenstadion (sold-out)

Geschrieben von jonam