Easy and Sovereign...

...or who needs strikers when you've got defenders?
That sums up the game against Frankfurt, doesn't it? Well, yes, kind of. Let's start at the beginning though.
The season is not very old, yet, however, we have had quite a few games at home so far. From all these games we unfortunetely only won one- against Stuttgart- a few weeks ago. Bitter tongues already stated that they did not have to go to the stadium again, since they would leave it, having seen a tie again, anyway.
After last weeks downfall against Hamburg, it was our duty to score again if we did not want to get lost somewhere in the lower midfield of the table.

Scenario/Line up

Due to Rober Kovac's red card, Jürgen Klopp had to change the formation and brought Santana next to Subotic in the defense. Instead of Zidan, Valdez - who had cured his injury- was positioned next to Kuba.
Frankfurt's coach Friedhelm Funkel had to cope quite a few injuries and bans and came up with some sort of emergency squad which should prove, later on, that they simply were an emergency squad instead of the root squad.

The 15th of November should not only be the day of Borussia Dortmund's team and their fans but the special day of one girl who won the Miss Borussia election which all of us- to be honest- could have gone without. The only spark of joy lid up when fan favorite Dede entered the soccer field- unfortunetely only to congratulate the new Miss Borussia and not to tie his soccer shoes and spin through the opposite team again. Still, the day will come when he does so and until then we can still celebrate him eagerly.

First Half

The game was only five minutes old when thousands of fans lay in each others arms, screaming, jumping up and down and celebrating. A goal already? Yes. But let's take a look at how this had happened.
It was Hajnal who shot a corner kick which Subotic used, with some help from Frankfurts keeper, I grant, to head into the goal. 1:0 for us. This began quite well.
Dortmund was eager to get more out of this game and to score another goal. Especially Hajnal brought some excitement into the game while constantly pushing forward and almost scoring the second goal. Ten minutes were played when the short Hungarian tried to defeat Frankfurt's keeper with a kick from the distance. He missed by only a few inches.
Next to Hajnal, Kringe also tried out a kick from the distance, which would not find its end in the goal as well.
Dortmund did not have to wait very long to to celebrate though, since Kehl managed to steal the ball from Frankfurt's Fink who did not seem to have expected that at all, and passed it on to Kuba who had started to run on the right side. Kuba strove for the penalty area and passed the ball to Hajnal who did not fail this time but kicked the ball into the goal. 2:0 for us after only 19 minutes. Great offensive move.
Football can be so much fun.
The game went on, with Frankfurt on the field but not really in the game since it was Dortmund who continuously pushed forward towards Frankfurt's goal.
Only a couple of minutes later Owomoyela sent the ball directly to the goal post from where it bounced back into the arms of Frankfurt's keeper. That could have been the 3:0.
Luck was on Frankfurt's side.
However, we still had Subotic and Hajnal in the game and only a few minutes later the score actually was 3:0.
How it had happened? Similar to the first goal. This time, Hajnal sent a free kick directly into the penalty area where Subotic was waiting, all on his own, free to head the ball directly into the goal.
26 minutes played. For Subotic it was the fifth goal in the season.
Frankfurt managed to create a couple of chances when Weidenfeller had to save the zero behind the colon after Fenin had the opportunity to score. A few minutes later Fenin had another chance to score with a kick from about 16 meters which missed the goal by only a few inches.
That and 2 injuries and changes- Sahin for Kehl, Zidan for Valdez- was it for the first half and Dortmund could leave the field with the knowledge that Frankfurt had little means to change the result.

Second Half

The second half should not be as exciting and entertaining as the first half and rippled there for quite a while.
It took Kuba 10 minutes to create a dangerous move again, by runing towards the goal and only being stopped by Frankfurt`s keeper Nikolov.
Another 10 minutes later Frankfurt had a huge chance when Liberopoulos headed the ball straight against the cross bar after a great center pass by Steinhöfer.
It was 3 minutes later when Hajnal kicked another free kick directly into the penalty area where the Brasilian defender Santana managed to use it to score the 4:0. Again a defender. Again a header. Again Hajnal involved.
It was the day of Tamas Hajnal who could have made it even better if the referee had not denied the goal he scored in the 78. minute due to a false offside decision. However, it was a very difficult decision and in a moment of a 4:0 score it was easy to forgive the referees. Let's just not think about the drama that would have occurred in case of a 0:0...
The second half hadn't started very sensationel, however, it ended rather so. After Santanas given and Hajnal`s not given goal, Dortmund's Frei (82.) and Sahin (87.) had further chances to score as well as Frankfurt's Fenin (81.) and Caio (85.).
In the end the teams parted 4:0.

Summary

To be honest, we have seen better games on Dortmund`s side with less goals, however, this time, the team was more effective than in some other moments of the past.
The conversion of the chances was still a bit patchy, however, in terms of a 4:0, we don't really want to complain.
Frankfurt was extremely weak due to its several sorties and carless after free and corner kicks.
Dortmund's next opponent is Karlsruhe and we wish for a continuation of todays performance.

Statistics

Eintracht Frankfurt: Nikolov - Mahdavikia, Russ, Galindo, Köhler - Steinhöfer, Fink, Inamoto (82. Ljubicic), Toski (71. Caio) - Liberopoulos, Fenin
BVB: Weidenfeller (2,5) - Owomoyela (3), Santana (2.5), Subotic (1), Lee (3) - Kehl (2) (32. Sahin (3)) - Tinga (3 ), Hajnal (1) , Kringe (4) - Kuba (3) (73. Frei), Valdez (3.5)(40. Zidan (3 ))
(Marks: 1=world class, 2=did very well, 3=performance was ok, 4=not enough but not too bad at all, 5=not worth the money, 6=should pay money for playing football)
Goals: 1:0 Subotic (5.), 2:0 Hajnal (19.), 3:0 Subotic (26.), 4:0 Santana (69.)
Yellow cards: none
Red cards: none
Referee: Dr. Felix Brych ( 2 )
Attendance: 72. 200

Ida, 17.11.2008