The mother of all derbies. And a match between top-teams

Borussia is to play Sch****. Enough said, but we will though point out the perils of Saturday's match in Westfalenstadion.

Pre-Match Issues:
This time, the derby is not just the derby, but also a match between two top-teams of the league (so far). The idiots from Gelsenkirchen top the table, but we are right behind on 3rd. And that should be reason enough for us to reload the spirit of 12 may 2007 and kick them out of Dortmund again.
It seems, Dortmund is looking forward to having that match now. The team performs strongly so far, and looks balanced. In addition, people have lots of faith into Jürgen Klopp whose style dealing with the team, the media and all Dortmunders is just tremendously nice. Long story short: At the moment, all of Dortmund is quite happy and eagerly waits for Saturday's Derby. But daylight could quickly turn into a dark night if the derby was lost. Assuming that this is not going to happen, let's have a look at both teams.

Borussia:
Apart from Owomoyela (who suffers again from injuries which were almost forgot) and Dedé, it is only Marc Ziegler whose attendance is not yet sure. Nevertheless, Roman Weidenfeller is very likely to be between the posts since we made it back to the team after staying out because of his injury. The defence will consist of Rukavina on the right wing and Subotic and Hummels in the centre. The both youngsters showed a very promising start providing a stable defence, few fouls and even goals (Subotic). Let's hope that they can cope with the mother of all fights in Ruhrpott. The left wing is likely to be controlled by Marcel "Schmelle" Schmelzer. Although Lee's performances in the friendlies last week were quite sound, it is likely that Schmelzer will be rewarded for his good jobs against Munich and Cottbus.
Kehl will secure the central defensive midfield, together with Hajnal who will act on a more offensive note. Kuba will play right wing, while Kringe will make up the left midfielder. This midfield looked quite dynamic but still aware of its defensive tasks in past matches so that we can really trust on their skills, it seems.
As for the strikers, Valdez will definitely be one of them as scored against
Oberhausen, Leverkusen, and recently contributed to Paraguay's win.
And the second vacancy? Frei had a very successful comeback in BVBII and the friendly matches but is likely to take a seat on the benches first. Mohamed Zidan, however, will have to start proving that he was worth the questionable "Petric-Deal" with HSV Hamburg.
One thing becomes obvious: In this season, we got quite a number of alternatives for different positions - finally. There are Tinga, Sahin, Lee, Frei and Klimowicz fighting for their place within the starting grid. So there's some competition and whatever player sits on the bench, this year they are skilled and experienced. That's definitely a good basis for a busy year with UEFA-Cup, Bundeslga and DFB-cup.

Gelsenkirchen:
You know what? We don't even want to know which of their mercenaries will be losing against us. Notably, Jefferson Farfan will head back into the team together with Kobiashvili. They are going to operate a 4-3-3 which is typical for dutch gameplay, so our defence will be put some pressure on to manage their attacks. Hopefully, we will be able to dominate the midfield with our fast ones, Hajnal and Kuba.
Within their dull defence it is not sure, whether Kristajic will be part of the starting eleven. Höwedes seems to be an alternative loser for Saturday.
However, there is one thing we should care about: corners and close freekicks of theirs. With their quite dumb but huge strikers and defenders these situations are a big asset for them. This means that our defence needs to be extremely concentrated.

Line-up and figures:

Borussia:
Weidenfeller - Rukavina, Subotic, Hummels, Schmelzer - Blaszczykowski, Hajnal, Kehl, Kringe - Valdez, Zidan

Sch..... :
Fährmann - Westermann, Höwedes, Bordon, Pander - F. Ernst - Jones, Kobiashvili - Farfan, Kuranyi, Rakitic

Referee: Wagner

Domi, 12.09.08