Sometimes Soccer...

....turns into the least important thing on the planet. While other fans were awaiting the first game after the winterbreak eagerly, a young BVB fan had a terrible accident on the Südtribune and sustained serious head injuries which lead to his death in the hospital.

Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

Scenario/Line up

About 75 000 Fans got together in the Westfalenstadion to celebrate the end of the winterbreak and watch the game against Bremen. While Jürgen Klopp had to forego the injured Kehl, Dede, Hummels and Kuba, Boateng gave his Debut in the black and yellow dress and Santana replaced Hummels in the defence. Klopp gave Frei the chance to start from the very beginning on aside from Zidan. On Bremen`s side Naldo had to take a break and Pasanen stood in for him.

First Half

Apparently not only the fans were excited about the end of the winterbreak but the players as well since the game started quite quickly. In the third minute Tziolis gave Weidenfeller a little warm up with a light shot from a medium distance while on the other side of the field Boateng danced around Tosic and put in a cross for Frei who forced Wiese into a good save with his header in the 5. minute. After that sampling Dortmund won the upper hand of the game with a fighting attitude in the duels which lead to a fast-paced game. In the 10. minute Kringe won one of these duels against Almeida and forwarded the ball to Zidan. Zidan passed the ball to Frei who was running free on the right side and tunnelled Wiese. 1:0 for us. However it must be said that Kringe`s methods of taking the ball from Almeida might not have been completely fair. The game went on and Dortmund's players must have fallen into some kind of daydreaming since they were constantly falling behind, letting the upper hand slip out of their fingers while Bremen got stronger and stronger. In the 19. minute Pizarro shot the ball only a few inches past the goal. Only a few minutes later there was a huge confusion in Dortmund`s penalty area after a corner kick which Almeida did not manage to use for his own purposes. Another few seconds later luck was on our side when referee Gräfe did not whistle after Santana`s rather hard attack on Diego in the penalty area. After the first 30 minutes of the game Bremen had 70 percent of the ball contacts while Dortmund was desperate to abandon their error rate. An eagerly fighting Tinga was the main reason why key player Diego hadn`t really had the opportunity to break through, yet. Only two minutes later it was up to Zidan to redeem us from our shivers after Kringe sent him running with a steep pass; However he only hit the left goalpost. Another two minutes later it was again Zidan who had the ball on his feet and tried to score another goal. This time Wiese safed Bremen`s players from another ball in the net. A few more corner kicks forced Dortmund down to their knees but they managed to come through to the break without Bremen having scored.

Second half

After the break the teams got back on the field withouth any changes. The second half of the game should begin the same way the first half ended- with Bremen pushing forward. In the 47. Almeida headed the ball into our goal but stood offside to our relief. It was about time that Dortmund would wake up and realise that it was a game in their own stadium they were playing and yet winning, which would , however, change if they did not start fighting again.

Only one minutes later it was again Almeida who had a chance but failed because of Weidenfeller. On the other side Zidan once again tried Wiese but failed as well in the 54. minute. Only a few minutes later Bremen offered free spaces on the field which Dortmund tried to use for their own purposes with Boateng passing the ball to Frei who, however, did not manage to kick the ball into the goal. Dortmund got a bit stronger throughout the last minutes and had to suffer the setback for Almeida kicked the ball from 20 meters distance directly into the goal after Fritz passed the ball on to him. Weidenfeller had no chance of saving it. After the that the game rippeled a bit until Almeida had another chance but missed the goal with his free kick by only a few inches in the 77. minute. Another free kick in the 80. minute brought what a few fans were already worried about. Diego shot the free kick from the left side straight onto the left goalpost. Unfortunately Pizarro was there to kick the ball into Dortmund`s goal. 1:2 for Bremen. The last ten minutes of the game Dortmund found no ways to score another goal and has to say good bye to the dream of playing the final again.

Summary

All in all this performance was not enough. In an exciting game Dortmund withdrew themselves way too often into their own half and lacked ideas out of the midfield for offensive moves. Bremen was clever enough to regain the upper hand after Dortmund`s goal and can now sit back and wait for the quarterfinal. Dortmund however has to take care that they do not make the same mistakes in the game against Leverkusen on Saturday. Otherwise the start into our birthday year turns out to be rather jerking.

Statistics

Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller (3) - Y.-P. Lee(3,5), Felipe Santana (4), Subotic (3,5), Schmelzer (4,5)- Tinga (3) (84. Öztekin) - K.-P. Boateng(3), Kringe (4) - Hajnal (5)(66. Sahin) - Frei (4), Zidan (4) (77. Valdez)

Werder Bremen: Wiese- C. Fritz, Mertesacker, Pasanen, Tosic - Frings - Tziolis, Özil - Diego - Pizarro (90. Niemeyer), Hugo Almeida

(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 Frei (11.) - Almeida (62.), Pizarro (80.)

Yellow cards: Boateng, Tinga, Frei - Pasanen, Diego

Referee: Gräfe (Berlin)

Attendance: 75. 000(Westfalenstadion)

ida, 29.01.2009