Engine Failure

Volkswagen is known as a very reliable car-building company. Car companies expand their sortiment frequently and mostly successful- but Volkswagens car model „VfL“ failed the two tests in August and even after good results in the first test halves, the VfL was overtaken by its competitors afterwards. So test driver Steve McClarens task was to optimize his car for the next test in the Westfalenstadion.

But the 3rd Bundesliga matchday was not about motorsports. Dortmunds midfield was changed due to the return of Kuba who was completely cured. While Kevin Großkreutz moved to the left side, Kuba took Mario Götzes place. The other parts remained unchanged. Wolfsburg could plan with Diego who suffered from an injury in the past two weeks so that trainer Steve McClaren only needed to replace German international Sascha Riether.

The first few minutes revealed what most of the first half was coined by- much ball possession by Jürgen Klopps team and the ball remaining in the Wolfsburg side of the pitch. Even a nice cross in the 3rd minute by Marcel Schmelzer (which was caught by Diego Benaglio) couldn't cover the fact that Dortmund played many successful, but not very dangerous passes. Offensive attempts often ended in passes back to the centre-backs. Wolfsburgs first dangerous chance resulted from two very bad passes by Neven Subotic, but Neven corrected his mistake and re-directed the ball in extreme danger so that Mandzukic couldn't reach it.

The really interesting scenes besides the 2 great chances from Barrios and Dzeko had not much to do with sport or better fairness- and especially not with a good performance of the referee. In the 17th Minute Barazagli obviously used his arm to get the ball out of the penalty area- no penalty for Dortmund and no punishment for Barzagli from referee Aytekin. But not enough- he also missed to send Cicero off the pitch after he brutally fouled Kagawa. But his worst mistake was not sending Diego „the Provocateur“ to the shower when he kicked Kehls leg after our captain regularly defended against the brazilian whatever.

In short Dortmund defended very well against Wolfsburgs high-quality offensive but missed to show it's own offensive potential. Not expecting great changes after the break Wolfsburg slightly tried to build up a head of steam- but it was Nuri Sahin after great interaction with Sebastian Kehl who scored- what a goal! 29 metres divided him from the goal line when the turkish international decided to try it. The whole Wolfsburg team seemed to be dreaming before Nuris hammer hit the goal and continued afterwards. Replacing Cicero by Hasebe didn't change Wolfsburg´s sleep at all.

The chapter Wolfsburg seemed to be closed, the upcoming Match of the Matches, the Battle of the Ruhrpott clubs or let's just call it THE Derby came to everybodys minds and the crowd- great parts of it in the beautiful yellow „Kein Zwanni für nen Steher" (Twenty-Euro for standing – no way!)“- Shirts- got itself into the right mood. But it was Shinji Kagawa who wanted to edit the chapter and who rewarded himself for a very good match in the 67th minute after a great pass from „Dortmunder Jung“ Kevin Großkreutz. Appearing alone in front of Diego Benaglio who proved that he is known for being a very good goalkeeper with justification our Samurai just shot and scored the 2:0. Sidenote: Our captain also initiated the situation which led to the 2nd goal.

Just 4 minutes later Owomoyela seemed to think the same that Kagawa must have thought before and he tried it from distance- but the crossbar prevented Wolfsburg from losing higher. After the match the crowd celebrated the team and claimed for the Derbysieg next sunday. A brightly- shining sun, a very nice second half and in general domination of 2009´s national champion was the yield as well as a great goal scored by Nuri Sahin- the Derby might come!

Statistics

Borussia "potential Derbysieger" Dortmund: Weidenfeller – Owomoyela, Subotic, Hummels, Schmelzer – Kehl , Sahin – Kuba, Kagawa, Großkreutz – Barrios.

VfL "engine failure" Wolfsburg: Benaglio - Johnson, Kjaer, Barzagli, Schäfer - Josué, Cicero - Ziani, Diego, Mandzukic - Dzeko.

Substitutions: 71. Bender for Kehl, 76. Götze for Kuba, 85. Piszczek for Großkreutz - 53. Hasebe for Cicero, 72. Dejagah for Ziani, 77. Grafite for Mandzukic.

Goals: 1:0 Sahin (50., Kehl), 2:0 Kagawa (67., Großkreutz)

Corners: 4:0 (2:0 in the first half)

Referee: Aytekin (Oberasbach/Bayern)

Attendance: 73.600

Zar'roc, 12.09.2010