Unbelievable

Week after week, I could enumerate the same stats just with different numbers. Borussia is still unbeaten in Bundesliga for a long time and won all seven away matches they have competed in this season, they are still on top of the Bundesliga with a big advance before Mainz and Leverkusen... stats like that. After a heartbreaking victory in Freiburg, one word describes the whole situation best: unbelievable! What a match it has been and unbelievable enough, Borussia stood victorious again. Unbelievable because it was that kind of match we tended not to win over the last years... but this season, everything is different...

Before the match

Our Borussia started with the usual line-up (for the fifth time in a row) and missed three players with Kehl, Owomoyela and Kringe.
Freiburg, who beat Borussia on the last day of last season with 3-1, played with a 4-1-4-1 and the same squad which defeated Hoffenheim last week. Furthermore, Freiburg should have had big self-confidence since they never started in a new season better than this year. Four of six home matches were won by Freiburger SC so it was clear before the match that it won't be the easiest game to play over 450 kilometres away from Westfalenstadion.

First half

Once again, it was a match with two different halves. During the first 45 minutes, Freiburg showed one of their best performances of this season and our young squad had problems in handling them. However, the first opportunity of the match was one for BVB when a nice cross by Lukas Piszczek found Sven Bender in the penalty area but our member of the double-six proved why he isn't a goalgetter, seemed surprised getting the ball and found no control over it (17th). On the other side, Freiburg's best goalgetter Papiss Demba Cissé (who scored 10 times so far) was stopped in the last second by Subotic. Otherwise, Cissé would have been free before Weidenfeller. But Cissé's time to shine came just a few minutes later, when Rosenthal got a free kick for some strange reason – Götze was said to have fouled him but it seemed that Rosenthal fell on his own – and that free kick taken by Schuster from the right side found his way into the six-yards-box where Weidenfeller collided with Makiadi, giving Cissé the opportunity to head the ball directed to the goal with his back of the head and the clearance by Subotic unfortunately ended up in hitting Hummels, resulting in an own goal of the two-time German international. 0-1 after 26 minutes, 0-1 after two referee decisions which at least can be described as controversial. Borussia continued having problems getting into the match and Rosenthal had the chance to double the score when his header slightly missed the goal (37th). The last chance of the first half was again a chance for Freiburg, Cissé managed to get the ball around Weidenfeller, Hummels rescued for his beaten goalkeeper. All in all, it was a not an undeserved lead for Freiburg who created big problems for our beloved Borussia.

Second half

But it got better. Jürgen Klopp should have found the right words during half time so that our team came back with much more power, much more effort and a great will to turn the page again. The first opportunity of the second half had the same player who got the first chance during the first 45 minutes of the game – Sven Bender. After a nice pass combination, his shot from the edge of the penalty area went over the goal (47th). Just seconds later, Borussia came over the right side again when Barrios passed the ball back to Kagawa who was beaten by Freiburg's brilliant goalkeeper Baumann – not for the last time. Again, seconds later, Barrios hit the equalizer but the referee had something against it because Baumann had his hand on the ball – probably a right decision (48th). Borussia had chances nearly every second, Kagawa's best scene with a nice shot from 17 metres was cleared by Baumann again in minute 51 and when Sahin appeared free in front of Baumann, you could see that his best foot is the left one. He took his right foot and therefore was not able to score. You could smell the goal in the Dreisamstadium, but for some reason, it did not happen. Freiburg had some opportunities through counter attacks, for example Cissé was fortunately beaten by Weidenfeller. Finally, a great cross by Schmelzer found golden joker Lewandowski whose header left Baumann no chance – the equalizer (75th)! Great to have someone like him on the bench, who now scored four times for Borussia. One minute later, a great pass by Sahin found Götze on the left side, his pass back to Lewandowski ended up in a deflected shot by the Pole who missed the goal for only some millimeters. The 2-1 for Borussia was surely not without controversy: Piszczek and Kuba combined their strength on the right side, Piszczek crossed the ball into the middle of the penalty area where Barrios was ready to score and Götze stood off-side, but Freiburg's own Toprak scored into the net. A controversial goal since Toprak later said that he had only Götze in mind and therefore tried to clear the ball which would not mean that the off-side position of Götze was only passive. But if you take the controversial decision in the first half into account, it seems fair enough that we were awarded the 2-1 (77th). However, the match was not over yet and once again, it was Cissé who caused trouble in our defense and missed with a header like Schuster who had the big opportunity to equal the score again in injury time after a nice combination, but only hit the cross-bar. At the end, it turned out good again for Borussia, but there is still something to discuss...

Remembering Frank Mill?

Do you know about Frank Mill? The famous forward who missed a secure goal when he already had beaten the opposing goalkeeper? After the match in Freiburg, you can forget about him, he was replaced by Jakub Blazczykowski. In minute 86, he was presented the ball by Toni da Silva, goalkeeper Baumann was already beaten and all BVB supporters were celebrating – perhaps like Kuba himself because he managed to hit the ball over the empty goal. Kuba could not believe what happened to him as well as the whole Bundesliga was laughing about him. Probably Kuba can laugh about that ball today again, especially because it did not really matter at the end. Even coach Klopp could laugh about the situation after the match and said: "No, he won't have to pay for that... but we will show him this scene two or three times this week."

Aftermath

The look on the ranking gets better and better. Borussia is still on top and after the tie between Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen on Satuday evening, we are nine points ahead of third-ranked Leverkusen and fourteen points in front of the German record championship winner, whose manager Christian Nerlinger – a former Dortmunder as well – said that we are the favourite for winning the championship this year. But let's not think about it, we should concentrate on winning and winning again – like next Saturday against Möchengladbach.

Stats

SC Freiburg: Baumann - Mujdza, Barth, Toprak, Bastians - Schuster - Putsila, Rosenthal, Makiadi, Abdessadki – Cissé
Subs: Reisinger for Makiadi (77th), Caliguiri for Putsila (86th)

Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller [3,5] - Piszczek [2,5], Subotic [2,5], Hummels [3], Schmelzer [3] - Bender [3], Sahin [2,5] - Götze [2,5], Kagawa [4], Großkreutz [4,5] – Barrios [3]
Subs: Kuba [3] for Großkreutz (61st), Lewandowski for Kagawa (71st), da Silva for Barrios (85th)

Goals: 1-0 Hummels (own-goal, 26th), 1-1 Lewandowski (75th), 1-2 Toprak (own-goal, 78th)

Bookings: Weidenfeller

Referee: Fritz (Korb)

Attendance: 24.000 (sold out Dreisamstadion)

Vanni, 21.11.2010

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