Six minutes in a telegram

As an editor for fan sites like schwatzgelb.com, you have to face a very special challenge these days: writing about a match of Borussia without repeating yourself and glorifying another big victory and an incredible way of playing. This is why it’s hard for me to write about the match in Neverkusen which was the start of the second part of the season and which should be a kind of decisive match since it was also the beginning of a series of important and hard matches for our Borussia. But in the end, it was not hard at all. Borussia destroyed third-ranked pharmaceutical Bayer Neverkusen in six minutes with 3-1 (0-0) and was once again the winner of the game day since Mainz lost its match on Saturday (as well as Blue-White) and Bayern could not make it to three points against VW. All in all, the second half of the season underlined what Borussia pointed out over the first half: total domination.

Before the match
For the first time of the season, one could speak about some personal issues in Dortmund. Shinji Kagawa is far far away playing for his country and over the last week, it was not sure if Roman Weidenfeller, Mario Götze and Lucas Barrios could make it until Friday evening. Well, they all could – even though Lucas found his place on the bench, replaced by Robert Lewandowski. The rest of the team was pretty much the Borussia we are used to, Götze took Kagawa’s spot and was assisted by Großkreutz and Kuba in the offense, while Sahin and Bender formed the double-six. The defense had not to be changed at all. Neverkusen presented the best line-up they could offer and if you looked at the bench of Neverkusen, you could be afraid: Hyypiä, Ballack, Barnetta, Vidal, Derdiyok and Balitsch are all types of players you would not be surprised to see in the starting line-up. 30.000 fans could fill the stadium in Neverkusen, an impressive number of 7.000 came in black and yellow and could be heard over the whole 90 minutes, changing the match into a match at home.

First Half
It took Borussia only three minutes to be in the match and the 7.000 fans in the stadium were already in a great mood, when a free kick by Nuri Sahin was used by Sven Bender whose header only hit the left post. On the other side of the pitch, Kießling appeared in front of our goal and could only be stopped by a great tackling of Neven Subotic – could have ended badly in this situation (11th). However, Mats Hummels was also ready to score after a corner kick, his strong header missed the goal of Rene Adler (20th). The biggest chance of the first half was given away by Lewandowski who was on his own before Adler after a great pass of Subotic from the middle of the pitch, but somehow reacted too quickly and Adler had no problem clearing the ball (23rd). Another shot of Lewandowski was deflected by Friedrich and slightly missed the goal, while Kießling had the last chance of the first half when he headed the ball against the – in his point of view – wrong side of the net.

Second Half
Surprisingly, Sven Bender needed to be replaced by Toni da Silva at the start of the second half due to a knee injury, but this was not the reason for the great upcoming six minutes. I will present it to you in the form of a telegram:

Minute 49: Throw-in Piszczeck, Friedrich and Schwaab dreaming about someday winning anything, Großkreutz getting the ball, beating Adler and scoring for the first time – Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! – Yellow card for Großkreutz because he celebrated with the fans afterwards – 1:0 BVB.

Minute 53: Weidenfeller with a long ball from the penalty area, Lewandowski extends the ball, Friedrich dreams again (perhaps now about being at least Vizekusen), Großkreutz gets the ball again and shows that he is also a great technician. Nice shot from the edge of the penalty area, Adler has no chance again – the Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah gets even longer – and Großkreutz celebrates quietly about his 6th goal of the season – 2:0 BVB.

Minute 55: Großkreutz appears with an assist, youngster Götze is through and even smiles before scoring against Adler who is tunneled by the 18-year old – Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah – total euphoria, total domination – 3:0 BVB!

Impressive is a word too weak to describe those six minutes. Many experts were asked about if and who should stop BVB from becoming this year’s winner of the championship – nobody had an answer. Lewandowski and joker Barrios could have even scored the fourth or fifth goal of the evening but after Hummels cleared one ball of Renato Augusto in the last second, Kießling could not be prevented from scoring after a cross by Augusto from the right side (80th). If you want to criticize something, criticize the last minutes of the match since Borussia seemed to have concentrated on the next, but not on the match against Bayer. Friedrich and Kießling as well as Barnetta had some opportunities to get tension back into the match, but fortunately, they did not. In the end, it was a highly deserved victory by Borussia.

Aftermath
Like at the beginning of the article, you are always in the danger of repeating yourself in these days. For example, you find yourself enumerating numbers and stats again and again. But I don’t care, these numbers are too impressive to not mention them: 13 points ahead of Mainz and Neverkusen on ranks 2 and 3, 16 points ahead of Bayern Munich, more than twice the points of some club near Herne… Borussia really is THE dominant force of the Bundesliga, the irresistible force, the immovable object… and the question really is who should stop them? Don’t ask me, I’m only dreaming about standing on the Friedensplatz at the end of the season – as well as young Kevin does as he admitted after the match – however, nobody talks about the championship. Keep dreaming, supporters, keep focusing, BVB! Keep winning, Borussia!

Stats
Neverkusen: Adler - Schwaab, Friedrich, Reinartz, Castro - Renato Augusto, L. Bender, Rolfes, Sam - Helmes, Kießling
Subs: Barnetta, Derdiyok and Vidal for L. Bender, Helmes and Sam (60th)

The immovable object: Weidenfeller [3] – Piszczek [3], Subotic [2], Hummels [2], Schmelzer [3] - S. Bender [2,5], Sahin [3] – Kuba [3], Götze [2], Großkreutz [1] – Lewandowski [3]
Subs: da Silva [3] for Bender (46th), Barrios [3] for Götze (68th), Santana für Großkreutz (87th)

Goals: 0-1 Großkreutz (49th), 0-2 Großkreutz (53rd), 0-3 Götze (55th), 1-3 Kießling (80th)

Bookings: Kießling, Friedrich - Großkreutz

Referee: Gagelmann (Bremen)

Attendance: 30.290 (sold-out Bay-Arena)

Vanni, 16.01.2010

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