May the Force be with us

It is about time! The Bundesliga awakes from its winter sleep tonight. Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund will open the second half of the season 2010/2011. When the opening whistle shrills everything about the first half of the season and the possible chances of Borussia Dortmund's seventh championship will be said by the media. From now on the performances on the pitch are the only things that matter. The upcoming weeks will show to what extent our young guns conserved their fitness over the holidays. The challenges could not be much tougher, we will see in which way our sportive future develops after the first matches. Borussia Dortmund starts with a highlight – after the clash with Leverkusen there might be an advantage of thirteen points towards the brilliant team from the Bayer factory. As if Leverkusen was not enough Borussia awaits VfB Stuttgart, VfL Wolfsburg and Scheiße in the following weeks. Best luck!

During winter bootcamp the personal situation was slightly stressed. As we all know our brilliant Japanese Shinji Kagawa stays with his national team during the whole January to win the Asian Cup in Qatar. It seems that youngster Mario Götze and returnee Mohamed Zidan are promoting for the position of Shinji in the offense. Unfortunately Lucas Barrios was not able to absolve the whole bootcamp because of a common cold he catched during his home leave in Argentina. Last but not least the appearance of Roman Weidenfeller was questionable at the start of the week. However it seems that he will be playing this evening.

Here is what Jürgen Klopp said during the media conference on Wednesday regarding to the upcoming top match: "We will clash with a really tough opponent who has a highly ambitious team over the last years with a lot of quality." He stated that he is "still not quite sure which players will be available on Friday" because he and his coaching team have to "observe the guys during several training sessions." Asked on Mario Götze he replied: "It is no secret that Mario Götze was only able to absolve a roadwork yesterday. If this will change today, I think we can count on him." In connection with Lucas Barrios positive news can be reported - according to our coach he will be able to be a part of the team. Whether as a starter or substitute is still unclear. Concluding Klopp said that he and his staff have no doubts that Borussia Dortmund is going to have a powerful starting lineup.

The chance of reaching the promised land by winning the championship was not so good for a long time, I am convinced that 30 points will be enough to have a great celebration on the Friedensplatz in May. And remember: Since Jürgen Klopp coaches our beloved team, we were always able to gather round about 30 points per one half of the season. Promising, isn't it?

May the force be with us!

Line-Ups:

Bayer Leverkusen: Adler - Schwaab, Friedrich, Reinartz, Castro - Renato Augusto, L. Bender (Vidal), Rolfes, Sam - Helmes, Kießling.

Substitute's Bench: Giefer - Hyypiä, Vida, Balitsch, Ballack, Barnetta, Jörgensen, Derdiyok.

Missing: Kaplan

Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller - Piszczek, Subotic, Hummels, Schmelzer - S. Bender, Sahin - Kuba, Zidan (Götze), Großkreutz - Barrios (Lewandowski).

Substitute's Bench: Langerak - Santana, Dede, Feulner, Hajnal, Götze, Lewandowski.

Questionable: Weidenfeller, Langerak, Götze, Barrios

Missing: Kagawa, Kehl, Kringe, Owomoyela

Referee: Peter Gagelmann (Bremen)

Kickoff: 14th of January – 20.30. p.m. CET

Stadium: BayArena - 30,290 seats – sold out - 7,000 supporters of Borussia are expected

derjungemitdemball 14.01.2011

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