At Union Berlin they were quite happy with this as it was the second game without an opponent's goal after last week's Köpenick 1-0 win against SV Elversberg. Union had previously conceded 17 goals; The only reason the team is not the nation's shooting gallery in the current Bundesliga season is because Borussia Mönchengladbach is also involved. At BVB, on the other hand, the faces were embarrassed and the sounds were so meek that you sometimes had to perk up your ears when those in charge spoke.
That had more to do with the previous games than with the current performance. As a reminder: In their first appearance after the long international break, Dortmund had Werder Bremen (read: Niclas Füllkrug) take the fat off their Bütterken in the final phase (2:2), and then Dortmund lost 1-0 in Norway at Bodö/Glimt in the Champions League. The goalless draw at Union was the third game without a win in a row, and that alone justified the fact that the traveling supporters, including some of the so-called “all-rounders”, grumbled audibly in the An der Alten Försterei stadium after the end of the game.
You probably suspected what was to happen hours later: that BVB fell behind FC Bayern, who had recently been rather sloppy, in the table. One of the questions that Anton, among others, had to endure was whether this was what “a small crisis” looked like. No, Anton replied, you go through "a little experience": "You want to win games. We are Borussia Dortmund and we want to win everything. Every game. And if you don't do it, you're missing something and so are the fans."
Jobe Bellingham makes bad passes in Köpenick that you have to figure out first
This feeling increases when the lack of threesomes is not compensated for by other refreshments, and the game was by no means an aesthetic pleasure. Anton was allowed to take home a miniature ball as “Man of the Match”; a bumper car would have been a more appropriate prize. The game was basically a 90-minute collision and Anton was outstanding because he won 26 of 35 duels and had a higher success rate (76 percent) than any other player on the pitch. That was also impressive because the 30-year-old was among the three Dortmund players who were warned by referee Daniel Schlager in the opening quarter of an hour.
On the one hand, Dortmund coach Niko Kovac was pleased that his team showed more passion than three days earlier on the Norwegian artificial turf in the Champions League: “It was significantly better than in the Arctic Circle,” he whispered. On the other hand, the 55-year-old complained - or should it be said: even he? – about a lack of creativity. He didn't do it too loudly in a figurative sense either, because Kovac also knows that ingenuity is not one of the core competencies of the players he puts in midfield; especially Jobe Bellingham, who has great anaerobic abilities. He also made bad passes in Köpenick, which you have to figure out first.
This also made it clear that the Greek artist Giannis Konstantelias is missing; the 23-year-old has to recover from a torn cruciate ligament he suffered in August. However, BVB sports director Ole Book attributed the lack of footballing ingenuity on Saturday to other factors. "If we become more courageous, then we play really good football, then we can put the opponent under pressure," analyzed Book, referring to the rather tentative initial phase in Berlin: "If we are behind, like in Norway, or if we have the feeling that time is running out at the end, we will become significantly better. That is the issue we should devote ourselves to."
The next opportunity comes on Tuesday in the Champions League against FC Sabah, who are waiting in the Azerbaijani capital Baku. Borussia Dortmund will have to compete there without its second Greek signing of the season: 18-year-old Konstantinos Karetsas injured his ankle in a duel with Rani Khedira and is out for the time being.
