Borussia Dortmund continued their stellar form tonight, dominating Hamburg en route to a comfortable 3-0 win. While Hamburg did threaten at times, BVB were ultimately too much to handle. With their fifth clean sheet in a row, BVB now have more than half their total clean sheets from all of last season.

The match started uneasily, however, as Hamburg looked threatening on the counter. Bürki came up big in the first half, making a few key interventions on crosses, and a few decent saves. Eventually, though, BVB cracked the ice. After a foul near the goal line, Yarmolenko looped in a cross that found Toprak’s head. The ball bounced first off the turf and then off of Kagawa, who collected it and dispatched it into the net, marking his first goal of the season.

See our article here for the goal

The half ended with Dortmund up 1-0 thanks to Kagawa’s goal. They would snatch a second one 20 minutes later, when new addition Andriy Yarmolenko continued his stellar start to his Dortmund career with an assist to Aubameyang. After collecting an excellent breakout pass from Pulisic, he ran straight at Hamburg defender Mergim Mavraj, froze him with a couple crossovers, and whipped in a pass that met Aubameyang at the far post, who couldn’t miss if he tried.

Dortmund would get one more before the match was up. This time, it was Captain America’s turn. The play started with Mahmoud Dahoud drawing in three defenders before laying off a pass to Pulisic, who poked it into space and drilled home a shot. It was a stellar finish from the birthday boy.

The match ended 3-0, another perfect performance.

My Thoughts

• Toprak and Sokratis were stellar again. I was really worried about Toprak’s preseason performances, but during the season he has been the definition of solid. Piszczek and Zagadou on the other hand...
• Dahoud is incredible going forward. We were all excited about his potential in midfield, but he seems to be just as effective in the attacking third. His movement to set up Pulisic’s goal was absolute class.
• Think about this: this match was without Julian Weigl, our best midfielder. We saw what he can do in the second half against Köln. To be fair, Nuri Sahin has been excellent, but can you imagine this team with Weigl in the lineup?
• BVB play Mönchengladbach this Saturday, in what will be the team’s biggest test yet. They will need to bring their A game.
• Andriy Yarmolenko: I’m at a loss for words. Is he better than Dembélé? I don’t want to be biased, but he has been absolutely incredible so far. He’s already gotten two assists (three if you count the cross that set up Kagawa’s goal) and a goal in the Champions League, and makes far fewer mistakes than the €150 million man.

What are your thoughts on the match? Leave them in the comments below.