Borussia Dortmund 1-1 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim: Pulisic grabs late equalizer

Folks, I live in California, which means kickoff for the game today was at 6:30 a.m. for me. When my alarm went off, I sat awake in my cozy bed thinking about how much I didn’t want to get up. I ignored these thoughts and out of love and devotion for my club, I arose from my bed, turned on the TV in the living room, and subjected myself to 90 minutes of Dortmund vs Hoffenheim.

I should’ve stayed in bed.

Borussia Dortmund came out the gates looking great. The defense had its hands full, but Hoffenheim’s attacks were nothing they couldn’t handle. The midfield was combining with the forwards to get the ball in the attacking third, but as per usual, Dortmund struggled to produce shots, while Hoffenheim was doing just the opposite. Borussia Dortmund fans were frustrated to not get a penalty kick after Christian Pulisic was brought down in the box, but the referee for this game seemed intent on not making good calls. It seemed that both teams were going to go into the half level on points, but Hoffenheim’s Joelinton caught Dortmund’s defense sleeping, and amid the confusion of the ball bouncing around the box, he slotted one past Bürki, putting Der BVB down by a goal.

Hoffenheim also put another goal in the Dortmund net after the start of the second half, and it seemed that it was 2-0, but VAR came to the rescue and called the goal back, keeping the score at 1-0. Hoffenheim mainly dominated offensive possession, constantly counter-attacking and putting shots on goal. Another goal didn’t seem too far off. Things got even worse when Abdou Diallo got sent off in the 76th minute. Take a look below.

After that whole debacle, Dortmund woke up and began to dominate the game, realizing they didn’t wanna go home without any points. In the 84th minute, Marco Reus did what Marco Reus does on the left wing and took the ball to the side of the box so he could whip it across the face of goal right to Christian Pulisic who hit it home for the equalizer.

Naturally, Fox and all the American fans went nuts with the American boy getting Dortmund a point. Not too long after, Hoffenheim missed a shot at an open goal, leaving the game to end at a 1-1 scoreline.

In the end, a game that should have been won resulted in a salvaged point for a rather underwhelming team. While the referee made some very questionable decisions, the squad still looked pretty bad, with Christian Pulisic and a select few others being the exceptions. Der BVB really misses a proper striker, as the squad’s starting attacking lineup was composed of all wingers. Hopefully we will see Alcácer return to the pitch for BVB. Fortunately, the squad’s next adversary is Nürnberg on Wednesday, so they should be able to get back to winning ways.