Match Recap: Dortmund Thump Augsburg 5-1 to Open Season

Borussia Dortmund picked up a very-important win in the first match of the 2019-20 season with a 5-1 decisive decision against visiting Augsburg. Paco Alcácer nabbed a brace, while Jadon Sancho, Marco Reus, and BVB-newcomer Julian Brandt also opened their accounts for the new season.

BVB opened the 2019-20 season much like they did the 2018-19 season, by allowing a goal within the first minute of the season before running away with a decisive win over their opponent at the Signal Iduna Park. While the previous season’s opener was against RB Leipzig, today was against relegation-favorite Augsburg.

Before I could even pour myself a glass of orange juice, Augsburg were up 1-0. Right off the off the opening kick, Augsburg drove towards goal. Both Sancho and Piszczek looked to be at fault for allowing this to happen as they shut off along the right, allowing Mads Valentin to receive the ball wide-open in the final third, and the Dane sent in an unmarked cross for Florian Neiderlechner to slip past Marwin Hitz for the opener.

Their lead wouldn’t last, thankfully, as two minutes later Dortmund equalized. Sancho received the ball after a goalkick and drove at the Augsburg backline. He laid off a through-ball for a streaking Reus, and our captain cut it back across the goal. New Augsburg goalkeeper Tomáš Koubek got a foot to the cross, but it fell right to Alcácer and the Spaniard tapped it between the keeper’s legs to make it 1-1. Dortmund dominated the rest of the way with tons of possession and chances, but nothing found the back of the net as the match entered halftime 1-1.

The game flipped on it’s head at the start of the second half. In the 51st minute, Axel Witself found himself on the left wing unchallenged and sent in a cross that the Czech Koubek missed badly, allowing the ball to fall right to the feet of Sancho, and the best Englishman in Germany slotted it home to take the lead for Dortmund. Another Koubek mistake allowed Dortmund to make it 3-1 just five minutes later. Sancho sent in a cross and Koubek got a fist to the ball, but it softly fell to Alcácer, and he tapped it to Reus and our captain curled it through traffic into the net.

Alcácer scored his second of the day in the 60th minute to make things worse for the visitors. Sancho drove towards the Augsburg defenders, making a nice move to fake a lay-off for Reus to give himself space to find Alcácer at the top of the box. Paco let loose a rocket towards the top right corner past Koubek for his sixth goal in four matches against Augsburg.

New signing Brandt opened his Dortmund account with the fifth and final tally for the home side in the 82nd minute. Witsel, who was fantastic offensively and defensively today, lobbed a ball into the penalty area for Brandt, who had just come on 15 minutes prior, and Brandt finished it off the volley with a well-timed run.

It was complete and utter domination from the Die Schwarzgelben today. Aside from the opener, never once did I feel Augsburg would threaten Dortmund once we equalized. They didn’t even try to go forward much, looking more comfortable to instead absorb the pressure from Dortmund and maybe find something on the counter. And even when they did venture forward, their progression was halted by the Dortmund defense and midfield combo of Witsel and Julian Weigl.

New signings Nico Schulz, Thorgan Hazard, and Mats Hummels all started on the day, and I think the best of the bunch was Schulz. He didn’t have much to do defensively, but he was a threat with nice runs behind Hazard and sending in dangerous crossed. Hummels was solid in defense and even had a few dangerous headers on set pieces. Hazard was… fine. He got fouled a lot and made dangerous runs with the ball, but he didn’t really do much else.

The boys will hit the road for next week’s match against FC Koln. Back in the Bundesliga after a one-year absence, Die Geißböcke were defeated 1:2 against Wolfsburg today.