Three Observations from Borussia Dortmund’s 3-0 Victory Over Armenia Bielefeld

After Eintracht Frankfurt dropped points against Werder Bremen on Friday, Borussia Dortmund needed to take advantage with a win against Armenia Bielefeld, and with a comprehensive 3-0 victory, they did just that. Though there were moments in the first half where Die Schwarzgelben seemed to have trouble breaking Armenia’s press, BVB managed to control the match for the most part through solid possession play and a high counter-press. Jadon Sancho’s creativity and technical wizardry were on full display Saturday, as the Bielefeld full backs found it nearly impossible to contain the Englishman. Goals from Mahmoud Dahoud, Jadon Sancho, and believe it or not, Reinier Jesus proved decisive in what ended up being a reasonably comfortable win for the Black-and-Yellows.

Zagadou and Hazard Return

Saturday saw two familiar faces return to the pitch for BVB as both Thorgan Hazard and Dan-Axel Zagadou found the field after dealing with long-term injuries. Hazard showed a lot of promise during his 21 minutes on the field, linking with Haaland well and creating a few scoring chances. Zagadou only saw the field for five minutes but managed to get in a forceful sliding tackle right after entering the pitch. If they are both able to stay healthy for the remainder of the season, it’ll be a huge boost as the schedule gets more congested down the stretch.

Mahmoud Dahoud: Long-Shot Master

Before the Sevilla game, the idea of Mahmoud Dahoud scoring a shot from outside the box would’ve been a nothing more than a pipe dream. Now, just a week and a half later, Dahoud has scored goals from outside the box in two out of the last three games. Perhaps it’s just an anomaly, but I like to believe that this event was sparked by something. A certain tweet from the Fear The Wall Twitter account in which we foolishly question Dahoud’s shooting from outside the box:

Clearly, Dahoud either saw the tweet and felt the need to correct such a misleading statistic, or the football gods decided to punish us for spreading such an evil statistic. Either way, I’m happy to apologize on behalf of Fear The Wall to both Mo Dahoud and the football gods for our insulant behavior.

Reinier Finally Gets some Luck

Reinier Jesus’ time at Dortmund has been nothing short of a disaster to this point. His parent club, Real Madrid, has been on Dortmund’s case about the young Brazilian’s playing time, and the player has shown little progress in the brief cameo appearances he has had thus far in Germany. His fortunes changed on Saturday, though, when just 22 seconds after getting on the pitch, Reinier received an unselfish pass from Erling Haaland inside the box and tucked it away for his first goal in black and yellow.

Though Reinier once again wasn’t given much time to show his skill, the goal seemed to provide him with confidence as there were several moments today where he was looking for the ball and trying to advance the play. A refreshing change from his previous substitute performances which were far more tepid. If Reinier can use today’s showing to advance up the team’s depth charts, the timing would be perfect given the number of tired legs in the squad. Players like Gio Reyna and Julian Brandt have shown massive dips in form during this season’s truncated schedule. If Reinier can fill their shoes for a few matches, it could see an uptick in form for several of Dortmund’s attackers. Also, it has to be said, Haaland is an incredible teammate for assisting Reinier when he could have easily taken a shot himself.

Your Thoughts

What did you think of today’s match? Leave your thoughts below.