Welcome to Fear The Wall’s weekly update on the kids. This will include updates to Borussia Dortmund’s U-17, U-19, and U-23 teams. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments.

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Borussia Dortmund U17

B-Junioren Bundesliga West

While the big boys took on 1. FC Köln in the Bundesliga, the U-17s were playing a friendly of their own on March 21^st. The starting lineup included:

Daniel Dudek (GK), Jaden Tom Korzynietz, Jonah Hussek, Vasco Walz, Julian Rijkhoff, Ayukayoh Mengot, Noah Mrosek, Michel Ludwig, and Reber Babir

BVB U-17 lost 4-1 with the lone goal coming from Raphael Lubach. They also scored an own goal, which is fun.

Borussia Dortmund U-19

A-Junioren Bundesliga West, DFB-Junioren Pokal

Contrary to reports last week, the U-19 Bundesliga will not pick up game action in April.

However, the U-19s also had a friendly against the 1. FC Köln U-19s on March 20^th. The lineup was as follows:

BVB U19 won 2-1 thanks to goals from Faroukou Cisse (15’) and Göktan Gürpüz (31’). The substitutions were: Rilind Hetemi for Kamal Bafounta-Ortega (46’), Julius Finn Rauch for Samuel Bamba (60’), Julian Rijkhoff for Abu-Bekir Ömer El-Zein (60’), and Noah Mrosek for Bradley Fink (72’).

Yes, Julian Rijkhoff and Noah Mrosek played in two friendlies this week.

Borussia Dortmund II (U23)

Regionalliga West

First and foremost, Kolbeinn Birgir Finnsson was nominated to the Icelandic U-21 National Team and will play against Russia, Denmark, and France in the UEFA European U-21 Championship!

The Regionalliga West had a midweek Topspiel on March 17^th! BVB II and Rot-Weiss Essen drew 1-1 and split the points. While it would have been nice to extend the lead on second place, not losing points is also good! People forget that!

The starting 11 was captained by Steffen Tigges:

Franz Pfanne returned to the lineup after serving his yellow-card suspension. Taylan Duman returned from his injury to the bench. Patrick Osterhage and Moritz Broschinski remained on the injury list. This game was Marco Hober’s turn to serve his yellow-card suspension (there’s always one, eh?).

The U-23s were the dominant side to start this match and pressed Essen early. Tobias Raschl set up Richmond Tachie for a golden opportunity, but the Essen goalkeeper was able to slap it away. Unfortunately, soon after, Essen had two chances of their own and scored the go-ahead goal (15’). This switched the momentum more towards Rot-Weiss. Shortly before halftime, BVB II had a flurry of chances (and should have had a penalty kick, but alas), but were unable to convert.

The second half started much like the first half: BVB II dominating. Taylan Duman celebrated his comeback as he got subbed on for Haymenn Bah-Traore in the 57^th minute. As the minutes wore on, Essen seemed to get more and more exhausted, but BVB II was unable to execute that last pass to get the goal. After 76 minutes, Richmond Tachie finally got a goal after about four golden chances to draw Dortmund II even!

This tying goal was more than deserved, as they probably should be leading (stupid goalies getting in the way of shots!). Enrico Maaßen subbed out three more times before the final whistle: Dominik Wanner for Ansgar Knauff (78’), Florian Krebs for Alaa Bakir (85’), and Henri Weigelt for Richmond Tachie (90+3’).

Alaa Bakir, Steffen Tigges, and Franz Pfanne received yellow cards.

Or, if you’re not a fan of words, here’s the match recap in video form:

But that wasn’t it for the big kids this week! They were back at it on March 20^th against SV Lippstadt 08, where they won 2-0. Once again, Steffen Tigges captained the team:

Marco Hober was able to return after serving his yellow-card suspension. Patrick Osterhage and Moritz Broschinski remained out injury, with Florian Krebs and Maximilian Hippe added to that list. Tobias Raschl and Ansgar Knauff were called up to the senior team.

Although this was the second game of the week, the U23s showed now evidence of exhaustion. They pressed Lippstadt early and had countless chances. Steffen Tigges was having himself an afternoon! He provided the assist to Lennard Maloney’s first goal of the season in the 13^th minute! Dortmund II continued this dominance.

In the second half, Simon Schubert from Lippstadt saw a second yellow and was sent off (55’). Kolbeinn Birgir Finnsson was brought on for Alaa Bakir shortly later (60’). Although a man down, Lippstadt got stronger and finally had some chances. Enrico Maaßen responded by bringing on Philipp Harlaß for Richmond Tachie and Aday Ercan for Marco Hober in the 69^th minute (nice).

The game continued to get more even and chippier. Steffen Tigges got his second assist of the day on Kolbeinn Birgir Finnsson’s goal in the 90^th minute. Haymenn Bah-Traore came on for Taylan Duman (90’).

Players receiving yellow cards in this rather chippy match were Taylan Duman (44’), Richmond Tachie (54’), and Franz Pfanne (62’).

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Looking Ahead

Borussia Dortmund U-17

☹ the B-Junioren Bundesliga season is over ☹

Borussia Dortmund U-19

☹ the A-Junioren Bundesliga season is over ☹

There is another friendly scheduled for March 27^th against Eintracht Frankfurt’s U19.

Borussia Dortmund II

One English week ends, and another begins. Dortmund II has games on Wednesday and Saturday again, and again against a top of the table team in Fortuna Düsseldorf II, and a bottom of the table team in Bonner SC.

The Bonner SC game on March 24^th is a makeup from a few weeks ago. The team sits in 20^th place with 21 points (5W-6D-17L) and a -24 (26:50) goal differential. They’ve gotten points out of five of their last seven games.

Fortuna Düsseldorf II (March 27^th) on the other hand is in fifth place with 49 points (14W-7D-7L) and a +25 (53:28) goal differential. Their last game was a draw to Bonn on March 13^th, so they should come in well rested.

Dortmund II remains in first place with 65 points (19W-8D-1L) and a goal differential of +50 (70:20). With 12 games to go, they’re just hitting the home stretch now and cannot afford to let up. Promotion is the end goal for this season! Hopefully, their outstanding fitness can pull them through this second busy week.

Stats from kicker.de and fussball.de