Three Observations from BVB’s 3-0 Win Over Wehen Wiesbaden

The new season is here (seemingly before the last one had even finished), and Borussia Dortmund traveled to Wiesbaden to kick off their defense of the DFB-Pokal. New manager, some new players, and hopefully a new found ability to take care of business without any hiccups. I don’t know how the rest of the season will play out, but tonight was certainly the right start, with Borussia Dortmund cruising to a 3-0 win over Wehen Wiesbaden, progressing through to the next round of the cup.

I’m not going to get ahead of myself, since preseason is entirely meaningless and a cup game against a team in the third tier is not exactly the kind of resistance that we should expect for the rest of the season, but it was good to see BVB take care of business. Here’s some thoughts from tonight’s game.

Erling Haaland is Still Quite Good at Football

Haaland wasted no time getting back to business, scoring a hattrick on a night where he easily could have had four or five. While it is to be expected against the significantly outgunned opponents, it is still impressive to see his desire to score from any sniff he gets at goal. He was linking up really well with Gio Reyna, continuing to develop the good relationship they seem to have, and he even seemed to work well with Donyell Malen when BVB’s new signing came off the bench in the second half.

Haaland has now scored 60 goals in 60 games for Borussia Dortmund, and if he can continue at that kind of clip, that would be splendid. Thanks you big, weird oaf.

Some Early Signs of Marco Rose’s System

In Rose’s first game in charge, it would be too much to expect BVB to be implementing his philosophy to perfection, but I thought there were some signs of what is to come. Dortmund were playing through the middle more often than last season, and they were a lot more vertical, seeming to progress the ball quickly up the field, with much of the play running through Reyna.

Of course, they also had the bulk of possession in tonight’s game, but that was to be expected. They were balancing controlling the game with a more aggressive approach to buildup, and I liked what I saw. I’m sure over the coming weeks we should see his system develop a little more and Borussia Dortmund grow into a team in his image.

Crowds are Fun and Nice

Wasn’t it nice to hear fans again? There wasn’t tons of fans at the Brita-Arena, but there was plenty to add some atmosphere to the game. It was refreshing, and served as a nice reminder of how much better football is with a bit of noise!

I watched the Community Shield earlier in the day, which had a small number of fans in the stadium, and I had the Troyes vs PSG match on in the background while I was watching tonight’s BVB game, which was pretty packed (including a solid turnout from the away fans), and it’s brilliant to see that atmosphere brought back to games. Hopefully it won’t be long until we see packed stadiums all across Europe.

What did you folks think? Did you like what you see from Marco Rose’s first game?