This was a big week in Dortmund soccer. Yes, the senior team played a wild game in Leverkusen. And yes, the U23s played a Spitzenspiel. But more importantly: the women played their first ever Kreisliga A game. And the U17s and U19s started in their Bundesliga seasons.

---

Borussia Dortmund U17

B-Junioren Bundesliga West

The U17s traveled to DSC Arminia Bielefeld to play their first B-Bundesliga match on September 11^th. Most of the national team players were able to return to the team for this weekend’s game. Kjell Wätjen did suffer a minor injury and was out for this match.

Almugera Kabar suffered an injury during the international break that could keep him out for a few weeks. His bigger concern though, is that the WFV has suspended him for eight weeks due to his red card in the NRW-Ligapokal semifinal.

The game started off very bad from a Dortmund point of view. Bielefeld came out to a 2-0 lead roughly 90 seconds into the first half. In a season with only 16 games, slip ups are not good.

Raùl König managed to get one goal back before the end of the half (38’). Charles Herrmann found the tying goal in the 47^th minute. Unfortunately, the comeback ended there. The final score was a 2-2 draw.

Borussia Dortmund U19

A-Junioren Bundesliga West, NRW-Ligapokal A-Junioren, DFB Junioren Pokal

The A-Bundesliga season is off to a great start for the BVB U19s. On September 11^th they traveled to Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and won 3-0. The most surprising part was that none of the goals were scored by Bradley Fink. It was an Abu-Bekir El-Zein hattrick (20’, 56’, 59’)!!

Mike Tullberg got a little relief in creating his starting lineup, as the national team players returned. However, it’s still not all perfect (because what is?). Julian Rijkhoff didn’t return to training until Friday, so he was getting a rest. Göktan Gürpüz was called up to the senior team (!). Then there are the long-term injured: Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Nnamdi Collins, and Isaak Nwachukwu.

Borussia Dortmund II (U23)

3. Liga

The U23s faced 1. FC Magdeburg on September 11^th. Magdeburg is currently the team to beat in the 3. Liga. Luckily, they had 11 players missing due to injury or positive COVID-19 tests.

BVB II still had their own injury concerns to deal with, as Luca Unbehaun joins the list as he was injured at the U20 National Team. Marco Pašalić, Steffen Tigges, Moritz Broschinski, Marco Hober, and Florian Krebs remain injured.

Lennard Maloney, however, was back from suspension and straight into the starting lineup. Ted Tattermusch also came into the starting lineup in place of Timo Bornemann.

Magdeburg is known to score within the first eight minutes, and they almost scored twice within the first three minutes on Saturday. Luckily Antonios Papadopoulos was there to clear it off the goal line. FCM’s ball progression up the field is very quick and crisp. It gave the Dortmund defenders a lot of trouble.

In the 12’, Kolbeinn Finnsson was very happy that VAR doesn’t exist in the 3. Liga, as he committed a foul in the box and nearly gave Magdeburg a penalty kick. And they don’t need any offensive help.

Tattermusch received a yellow for kicking the ball into the net after the offside whistle blew (13’). Dortmund’s best chance of the game thus far came from a solo run from Ole Pohlmann (15’). The next 15 minutes were filled with more arguing on the field than actual gameplay. Ironic since this game wasn’t even as foul-riddled as past BVB II games.

The next great chance for Dortmund came in the 35’, where a high pass met Pohlmann alone on goal. But then he slipped and fell. This won’t be the last time a player slipped at the top of the box. On the other side of the field, Stefan Drljača needed to make three big saves in a row (38’). (At this point, I would like to note that I am so happy Maloney is back in the lineup. I missed his yells and his grätschen.)

Our U23s were getting more looks and chances in the box as the first half went on, which is a positive note. That last pass was always missing though, mostly due to Magdeburg’s excellent back line. And the fact that everyone keeps slipping and falling in the box. The first half ended 0-0; pleasantly surprising considering how the first minutes looked.

Photo by Peter Niedung/NurPhoto via Getty Images

To start the second half, Cebrails Makreckis was subbed on for Pohlmann. This half started much like the first: Magdeburg were dominant. They finally got their reward for their hard work in the 49’ in the form of a nice lob. In the 56’, Magdeburg then scored a beautiful direct freekick goal out of an impossible angle. Nothing Drljača could do about that one.

Down 2-0, Enrico Maaßen made three subs: Abdoulaye Kamara, Tobias Raschl, and Christian Viet came on for Papadopoulos, Immanuel Pherai, and Finnsson. The next yellow card went to Franz Pfanne for body checking a player (60’). The fifth sub of the game for BVB II was Bornemann coming on for Tattermusch (62’).

Berkan Taz had a freekick chance in the 64’, but hit the wall. Richmond Tachie’s rebound shot went high and wide. Lennard Maloney received a yellow in the 68’ for kicking the ball into the net after the whistle. Déjà vu.

The first shot for the U23s after a while came from Bornemann in the 77’. Drljača got to make another massive save in the 80’. Viet received the fourth yellow card of the game, which was another non-foul card: he held onto a jersey (84’).

In the end, the Dortmund II boys couldn’t solve their old friend in net, Dominik Reimann. It was a good showing from our fellas, but the team cohesiveness and talent levels showed that this was a matchup between a 2. Liga-promotion favorite and a recently 3. Liga-promoted team.

Leon Klußmann (GK), Haymenn Bah-Traore, Albin Thaqi, and Guille Bueno remained on the bench.

Borussia Dortmund Frauen

Frauen Kreisliga A Gruppe 2, Frauen Kreispokal

Finally the first competitive match for the Borussia Dortmund Frauen was here! The ladies started off their Kreisliga A season at home in the Rote Erde against fellow newly formed team BV Brambauer on September 12^th.

Lineup: Schröer – Becker, Goosmann, Bergmann, Heim, Lau, Gerres, Jung, Klemann, Glänzer, Zabell

It was an historic kickoff, as the Borussia Dortmund Women’s first competitive match began. The BVB women almost had their first goal in the 3’. BVB were pressing hard and had all of the chances as BV Brambauer could barely hold on. There were lots of corners (I lost count after ten in 20’) and lots of crosses from the wings into the centrum.

After getting the team’s first ever goal in a friendly, Ann-Kathrin Lau nearly got the first goal of the season (21’). Sandra Schröer got her first ball touch out of the way in the 28’ after an errant back pass. On the 628^th corner of the game, in the 31’, the first goal of the season, in Dortmund history happened!! Ana Zabell scored off a Luisa Bergmann corner!!!

The second goal happened seven minutes later from the Birthday Girl herself: Vanessa Heim!! It was a nice laser shot from outside the box. Overall, a very successful first half. Brambauer had no shots on goal and the ball rarely crossed into the Dortmund half.

Hannah Goosmann narrowly missed a tap in ball for the third goal to start the second half (49’). But that’s okay because Virginia Glänzer scored off a long shot from outside of the box (57’). The first sub of the game was Luisa Bergmann coming off for Lea Rogge-Herper (60’).

Goosmann got her goal by tapping in a rebound off a nice Glänzer freekick (65’). A few minutes later, Heim scored her second goal of the game off a Lau shot rebound (72’). Lau couldn’t be kept off the goal-scorer list for too long, as she scored from the edge of the box (76’).

Lau and Heim were subbed off for Laura Höhl and Annika Herbig (77’). Zabell joined the brace club and scored her second of the game from the edge of the box (88’). Captain Lisa Klemann also joined the scoring party and got her first for the team (91’).

The game ended as a decisive 8-0 win for our ladies. It was a dominating performance with so, so many corners– good thing the “3 corners = 1 penalty kick” rule doesn’t apply here. Brambau didn’t have a single shot on goal.

---

Looking Ahead

Borussia Dortmund U17

The next B-Bundesliga game is on September 18^th hosting Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Leverkusen lost their first game 4-0.

Place | Team | Points | W-D-L | GD

1 | Bochum | 3 | 1-0-0 | 6:0 (+6)

…

7 | Dortmund | 1 | 0-1-0 | 2:2 (0)

…

16 | Leverkusen | 0 | 0-0-1 | 0:4 (-4)

17 | Wuppertal | 0 | 0-0-1 | 0:6 (-6)

Borussia Dortmund U19

On Wednesday, September 15^th, the U19s will travel to Istanbul to face Beşiktaş Istanbul in the UEFA Youth League.

They’ll be back in Dortmund on Sunday, September 19^th to host SC Paderborn 07 in the A-Bundesliga.

Place | Team | Points | W-D-L | GD

1 | Duisburg | 3 | 1-0-0 | 5:0 (+5)

…

4 | Dortmund | 3 | 1-0-0 | 3:0 (+3)

…

8 | Paderborn | 1 | 0-1-0 | 1:1 (0)

…

17 | Aachen | 0 | 0-0-1 | 0:5 (-5)

Borussia Dortmund II

BVB II’s next 3. Liga game is on September 20^th at SV Wehen Wiesbaden.

Place | Team | Points | W-D-L | GD

1 | Magdeburg | 19 | 6-1-1 | 15:6 (+9)

…

4 | BVB U23 | 14 | 4-2-2 | 14:9 (+5)

5 | Wiesbaden | 14 | 4-2-2 | 12:11 (+1)

…

20 | Havelse | 1 | 0-1-7 | 2:14 (-12)

Borussia Dortmund Frauen

The next game for the ladies is in the Kreispokal. They will be away to Urania Lütgendortmund on September 17^th. Urania plays in the Kreisliga A Gruppe 1.

Sources: kicker.de, fussball.de, bvb.de