Match Ratings: Borussia Dortmund Drop Vital Points in 1-1 Draw Against Cologne

Borussia Dortmund’s run of games scraping wins in relatively uneventful performances ended on Sunday with a 1-1 draw against Cologne. It was another relatively uneventful performance with not a lot to say about it, except this one included a goal scored against Dortmund that stopped them from claiming all three points.

It was probably the right result, but it did mean that the faint hopes of a title race were well and truly put to bed. We can’t even have a fanciful dream anymore. It’s just a bad season. Oh well. Here are the ratings from Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Cologne:

Starting XI

Gregor Kobel

Paul: 6

Sarah: 6

Kobel didn’t have a whole lot to do, but when he was seeing some action, he was reliable which is more than I can say for the rest of the backline.

Emre Can

Paul: 6

Sarah: 5

Anyone who knows me knows it doesn’t take much for me to gush over my boy Emre. Today, I was hoping to see carryover from the Mainz match but a different Emre showed up instead.

Manuel Akanji

Paul: 6

You could see that Akanji was a little rusty coming back into the starting eleven today, but he was having more success in the second half.

Sarah: 5

Nice to see Akanji start, but not so nice seeing how tired he looked.

Felix Passlack

Paul: 5

Sarah: 5

Rapha Guerreiro

Paul: 5

Sarah: 5

Guerreiro has been sorely missed by me so it was exciting to have him back on the pitch, but (like Akanji) he looked very tired. He had a couple of moments, but nothing really materialized.

Axel Witsel

Paul: 5

Sarah: 5

I was also hoping Witsel would still be riding the high from his late match winning goal at the midweek, but alas that turned out not to be the case.

Jude Bellingham

Paul: 6

Brilliant ball for Wolf’s goal

Sarah: 6

Jude’s lovely pass to Wolf made all the difference and it was just him doing what he does.

Gio Reyna

Paul: 5

Sarah: 5

Gio seemed super frustrated on the pitch today and understandably so. He was in the mix of some promising looking plays, none of which transitioned to what we so desperately needed.

Thorgan Hazard

Paul: 5

Sarah: 5

Marius Wolf

Paul: 6

Wolf has been great for BVB during this recent stretch, scoring three goals in six games. He’s never going to be the first name on the team sheet, but he’s extremely useful nonetheless.

Sarah: 6

Wolf is turning into our clutch player and enjoying the spotlight as the latest unexpected BVB darling. His prowess enabled that early score and the single point.

Erling Haaland

Paul: 4

Sarah: 5

Substitutes

Mats Hummels

Paul: 5

Sarah: 5

I was glad to see Hummels make an appearance, even though he wasn’t able to do anything to tip the match in BVB’s favor.

Julian Brandt

Paul: 5

Sarah: 5

Donyell Malen

N/A

Marin Pongracic

N/A

Reinier

N/A

Overall

Paul: 5

Ehhhhhh it wasn’t atrocious, but it wasn’t good. It was sub-par but not so horrifically so that it was much to write about. A little like this season as a whole, I guess.

Sarah: 5

Like boxed wine, today’s outing was average. It certainly left me feeling deflated after the high of the midweek match, knowing that each point is crucial if we even stand a chance to fight Bayern for that title. But, as I always say, a tie is better than a loss even if it doesn’t always feel that way.