MOTM Poll: Goals Aplenty as Dortmund Smoke Hertha Berlin

I love games like these. There have been times when I’ve written these Man of the Match articles when it has been hard to find four players who even played well enough to be nominated. Today is thankfully not one of those days. With four different goal scorers and many others who played well, I’m having a hard time narrowing it down to four!

There’s one person I will absolutely not be nominating: that Hertha fan who brought a smoke bomb to the game and delayed everything for five minutes. That guy can go pound sand.

Karim Adeyemi

It seems weird that a guy who played all of 20 minutes could be a candidate for Man of the Match, but with Adeyemi’s performance today, a strong argument can be made for just that. He scored a gorgeous back heel goal and created Donyell Malen’s goal with an astonishing burst of pace, fighting through a torn hamstring to loop the ball to his Dutch teammate. Hopefully his injury isn’t as severe as it seems, and he can return soon!

Marco Reus

In his return to the starting lineup the captain was magnificent. He assisted Adeyemi’s goal and scored an absolutely stunning direct free kick goal that proved to eventually be the match winner. He was also involved in the buildup to Donyell Malen’s goal, and did all the other little things to move the ball and make life difficult for Hertha.

Emre Can

This one might be a bit out of left field, but I feel like Can has gotten stick from BVB fans for a long time, so I’m going to throw him a bone. Can has received a lot more playing time over the last few months than he did in the fall, and I’m starting to suspect that could be a key reason for BVB’s recent success. He often drops into the back line in possession, which gives Dortmund’s center backs freedom to play widely, and gives the full backs freedom to play further forward. He has been passing the ball reasonably well and is doing his defensive work like a pro. Now if he could just cut down on the aggressive challenges...

Julian Brandt

Brandt is playing his way into MOTM conversations on a weekly basis, and I for one am all for it. He grabbed yet another goal today and created buckets of chances, including a tap-in header that Marco Reus unfortunately missed. His passing, vision, and dribbling are as dynamic as they’ve ever been, and he’s finally putting together the kinds of consistent performances we hoped for when he arrived from Bayer Leverkusen.