Match Preview: Borussia Dortmund Host Recently Promoted Heidenheim

With the Champions League group announced and Borussia Dortmund approaching the international break, the team’s focus returns to the Bundesliga. Tomorrow at 2:30pm EST, Borussia Dortmund host Heidenheim in the two teams’ first-ever competitive match against each other. In Dortmund, Terzic’s second full season has gotten off to a rocky start as the club have collected four points, and scored only two goals, in the last two matches. BVB will hopefully be ready to put on a good performance with the return of Adeyemi to the starting lineup and the addition of Fullkrug being able to lift Dortmund to victory. As for injuries, fullbacks Ryerson and Meunier are still out while Nmecha is questionable. Regardless of who is available, Dortmund should easily win this game and would have no excuse otherwise.

For Heidenheim, this game is pretty incredible for them. After decades of plying their trade in the lower divisions, Heidenheim was finally promoted into professional soccer in 2009. Coach Frank Schmidt has been their coach since 2007 and is the longest-serving head coach for any German team. Under his leadership, they’ve gone from the fifth tier to the top flight and are now playing in Germany’s biggest stadium. Will they beat Dortmund? All signs point to no, but, Dortmund will have to be wary of the Cinderella-esque upset.

Player to Watch: Jan-Niklas Beste

Photo by Stefan Puchner/picture alliance via Getty Images

Remember him? For those who don’t remember, Beste was a Borussia Dortmund U-19 player and was long touted to make the jump to the first team, even earning an appearance under Bosz in the DFB Pokal. Now, after a brief stint for Werder Bremen’s second team, Beste is finally playing regular football for Heidenheim. He now plays further up the field as a winger and is in possession of rather fine facial hair. Almost as important as his facial hair, however, is 12 goals and 12 assists across 34 matches last season in the 2. Bundesliga. The winger has continued his form and notched one goal and one assist in Heidenheim’s 3-2 defeat to Hoffenheim. It’s great to see a former Dortmund youth performing when given the opportunity and I’m sure he’ll be a difficult opponent on Dortmund’s left side, especially considering Ryerson’s injury.

Predicted Lineup

I’m thinking this for Borussia Dortmund

After a cameo appearance last week, I think Adeyemi will crack into the starting eleven with the only other change being Schlotterbeck replacing Hummels, who came off injured last week. Not terribly exciting but should be enough to get Dortmund through this game. I’m also confident we’ll see Fullkrug off the bench at some point.

Prediction

Last week I predicted a victory and Dortmund tied Bochum. This weekend I’m predicting a nervy start to the game with 1-1 at the half. I think Dortmund’s quality will shine through, however, and the home side will come out with an emphatic 4-1 win. We’ll then regain all form and win the Champions League, Bundesliga, and DFB. Fullkrug will win the European Golden Boot and our comments will be filled with hate because we criticized Edin Terzic’s transfer business. A small price to pay for victory.

Your thoughts:

If you couldn’t tell, my prediction came after a couple of beers despite it being a random Thursday evening. So please, give me your more sober takes on what the score will be. Will Dortmund win? Who will score? Will we win it all?