Defending German champions Borussia Dortmund opened the new season with an impressive 3-1 win over Hamburg SV on Friday thanks to goals from two of Germany’s rising stars.
Goals either side of halftime by midfielder Kevin Grosskreutz, plus a superb individual effort from 19-year-old prodigy Mario Goetze, who barely put a foot wrong throughout the game, sealed the three points.
Hamburg gave the hosts a brief scare with just more than 10 minutes left when midfielder Robert Tesche headed home for a consolation goal.
However, having dominated the league from the end of October last year, Dortmund picked up where they left off at the end of last season.
With Bayern Munich in action today, when they host Borussia Moenchengladbach, Dortmund’s young guns remain the team to beat in Germany.
Goetze has been called up for Wednesday’s international friendly against Brazil in Stuttgart and on this showing it was easy to see why.
Dortmund’s new midfield signing Ilkay Gundogan, who is also in the Germany squad, had a quiet league debut by comparison having joined from Nuremberg.
The champions made their early pressure pay off when a neat pass from Goetze put Grosskreutz in space and the left wing drilled his shot past Hamburg goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny in the 17th minute.
Japan midfielder Shinji Kagawa hit the post and fired wide in the opening stages after finding plenty of space in the Hamburg defense.
Dortmund made it 2-0 with less than half an hour played when Goetze played a neat one-two with Poland striker Robert Lewandowski and chipped his shot past Drobny to put the hosts in firm control.
Grosskreutz made sure the champions kicked off the new season with a win when he stabbed home after a goalmouth scramble in the 48th minute.
From a corner, Goetze popped up again to play a one-two with Kagawa and when the ball bobbled into Grosskreutz’s path, he fired home at the second attempt.
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