Borussia Dortmund are facing a crisis after the club’s worst start in 48 years of competing in the Bundesliga left the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 champions joint-bottom on Sunday.
Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at great rivals Bayern Munich was the club’s seventh in 10 games, their fifth in a row, heightening the sense of alarm as on-field efforts fail to yield any reward domestically.
“Every defeat hurts and the pain increases with the frequency with which we’re losing in the Bundesliga,” said Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp, whose side have already lost as many league games as in the whole of last season.
Photo: AFP
“It’s anything but good, what has happened,” Klopp said. “We’ve a lot of construction sites and many of the defeats are self-inflicted.”
Two mistakes from Neven Subotic cost Klopp’s side dearly in Munich — a clearance went straight to former teammate Robert Lewandowski for the equalizer and the defender conceded a penalty after Franck Ribery blocked another attempted clearance — but the 2-1 scoreline arguably flattered Dortmund, who had only four efforts on target compared with Bayern’s 18.
Roman Weidenfeller produced an inspired performance by making 12 saves, a Bundesliga record this season and a personal league best, but they were not enough in the face of Bayern’s incessant pressure.
Photo: Reuters
Dortmund have conceded in every league game this season, and only Werder Bremen, VfB Stuttgart and Eintracht Frankfurt have conceded more. Only goal-difference separates Dortmund from bottom side Bremen.
Klopp’s position is not under threat, not yet at least, due to the success he brought Dortmund since taking over in 2008. Back-to-back Bundesliga titles were complemented by the club’s first league and cup double in 2011-2012 and the former FSV Mainz 05 player then led Dortmund to the UEFA Champions League final in 2012-2013, only for Bayern to emerge victorious thanks to Arjen Robben’s late winner.
Robben converted the penalty, underlining the Dutchman’s stature as Dortmund’s tormentor-in-chief.
Klopp’s Dortmund have not been helped by injuries — Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Marco Reus, Jakub Blaszczykowski, Ilkay Gundogan, Marcel Schmelzer, Nuri Sahin and Oliver Kirch have all faced long spells out — and captain Mats Hummels was ruled out for three weeks with a right-foot sprain on Sunday, sustained against Bayern the night before.
Goals are also proving scarce following Lewandowski’s switch to Bayern.
After 10 league games last season, Dortmund were second in the table with 25 goals scored, three more than leaders Bayern. The side has only scored 11 goals at the same stage this season.
Klopp has been rotating three strikers — Ciro Immobile, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Adrian Ramos — but none are as yet proving as effective as Lewandowski.
The Polish striker joined Bayern in the summer, following Bayern’s capture of Mario Goetze the year before, and Dortmund are facing the possibility of Reus joining his former teammates in Munich next season.
Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge angered Dortmund management by saying Reus, who has a contract to 2017, could leave for 25 million euros (US$31 million) next summer.
“We’ll discuss it internally in peace and calm, and then make a decision,” Rummenigge added weeks later. “The player also has to decide.”
Reus covered his ears after scoring against Bayern, suggesting he did not want to hear any more media speculation on his future, but it is likely to continue until he makes a statement one way or the other.
Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke has hit out at Rummenigge for continuing to fan the flames and said on Saturday that he no longer has any working relationship with the Bayern chairman.
Meanwhile, Bayern are taking pleasure from Dortmund’s travails. Fans celebrated their side’s deserved win by chanting Dortmund will be playing in the second division.
“It’s a lovely feeling to beat Dortmund, even if they’re not where they should be in the table,” said Thomas Mueller, whose side appear to have the Bundesliga wrapped up already after 10 games.
Bayern sporting director Matthias Sammer said his side was not to blame if the Bundesliga was becoming less interesting.
“It’s up to the league to provide the excitement, not us,” said Sammer, a former Bundesliga-winning Dortmund player and coach, who did little to quell talk of Reus joining the club. “Marco Reus is a Borussia Dortmund player. We discuss what thoughts we have internally.”
Of more pressing importance to Dortmund now is the side’s league position.
“It’s lousy of course, but you can get confidence back, so that’s the cool thing,” Klopp said.
TIGHT GAME: The Detroit Pistons, the NBA’s second-best team, barely outlasted the Washington Wizards, who fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss Cade Cunningham’s triple double, Daniss Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer and Javonte Green’s overtime dunk lifted Detroit past Washington 137-135 on Monday, stretching the Pistons’ win streak to seven games. In an unexpected thriller, the NBA’s second-best team barely outlasted a Wizards club that fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss. “We knew how big this game was for us,” Jenkins said. “We wasn’t going to let nothing stop us from getting this W.” Cunningham made 14-of-45 shots and 16-of-18 free throws for a career-high 46 points, and added 12 rebounds, 11 assists, five steals and two
BOUNCE BACK: Curry scored 46 points in the Warriors’ victory over the Spurs, after ‘everybody stepped up’ following Tuesday’s blowout loss to Oklahoma City Nikola Jokic scoring 50 or more points had never been enough for the Denver Nuggets to win — until now. Jokic on Wednesday night tied the highest-scoring performance in the NBA this season with 55 points, as the Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Clippers 130-116 for their sixth straight victory. The Nuggets were 0-4 in his previous 50-point outbursts. “It’s a good feeling,” the three-time NBA Most Valuable Player said. He equaled Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 55 in a double-overtime game at the Indiana Pacers on Oct. 23. Jokic has been on a roll during Denver’s winning streak. He is the
LIKE FINE WINE: Thirty-eight-year-old Djokovic won his 101st title of his career in Athens, becoming the oldest tournament winner since Ken Roswell, 44, in 1977 Elena Rybakina on Saturday clinched her biggest title since Wimbledon in 2022, defeating world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 7-6 (7/0) at the WTA Finals in Riyadh. The world No. 6 put on yet another serving masterclass and was at her returning best as she became the first Kazakh and the first player representing an Asian country to lift the WTA Finals singles trophy. Having gone 3-0 in round-robin play, Rybakina earned a record US$5.235 million and would finish the year ranked No. 5 in the world. “It’s been an incredible week, I honestly didn’t expect any result, and to go so far,
Bjorn Werner on Saturday signed everything thrust in front of him by NFL fans who packed a Berlin plaza. His old Indianapolis Colts jersey — it is a best-seller in Germany — footballs, scarves, miniature helmets. Even a cleat. Werner’s NFL career ended after three seasons because of injuries, but he has become a star in his home country as a TV commentator and media personality. He cohosts a popular podcast, has a big social media presence and is credited with helping popularize the sport in Germany. As the former first-round draft pick waded through throngs of fans, he looked around and took
RSS