In the midst of the championship dreams at Borussia Dortmund, sports director Sebastian Kehl showed himself prepared like a model student during his visit to the ZDF “Sportstudio”.
He checked again, the sports director said a few hours after jumping to the top of the table in the Bundesliga: The 2011/2012 doubles season “interested me myself”. BVB didn’t lose a game in the second half of the season, said Kehl. “If we manage to do that in this series, then pictures like this could come back.”
Terzic: “We’re far from done”
Pictures that showed him as a captain with the championship trophy, then still as a player – at the end of a season with the triumph in the league and in the DFB Cup. The 1-0 win over TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, the relegation candidate, gave only limited information about how capable Borussia really is for the title. But BVB has never started the year with nine competitive wins in its club history. “Of course we’re playing for the championship, that’s clear,” said goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.
The exuberant joy of Dortmund after the final whistle in Sinsheim and the wide grins everywhere revealed that the belief in the really big coup has grown a bit again. “Nobody’s crying,” said winger Marius Wolf when asked about the mood in the locker room with the new leader. “Of course we’re very, very happy about the win today, but we’re far from done,” announced coach Edin Terzic elatedly.
BVB weeks of truth
Of course, the fans happily sang about the championship lead and the possible championship. Terzic didn’t even dim the enthusiasm, but philosophized at the press conference: “Not only the fans, but everyone should dream. Neither the team nor I get paid for dreaming. Dreaming won’t help us to go into the next game and to win. Nevertheless, we will not forbid anyone in this world to dream.”
Already on Friday (8.30 p.m.) the Terzic team can show against title rivals RB Leipzig how mature they really are. The path in the DFB Cup also leads via the Saxons, the quarter-final game is on April 5th in Leipzig. And then there’s the Champions League with the second leg at Chelsea on February 7th. “This is a very, very strong snapshot – but you can quickly ruin it again,” said goalscorer Julian Brandt.
Even a back can delight – Brandt towers above
In front of 30,150 spectators – including national coach Hansi Flick – the national player delighted with his back goal in the 43rd minute. So he steered the ball into the net after a sharp free kick from Marco Reus – his eighth goal of the season and the fourth in the fourth game in a row. With his top form, Brandt recommended himself for the upcoming international matches on March 25th in Mainz against Peru and on March 28th in Cologne against Belgium.
“Julian is an outstanding footballer who plays unselfishly, who prepares an incredible number of goals, and at the moment he’s also scoring goals,” praised the new DFB sports director on “Bild” TV. “He’s also become a bit more robust, has gotten older and is rightly celebrated in Dortmund.” And Borussia also praised Völler effusively: “They have become more stable, there are no falls when you fall behind. Dortmund are doing really well at the moment.”
The BVB bosses do not want to declare the title a big goal – at least not publicly. “We and I are really much too down-to-earth to announce these goals in February because we also know what it looked like a few weeks ago,” said Kehl.
