Borussia Dortmund still has a lot to do after the total rebuilding in the summer. The 0:0 draw at Werder Bremen showed this very clearly for the first time in the new Bundesliga season. Brave Bremen players put BVB under pressure in front of 42,100 spectators in the Weserstadion. National player Nico Schlotterbeck was also sent off with a second yellow card in the 73rd minute. A new coach, a new game system and a significantly changed squad: all of this still has to come together in Dortmund.
The first Werder home game since the death of Willi Lemke was once again a tribute to the memory of the former successful Bremen manager. Before kick-off, the fans choreographed the message “Wille Lemke is unforgettable”. The Werder players wore special jerseys.
Impressing larger clubs with comparatively smaller resources – true to this eternal Lemke motto, the manager of the successful 80s and 90s would have been delighted with Werder’s performance against Dortmund.
Bremen played very courageously and attacked their opponent, who had been strengthened for 80 million euros, early on. This put a lot of stress on a visibly disorganized and not yet well-rehearsed BVB and forced them to make mistakes in the build-up again and again.
Dortmund changes early
Bremen’s best chance was a double chance for Justin Njinmah and Jens Stage in the 11th minute. Dortmund coach Nuri Sahin switched from a 3-4-3 to a 4-2-3-1 system with four defenders early on in order to stabilize his shaky defense.
With national players Maximilian Beier, Pascal Groß and Waldemar Anton, the new BVB coach also selected three of the five new signings who were signed this summer under the guidance of the new sports director Lars Ricken.
The big upheaval continued even on the journey to the game. Striker Sébastien Haller had travelled to Bremen the day before, but was then loaned to Spanish club CD Leganés shortly before the end of the transfer window as the twelfth departure of the season. “That’s the brutality of the business,” said Sahin on Sky. “He gets on the bus with us to Bremen and then later in the evening he’s gone.”
The Dortmund coach played in Bremen himself from 2018 to 2020 and knows some Werder professionals such as Marco Friedl and Michael Zetterer as teammates in the dressing room. However, the 35-year-old had probably imagined his return to the Weserstadion to be more relaxed.
Sending off for Schlotterbeck
Even BVB only sporadically posed a threat in the first half: for example, with a beautiful free kick variation via Anton and Groß (19th minute) or a shot by Bremen-born Julian Brandt (45th minute).
And in the second half, the favorites also had a lot of trouble with Bremen’s forward momentum. Proof of this: after just 52 minutes, every Dortmund defender in this game had seen a yellow card. And when the speedy Njinmah escaped the yellow and black defense once again, Schlotterbeck even saw a yellow-red card.
At this point, BVB had shifted the game to Bremen’s half of the pitch much more often. This resulted in a dangerous shot from substitute Karim Adeyemi (59th minute) and a header opportunity for Schlotterbeck (63rd minute). However, despite being outnumbered, Dortmund were satisfied with the one point in the final phase.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240831-930-219001/1
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