2013-2014 Bundesliga Match Day 3 Borussia Dortmund versus SV Werder Bremen Friday, August 23, 2013, Westfalenstadion, Dortmund (Kickoff: 8:30 PM CET) This has been a “short week” for our boys in Black and Yellow. After grinding out a Sunday evening victory over Bundesliga promotees Eintracht Braunschweig, BVB gets right back to it with tomorrow evening’s meeting with SV Werder Bremen. Both teams are entering the match with perfect records against the same two opponents. Werder Bremen, by most accounts, “stole” three points in a 1-0 victory at Braunschweig in their opening matchup. This past weekend, Werder Bremen beat FC Augsburg 1-0 at Bremen. Of course, BVB opened the season by beating Augsburg 4-0 at Augsburg. By most accounts, Werder Bremen did not play very well in either matchup. While Werder Bremen still has a winning record over BVB in the all-time series between the two clubs, recent history has not been good to Bremen in this series. All-time, Bremen has 41 victories over BVB, BVB 39 victories over Werder and there have been 16 draws. However, BVB has won the last four consecutive meetings between the two clubs, the last being a 5-0 demolition at Bremen this past January 19th. Werder Bremen last beat BVB in the Bundesliga back on May 7, 2011. Werder won that match 2-0. Werder Bremen’s last Bundesliga victory in Dortmund was in a 2-0 decision back on April 15, 2007. The following information is mostly from the BVB Website. This information is NOT OFFICIAL: Borussia Dortmund Projected Starting Lineup: Weidenfeller – Grosskreutz, Subotic, Hummels, Schmelzer – Bender (Kehl), Sahin, Blaszczykowski, Mikhitaryan, Reus (Aubameyang) – Lewandowski Head Coach: Jürgen Klopp Borussia Dortmund Projected Substitutes Bench: Langerak (GK) – Kirch, Durm, Sokratis, Kehl, Hofmann, Aubameyang, Ducksch, Schieber Questionable For Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller (illness) Out For Borussia Dortmund: Gündogan (back issues), Piszczek (recovering from hip surgery) SV Werder Bremen Projected Starting Lineup: Mielitz – Fritz, Prödl, Caldirola (Ignjovski), Gebre Selassie – Ekici, Makiadi, Junuzovic – Hunt – Petersen, Elia Head Coach: Robin Dutt SV Werder Bremen Projected Substitutes Bench: Wolf (GK), Lukimya, Pavolic, Ignjovski, Hartherz, Kroos, Yildrim, Aycieck, Füllkrug, Arnautovic Questionable For SV Werder Bremen: Fritz (thigh muscle hardening), Caldirola (ankle issues) Out For SV Werder Bremen: Bargfrede (recovering from knee surgery), Schmitz (recovering from foot surgery), Stevanovic, Trybull (both have foot injuries) Referee – Felix Zwayer Thirty-two year old referee Felix Zwayer will be in charge of a Bundesliga match involving Borussia Dortmund for the seventh time on Friday evening at Westfalenstadion. It will be the eighth time overall Zwayer will be in charge of a match involving BVB. Zwayer was the referee for BVB’s 4-0 German Cup victory at Holstein Kiel last season. Felix Zwayer actually was the referee for this very same matchup last season. BVB won that match 2-1 on last season’s opening evening. BVB’s record under Zwayer’s supervision is an outstanding one. BVB is undefeated under Zwayer’s supervision. Of the seven matches Zwayer has called involving BVB, BVB won five times and drawn twice. Felix Zwayer has been a top-flight Bundesliga official since August 2009. Zwayer became a FIFA referee in 2012. Sideline Assistants: Mark Borsch and Marcel Pelgrim – Fourth Official: Guido Winkmann Projected Spectator Status: Once again, Westfalenstadion will be sold out. As of Thursday, there were a 250 tickets available for the guest block.
Nice write-up! Hoping for a good performance for Miki this time. I'd also like to see Hofmann to start as a reward for the last match, but honestly he's such a great joker card from the bench with his speed and incisiveness, it may be smarter to have him as a super-sub if things are not going to plan. This may be a tough match. 3 points are a must, though.
Agree that hopefully Mkhitaryan will begin to gel with this team. Bremen's been in decent form recently, and depending on how organized they are on defence, this could be something of a difficult matchup.
Thanks!! He'll need some time to get in the flow of things. Exactly. Starting isn't always the best thing for a player. Especially as his results might be helped along by facing tired competition. I expect Werder to do what Braunschweig did. Put eight or nine men behind the ball and try to hit us on the counter-attack. If they try to play football with us, we'll kill them and they know it.
"Decent form?" That's funny. Everyone I know who saw both of Werder's match says their form is terrible and are only 2-0 because they faced inferior competition. I think a team in "decent form" would have more than two 1-0 victories to show over Braunschweig (who most everyone says should have beaten Werder) and Augsburg.
I'd say it is time to change that. Hopefully we will have equalized the score after this season. Indeed, from what I have seen there were less than impressive. I expect us to win, although it might take us some time to score. Personally I'd deem it ideal if we could score early and decisively and then give Hofmann and Ducksch a chance to play in the last 20 minutes or so. But we should not get too confident, first we'll have to score which will not be easy because as you said, they'll park the bus against us. Klopp said yesterday that Mkhitaryan is getting adjusting more and more with every day so hopefully he'll shine tomorrow. I'm strangely excited about this season, even more than last year. I think this could become another remarkable year for Dortmund.
We should. But football is a very unpredictable game. And every team will play above their heads against us and Bayern this season. If the team takes its task very seriously, yes, we should win. Even if they "park the bus." I think we'll see some of Hofmann no matter what the match situation is. And yes, if we have a comfortable lead, I think we might see Ducksch. I honestly think Werder will be more like Augsburg than Braunschweig. I think Werder's attackers will try harder to win them the game than Braunschweig's did. As it did against Augsburg, this should open some things up for us. I believe he just needs time. He lost a lot of important preparation and "getting to know his teammates on the field" time thanks to that injury. What we need to do this season better than we did last season is not only defend, but take care of business better in these matches we "should" win. Last season, we dropped far too many points against clubs we should have been f#cking destroying! I'm not mad at you man. I get mad thinking about the different ways we blew matches last season. This was a good thing many fans noted after the Braunschweig match. Last season, we probably would have found a way to come out of that with a draw. Hopefully, we'll take care of business against Werder too........
Ugh, don't remind me. But it looks like they have learned their lesson, they finished off Augsburg without mercy and kept the pressure on Braunschweig after the second goal. The one goal we conceded was really lucky and normally should not have happened. That's what I hope because I'll be in the stadium^^.
Dutt choosing an attacking midfielder (Yildirim) instead of their striker Petersen. They are playing with an attacking trio of Yildirim- Hunt- Arnautovic.
Good. For me, it means Ducksch should play tomorrow for BVB II. They need him far more against Regensburg. And maybe Schieber is fighting back. Good. Good.......
From texts I'm getting from a friend at the stadium, it seems we're controlling the action, but just haven't scored yet. Apparently Reus nearly scored just after the half-hour.
Reus was close, Mhitaryan was close, Blaszcykowski hit the post, Dortmund in control but can't get the goal in yet. It's a matter of time.
So far we are creating all the chances and have had at least three very good ones to go up but missing them consistently. Everyone playing well, especially Sahin and Reus. Kuba always finds himself open but he just doesn't seem to make the right choice. That shot he had, he went for pure power instead of trying to aim. He had the space.
Sahin with a big miss in the end of the first half. Before that, Kuba hit the crossbar. Reus almost scored a goal but Grosskreutz was offside in the build-up which the ref didnt see so it would have been unfair. Lewa with a good chance but the goalie saved his shot. Arnautovic almost scored with the last action of the first half.