a close up of FCH's area shows bouncy balls in their box as well. Malen looks like he might have slipped on one during a breakaway while chasing a long-ball?
Somehow, deliciously appropriate that Dortmund's first match without Reyna is their first scoreless league tie in 146 league matches - over four full seasons.
Game ends 0-0, which breaks Dortmund's record streak of 140-something matches without a nil-nil result. Maloney went the distance, but wasn't particularly remarkable.
When defenders on both teams were passing the ball slowly in their own box, you could see the match ball popping up when it hit them... looked like a CONCACAF pitch. You could easily have had a "Liverpool beach ball goal" situation with those, IMO
Maloney gets the start against Werder Bremen, and ... opens the scoring with a header from an excellent Beste corner kick. Ridiculous. All credit to him. They lead 2-1 early second half.
Bremen have picked it up a bit after three subs and look fresher - with Maloney on a yellow, chance he'll come off early. Handball VAR check against Heidenheim - guy whose arm it hit may have been outside the box and was being fouled.
Hanging on by a thread - saved breakaway, each post hit - Heidenheim struggling to finish this one off.
Maloney is now playing striker, as the pointy end of the defense. Just hope that doesn't mean he'll get hurt.
Full time - excellent road win. Maloney ran himself into the ground in a very strong performance. Werder was able to dominate for portions of the second half, but it wasn't enough.
Lennard and friends try to re-activate the title race against Leverkusen. Maloney out there battling hard with Florian Wirtz, and the camera crew and commentator are loving him.
Frimpong puts Leverkusen up 1-0 right before the halftime whistle. Maloney was containing the man with the assist, but a square pass while Maloney was defending against the shot sets up Frimpong, who gets a friendly deflection into the goal.
This performance against Wirtz is interesting from one national team perspective - he may the best at this exact tactic of "man to man mark the best playmaker on the other team" in the pool. Obviously most of us rank at least 4 or more midfielders ahead of him on overall quality, but he's got the stamina, hustle, physicality, and tactical awareness to pull this role off against one of the best.
Adli with a clean finish after a perfectly weighted vertical ball by Wirtz to make it 2-0 and likely over. 8 point advantage over Bayern. Maloney was closing on Wirtz before the pass, and will probably regret not closing harder, though doing so might have meant being beaten by a cutback move. After the second goal, FCH do some subs, and I think Maloney moved to LCB.
Heidenheim pull one back in the 86th minute - free kick from wide right headed back across the face by Dovedan for Kliendienst to score from the six yard line.
Full time. Got very sleepy for Lennard once he was a CB, but I guess it's good for him to have some minutes there to keep up that versatility. Dortmund had seemed to think that was his best spot. The Leverkusen "please anyone but Bayern win the title please" march rolls on.
Lennard got the start against Bochum. Scoreless early second half after Heidenheim had a Kleindienst goal reversed at the end of the half. Maloney just had a sweet clean steal in the defensive box.
Bochum have a goal reversed by VAR due to a previous foul. Heidenheim really conceding too much of play.
Poor day of play for Heidenheim - but they take an 81st minute lead on an absurd must-see own goal by Schlotterbeck. Maloney's OK-but-not-great play reflected in terrible team passing and possession stats - but they lead.
Starts vs. Leipzig. Maloney playing as a 6, but dropping into a back 3 a lot of the time. Think he could be of use there for the national team, especially given some of the inconsistent performances of some others in the pool.
Maloney goes down hard after an aerial challenge. Doesn't seem great - subs immediately jumped up to get warm and he's not play-acting.
Rough challenge by Xavi Simons - he didn't really have any chance at all at the ball. Stretcher coming out for Lennard.