If Bayern fans are suffering after an unexpected reverse, just imagine being a Borussia Dortmund follower this week. It’s hard to imagine a more chastening few days in what we might call “die Woche der Wahrheit” (“the week of truth”) for Edin Terzic and his players.
As it turned out, Wednesday at RB Leipzig was more painful than Saturday in Munich. At least in the Bavarian capital, BVB started with a purpose and arguably edged the first few minutes before Gregor Kobel, who has given us cause to marvel over his presence between the posts, produced a Patzer (howler) that unfortunately for him will be shown over and over again in the build-up to future Bayern-Dortmund confrontations.
After Kobel’s flub in trying to play a pass from the back and the subsequent opening goal for Bayern, BVB were stripped of all confidence with Marco Reus and Julian Brandt unable to influence the game in a positive direction for the Schwarzgelben.
The Leipzig experience was worse in that they faced a tempest from the outset. Dortmund’s former coach Marco Rose had his charges aggressively press a skittish BVB deep inside their own half, and Terzic’s team didn’t look as though they had a coherent plan to stop it.
After 14 attempts to one in favour of Leipzig in the first 45 minutes, it was remarkable that Dortmund were only a goal behind. The second half was more even until Willi Orban settled it at the end with Kobel chasing back having gone up for a last-ditch corner.
Despite a wretched week, Dortmund are still in the Titelrennen (title race) and they should take strength from Freiburg, who face Bayern again on Saturday. One of the fascinations and many positives of the Bundesliga is that the biggest clubs have their regular share of playing in the traditional kickoff time slot of 3:30 p.m. local.
So, while Bayern try to exact revenge on Freiburg in the Breisgau region, Dortmund have a tough nut to crack at the Signal Iduna Park in Union Berlin, who let’s not forget are only two points behind BVB and a mere four off the overall pace set by Bayern. They beat the Schwarzgelben in October when — as on Saturday — a Kobel blunder with the ball at his feet dominated the headlines.
The fixture list perhaps favours Bayern, but only slightly. Dortmund’s hardest-looking matches are the next two at home with Eintracht Frankfurt, midweek conquerors of Union in the Pokal, travelling to the Ruhrpott in little more than weeks.
On the evidence of the past few days, both Bayern and Dortmund have mistakes in them. The team that can keeps errors to a minimum will win the Meisterschale. The tension goes on.
