Borussia Dortmund had expected a late collapse and questions about the team’s mindset were a thing of the past.
Coach Edin Terzik was the first at the club to oversee nine consecutive Bundesliga victories during his first tenure. His team started the season with victories over Bayer Leverkusen and Freiburg, despite not playing particularly well.
Then came the blow on Saturday, when Dortmund set an unwanted Bundesliga record.
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Never before in the league had a team scored three goals after the 88th minute, as Dortmund trailed a two-goal lead and lost 3–2 at home to promote Werder Bremen.
“You also have to say that we were a little lucky in the first two games. Today we were punished for it,” said Dortmund captain Marco Reus.
Suddenly all the old questions are being asked again. Dortmund’s title challenge is being marred by doubt and uncertainty, and Bayern Munich look even more confident to claim a record-extending 11th consecutive league title.
It only took three rounds.
Despite finishing second the previous season, Dortmund parted ways with Terzik’s predecessor Marco Rose after an inconsistent campaign featuring home-and-away losses to both Bayern Munich and Leipzig as well as other disappointing defeats.
Dortmund remained eight points behind Bayern despite dropping their rivals in 10 games. Dortmund were knocked out of the Champions League in the group stage and the German Cup in the third round.
Terzik, who had led Dortmund to the German Cup title as interim coach earlier in the season, was brought back with the task of challenging for the trophies again for this season.
But so far, despite summer reinforcements in attack and defence, Dortmund have failed to impress. Goals by Julian Brandt and Rafael Guerreiro against Bremen were the team’s first and second attempts on goal – in first-half injury time and in the 77th minute. Bremen dominated the game.
“It was a very poor performance from our side. We didn’t manage to control the game and we gave a lot of chances in the first half, when we went ahead with the last action, or in the second, when we wanted to do much better,” Terczyk said. “Still, when you are winning 2-0 till the 88th minute, you have to win the game, even if it is not a good game. And how we accepted the goals were really stupid. so annoying.”
Dortmund can’t afford to drop points if they want to challenge Bayern this season – the Bavarian powerhouse beat Bochum 7-0 again on Sunday and has the best start by any team in the league so far , with a goal difference of plus -14. From his three matches.
Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl hasn’t lost hope just yet.
“We are not going to give up already after the third round,” Kehl said before Bayern’s performance on Sunday. “Otherwise we could have closed the entire shop. We want to make Bundesliga exciting for everyone.”
The Dortmund forward travels to Hertha Berlin, a team that has only one point so far, despite encouraging performances against Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Kehl said the team would try to learn from the Bremen Shock.
“We’ll try and figure out the reasons, but we’ll look further,” Kiehl said. “Everyone has big expectations and they have to meet them now.”
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