Party after pure horror: super striker Guirassy unleashes the confused monster BVB

Borussia Dortmund is not only staring into the abyss, but is already hanging with one foot over the threatening abyss. But then super striker Serhou Guirassy really gets going. BVB wins the small district derby clearly, but in a strange way.

When Myron Boadu ran towards the south stand in the 33rd minute, there was sheer horror in the Dortmund stadium. With a 2-0 lead in the bag, the VfL Bochum striker made his way towards the Borussia goal all alone, protected by keeper Gregor Kobel. At a good distance, the Dutchman had a small armada of Black and Yellows sprinting desperately behind him. This scene had something of a 1920s film about it. A cheeky thief runs away from the embarrassingly duped police officers. Fun to shoot. But at the end of the scene, no one laughed. Boadu shot the ball very delicately next to the Dortmund goal. The striker threw away the loot before the big gain could be recorded. The people of Bochum were stunned, the Borussia team didn’t know what to do with themselves. They staggered, stunned, into the abyss, but did not fall.

What would have happened in Dortmund if the VfL attacker had aimed a little more precisely. The stadium would probably have exploded. The next debacle was just a mini-my away. And the shock waves that it would have triggered would have been even greater than those after the disaster that BVB experienced last Sunday at VfB Stuttgart (1:5). Because the Swabians can claim to be a top team. Not the Bochum people. They are already fighting for survival in the Bundesliga again. The last draw at home against Holstein Kiel was 2-2. That was the first point of the season, but it brought with it the question of whether this team can even win a game this Bundesliga season. One insight from the evening: If she plays like that, then yes. “This can quickly go south. If the third goal is scored, then we have a huge problem,” said Borussia coach Nuri Sahin at the end of a stirring and rousing little district derby, which his team actually won 4:2 (1:2). had won on this cold, wet Friday evening.

This turbulent victory saves BVB two debates that would have been triggered if the game had had a different outcome: on the one hand, the Dortmund team does not have a mentality problem and, on the other hand, Sahin has to withstand less wind for the time being than was previously feared. But BVB doesn’t have a relaxing working week, not just because of the commitments against Celtic Glasgow in the Champions League and then in Berlin at Union. The Black and Yellows have a lot to work on again after this turbulent evening.

A dream attack and boom, Bochum leads

Sahin assured during the week that the right lessons had been learned from the Stuttgart game. What exactly these were remained unclear in practical implementation for the time being. The rather small Karim Adeyemi headed on goal after a few minutes and Julian Brandt followed up with a nice shot. But the Black and Yellows were far from a thunderous breakthrough. The ball went back and forth, but he didn’t get any creative input. Then all of a sudden the people of Bochum stormed off. Maximilian Wittek played Matus Bero, who went straight to Philipp Hofmann and then back to Bero. This was tiki-taka at its finest, completed by the Slovakian with a shot full of conviction. The Bochum annex was out of control. At least 8,000 people came along, caused a lot of blue haze after kick-off and were now celebrating (16th).

And from her point of view it got even better. Boadu pressed Kobel, who had not been played cleanly by Nico Schlotterbeck. The goalkeeper went dribbling and lost. Dani de Wit, whose role was much discussed in Bochum, stood perfectly and pushed the loose ball into the empty goal – 0:2 (21st), oh well! Should the no-frills neighborhood crisis club actually rise up here in this difficult-to-conquer temple? Should the club leave all debates about formations and systems in the black and yellow country? When Boadu ran, it looked like this. “Pride is a big term, but I was very happy with many parts,” said the passionate coaching Peter Zeidler later. “We did what we set out to do, defended with passion, played courageously forward and had periods of possession of the ball ourselves.”

The audience whistled loudly. The anger at her team’s confused performance was mixed with panic. Everything should be better this season. The team appears more solid, better balanced. Exciting when playing forward, attentive when playing backwards. The Edin Terzic football that they were so unfamiliar with in the city should be driven out very quickly. Her black and yellow boy Nuri should make her black and yellow boy Edin forget. But what the people in the stadium saw was frantic Rien-ne-va-plus football. But the whistles didn’t just echo for moments, they woke up their team. Leading the way was Serhou Guirassy, ​​who had been under the best care of young Tim Oermann for a long time. The super striker released Julian Brandt, who shot over the goal from close range. Guirassy then took over the finishing himself. His shot got caught in the legs of the very strong Felix Passlack (43′), his header landed in the goal (44′). The guests’ intensity had briefly subsided and the penalty followed immediately, sorry, header.

With the 2:2 everything is forgotten (for now).

Dortmund was in the game. The monster that this power offense can be was awakened. Pascal Groß was again denied by goalkeeper Patrick Drewes due to a missed pass. The former full-back, who had become a professional at BVB and played for the first time with a “foreign” jersey in his old homeland, was everywhere. Unfortunately, from Bochum’s point of view, it’s also at Guirassy’s feet. There were penalties, captain Emre Can safely converted (62′). The south stand went wild and the fans sang: “Only BVB, our whole life, our pride…” Suddenly what phase was forgotten was forgotten. The cramp, the mistakes, the impending debacle. They could forgive the fact that their team was still a top team off duty. And it wasn’t over yet.

Guirassy was now in full swing. Like a sports car on the B1 at night, he accelerated himself and BVB. Adeyemi played an excellent pass and the royal transfer of the summer, who had to sit out injured for a long time, easily made it 3-2 (75th). “Serhou is great. It’s great to have a player up front where you know you can always pass him,” enthused Can. “He’s always good for a goal and hopefully Serhou will give us a few more things up front. It’s a good start.”

“Nobody knew exactly what happened at the beginning”

Now everything was finally forgotten. The sheer horror of the 33rd minute was banished to another time zone with a powerful kick. The trembling stadium generously ignored the fact that Bochum had actually just had a better phase and Moritz Broschinski had lost the lead again. The guests were not physically exhausted, but also mentally. The sensation was so close, but now your hands were empty. And Dortmund continued to race across the pitch at high speed. Substitute Felix Nmecha shot, but the ball went into the goal mainly because the strong keeper Drews simply let it slip through. The score was 4-2 (81′). “No one here in the stadium knew exactly what was happening at the beginning. We are suddenly 0-2 behind,” Can said on Dazn. “Here in our stadium, with the fans, anything is possible, we showed that again today. But it shouldn’t just start after a 2-0 defeat.” The team “showed character”.

And it could have been much better, but Guirassy left one behind. Can himself hit the post once, Julien Duranville shot just wide. The young Belgian came into play after 66 minutes for Jamie Gittens, who was unsuccessfully dribbling and producing a pass. And he indicated that BVB has a new super option in its incredibly talented offensive. The 18-year-old’s start is gigantic, his handling of the ball is a pleasure and his eye for the man next to him is very well developed. But Borussia’s attack is less of a problem, even if their creative play could once again be improved. It was the pace and individual superiority that decided the derby in favor of the black and yellow.

The defense, the defense…

The problem area is the erratic defense and not just the sometimes neglected residual defense. There were great difficulties against Bochum’s pressing. The south stand whispered and held its breath when Schlotterbeck and Co. went into the short pass to free themselves. At times it had latent panicky traits. Goalkeeper Kobel was stressed again several times, but remained stable. If it hadn’t been Bochum on the pitch, but a top team, it could have ended badly. “You can be outnumbered at the back with four men, if you don’t grab hold, if you don’t attack and don’t break through, then we have problems. It’s this process that we’re discussing,” said Sahin.

In this process, the coach already recognized great progress against Bochum. As did goalkeeper Kobel, who thanked the team for their outstanding performance and that his 0-2 goal didn’t contribute to terrible days in the shadow of the old Westfalenstadion. Incidentally, the Swiss wasn’t particularly critical of the fact that his team was dancing on the edge like careless drunks. It just happens that an opponent creates scoring opportunities. After all, this is the Bundesliga, he said. Meanwhile, coach Sahin particularly liked the “clarity” his players showed after going behind. “We’ll keep playing and keep trying.” This is important in order to be successful, as the young coach explained with reference to champions Bayer Leverkusen. That’s exactly what the Werkself “distinguished last year and this year too.” A surprisingly big comparison on an evening that was so close to the abyss.