Borussia Mönchengladbach falls to BVB 2-1

By: otto | December 14th, 2008

In the final match of the Hinrude, Borussia loss to BVB 2-1 in Dortmund. With the loss, Borussia can go to the break with it sights on the rest of the table above it. Hans Meyer can begin to re-tool his squad during the break so that we can begin our climb with the restart.

As expected Jürgen Klopp’s Schwarzgelben were a stubborn side and were not going to leave any challenges in front of their home fans. Both sides were well in control of play when without build-up, a Steve Gohouri headed clearance found Mohamed Zidan who latched onto it and from just over twenty metres drove the ball into the netting. Yet the entire run of play seemed questionable to say the least as resulted from a missed hand ball by Tinga and seemed to be a precursor to the match getting away from officiating.

Only a few minutes later BVB’s brilliant playmaker, Tamás Hajnal lost his temper and caught ‘keeper Christofer Heimeroth with his boots when challenging him for the ball. It was a very poor timed approach and as the Hungarian international’s second yellow in five minutes, his night in Dortmund ended. It was not unexpected though as contact away from the ball was escalating and even though fouls and cards were not exceedingly high, their were many incidents left unchecked on the pitch. Dortmund needed little urging to tighten its defensive play, accepting of Borussia’s controlling much of the ball possession and the already hard tackling match increased in intensity. Before the break, Tony Jantschke was victimized by Polish international Jakub Błaszczykowski that was first thought to be a broken cheekbone, resulting in yellow but many would have thought to be a straight red. Still only eighteen years of age, Hans Meyer commitment to Jantschke not only speaks volumes of our leader but of the players promise.

However ten minutes after the break, the margin of difference increased with Turkish international Nuri Sahin accepting Jakub Błaszczykowski’s pass at the top of area and well placed a shot into the net. With a two goal disadvantage Fohlen pushed forward but Dortmund kept its shape in the final third and rarely provided a reasonable scoring chance.

Five minutes past the hour Karim Matmour’s cross was headed on by Rob Friend but as the ball was headed in Dortmund ‘keeper Roman Weidenfeller stretch out to deny the goal. Finally with ten minutes Johannes van den Bergh gave ‘Gladbach hope as he struck a volley from the edge of the area in. Die Fohlen pressed hard for the equalizer and never let up. A eighty-ninth minute corner saw ‘keeper Christofer Heimeroth dash the length of the pitch to get involved and while the goal was not to be found, they put forth a proud Borussia effort.