May 27, 2023
These diaries rarely dip their toes into the top 5 European leagues, but the situation that a win today for Dortmund would end Bayern Munich’s run of 10 consecutive Bundesliga titles provided sufficient intrigue to watch their attempt to do so.
This position had arisen following Bayern’s surprise 1-3 home defeat to RB Leipzig last week, with Borussia moving to the top spot and 2 points clear with a 3-0 victory at Augsburg. With Dortmund possessing a 14-1-1 home record, with 11 consecutive victories and dropping points only points to Werder Bremen ( 2-3 ) and Bayern ( 2-2 ), a win over mid-table Mainz should surely be a formality ? However, Borussia have been known to crumble when the pressure is on, and furthermore, it was Mainz who had opened up the title race with a 3-1 home win over Bayern in late April. Mainz though have lost all four of their matches since that win, conceding 13 goals in the process.
Bayern’s final match was at 10th placed 1.FC Koln, knowing that a win for them and a draw for Borussia would see them take the title on goal difference. All matches in the final round of the Bundesliga kick off at the same time to avoid any side having an advantage of knowing what result they need. If Dortmund were to be successful a parade was planned for the next day, where upwards of 250,000 people were expected to turn out. Their success would be all the more remarkable, having sold Erling Haaland and Manual Akanji to Manchester City for combined fees of €78M last summer.
Dortmund have won 5 Bundesliga titles in total, and were the last club to win the league before Bayern. Home is the 81,365 capacity Westfalenstadion, which has been sold out for 15 of their home games this season. For sponsorship reasons the ground is now known as the Signal Iduna Park, and it is famous for the 24,454 capacity Sudtribune being the largest terrace for standing spectators in Europe. It is regularly referred to as the “Yellow-Wall”.
19 year-old England international Jude Bellingham ( 24 caps ) is probably their most well-known player to fans in England, and is rumoured to be moving to Real Madrid at the end of the season. He was on the bench today, returning after injury. Ivory Coast striker Sebastien Haller ( 17 caps ) had two seasons at West Ham, cost €31M from Ajax, and has returned to the side after a cancer scare, midfielder Emre Can ( 39 caps ) played for Liverpool for 4 years and out of favour midfielder Mahmoud Dahoud ( 2 caps ) is rumoured to be joining Brighton and Hove Albion in the summer.
Other notable players in the Dortmund squad include centre-backs Mats Hummel ( 76 caps ) and Niklas Sule ( 45 caps ), attacking midfielder Marco Reus ( 48 caps ) and Portuguese midfielder Raphael Guerreiro ( 62 caps ). 20-year-old midfielder Giovanni Reyna has played for the USA 18 times and Belgian right-back Thomas Meunier has represented his country on 62 occasions but is currently injured.
Bellingham was their top scorer with 14 goals in all competitions, but no-one in the Borussia squad had scored 10 goals in the Bundesliga. Julian Brandt, Dutchman Donyell Malen and Haller all had 9 each.
The Westfalenstadion was the first European ground I visited, apart from a couple of grounds in Berlin as a schoolboy when my father was working there in the 1970s. As part of a European tour with three friends on the way to/from Poznan to watch the Euro 92 qualifier between Poland and England in November 1991, we stopped off for the Friday night game between Borussia Dortmund and SG Wattenscheid 09.
The coach of Borussia at the time was Ottmar Hitzfeld, who despite having had success in Switzerland with Grasshoppers, was unknown in Germany and there were already questions as to whether or not he was the right man for an ambitious club like Dortmund. Their side that evening included Michael Rummenigge, Swiss striker Stephane Chapuisat, Danish midfielder Flemming Povlsen and keeper Stefan Klos.
Borussia were not then the well supported club they are now, as only 30,433 spectators turned up on a soggy, waterlogged night to watch their side play struggling newly promoted Wattenscheid, whose star players were Senegalese striker Souleyman Sane, father of Bayern Munich’s Leroy Sane, and midfielder Torsten Fink, who went on to play over 150 times for Bayern Munich.
My main memory of the match was the practice in Germany for the stadium announcer to say the player number and his first name, then for the crowd to then chant out the surname. This all went well until Borussia made a substitution, with the unfortunate Gunter Breitzke coming on to some booing from the home crowd, leaving the announcer to simply state his full name. A couple of Dortmund fans close to where we were standing were incandescent with rage that Breitzke was coming onto the pitch, but just a minute later Chapuisat gave their side the lead. Their mood worsened when Wattenscheid grabbed a deserved last-minute equaliser for a valuable point.
The one other occasion I have seen Borussia Dortmund was the small matter of the 1996/97 Champions League final in the Munich Olympic Stadium when Borussia beat Juventus 3-1, with two goals from Karl-Heinz Riedle, and unheralded Scot Paul Lambert man-marking Zinedine Zidane out of the game. With two Bundesliga titles and now a Champions league winner, Hitzfeld had probably confirmed he was the right man to be coach of Dortmund !
Entrance to the home game against Wattenscheid in 1991 was 9.50 DM, whereas the Champions League Final ticket cost 110 DM !
October 1993 was the only time I have seen Mainz play, in a Bundesliga 2 fixture at SV Waldhof Mannheim, where in front of a crowd of 5,200 they lost 0-1 to a goal in the 90th minute. The Mannheim team that day included Danish Euro 92 winner Henrik Larsen whilst a certain Jurgen Klopp was in the Mainz line-up and received a 4 out of 5 rating from Kicker Magazine ( 1 = the best, 5 = the lowest rating ! ). Also in the Mainz line-up was Croatian centre-back Vlado Kasalo, who gained notoriety in 1991 by scoring two own goals in consecutive games, one of which I remember being a tremendous header. It was alleged both were deliberate to pay off gambling debts but it was never proven.
Mainz have been in the Bundesliga since 2008/09, having had a three-year spell earlier in the decade when Klopp was the coach. Despite Klopp having had a long career with Mainz, and having success as a manager at the club, he also twice won the Bundesliga with Dortmund and in an interview earlier in the week said he hoped Dortmund would win the title.
Danish forward Marcos Ingvartsen ( 1 cap ) was the top scorer so far this season with 10 league goals followed by Austrian Karim Onisiwo ( 21 caps ) on 9 goals. Other internationals in their squad included midfielder Anton Stach ( 2 caps ), Norwegian full-back Andreas Hanche-Olsen ( 14 caps ), Swiss defensive midfielder Edimilson Fernades ( 25 caps ) whilst midfielder Leandro Barreiro has appeared for Luxembourg on 45 occasions. Ex Strasbourg defender Anthony Caci is uncapped but represented France in the 2021 Olympic Games and ex-Jeonbuk Motors winger Jae-Sung Lee has 69 caps for South Korea and is not to be confused with ex-Nottingham Forest striker Jason Lee !
Bet365, who were live streaming the match, made Borussia 1/7 favourites, with Mainz at 14/1 and the draw at 15/2. The match was also free to watch in the UK on the Sky Sports Football YouTube channel.
The weather at the 15.30 local kick-off time was sunny and 19 degrees and the Yellow Wall was in good voice pre-kick-off, hammering out their version of “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. Dortmund were in their usual yellow and black, whilst Mainz were in a change kit of all white.
The home side made a lively start as Malen was allowed to turn just outside the Mainz area but put a low left-foot shot a couple of feet wide after 4 minutes, and two minutes later an incisive pass from Hummels found Haller, who was able to turn on edge of area but his shot was deflected wide for first corner of the game. Sule, beyond the far post, volleyed the corner into ground and Dahman had a straight-forward catch above his head.
News came in that Bayern had taken an early lead at Koln, so now Dortmund knew they would have to win to take the title if that score stayed the same.
Mainz had their first serious foray into the Borussia half after 14 minutes when Fernandes had a 30 yard effort deflected wide for their first corner, from which a diving header at the near post by Hanche-Olsen crept between the keeper and the post for a shock lead for the visitors. 0-1 !
Dortmund quickly responded and three minutes later they had a huge appeal for a penalty as Kohr made contact with Guerreiro, who went down. The referee was sent to the VAR monitor to review and the penalty awarded. Haller took the spot-kick but Dahmen, diving to his left made a fine save to keep his side in the lead.
In the 20th minute Guerreiro was down again in the area after a push in the back by Martin, and it looked a clear penalty. However, VAR thought differently and play continued.
It got worse for Die Schwarzgelben in the 24th minute. Jae Sung Lee was free on the left and delivered a cross to Onisiwo, unmarked between Sule and Hummels 8 yards out. Keeper Kobel managed to get a hand to the header, but the ball rolled over the line. 0-2 ! Were Dortmund going to choke again ?
Dortmund now needed three goals and piled on the pressure. Wolf did well to get past two defenders on the right, but his cross was too high, Sule chipped over the Mainz back-line for Brandt to run onto and volley on the turn but it lacked power and Dahman held at his near post ahead of Haller.
Mainz were still looking lively on the break and from a short corner, Lee glided past Wolf and crossed towards the penalty area but Stach’s shot was mis-hit and blocked.
Dortmund were forced into a change in the 39 minute as Adeyemi had to go off injured and home-town boy Reus replaced him.
Mainz looked to break again with a long ball forward to Lee, but a vital challenge by Hummels denied the South Korean the chance to shoot.
With 43 minutes played Borussia were able to play a ball to Guerreiro inside the Mainz area but his left footed shot curled over the bar and then Reus made a tremendous surging run from his own half, fed Brandts on left, who cut back inside but his low shot was well saved by the diving Dahmen at his near post when a return to Reus might perhaps have been the better option.
In added on time, Hummels’ 25 yarder bounced in front of Dahmen who made a good diving save to concede the corner, and then Ryerson got to the left by-line and crossed to beyond far post, but Malen could only head into side netting.
Dortmund probably went into the dressing room scarcely believing they were two goals behind, and needing a dramatic turnaround in the second half. To help achieve this Moukoko was on at start of second half at the expense of right-back Wolf.
However, it was the visitors that initially looked the most likely to claim the next goal. A swift counter attack put Lee free on the left inside the area but his shot was straight at Kobel, who blocked with two fists. Dortmund were leaving gaps at the back as they surged forward and were and nearly caught out again a couple of minutes later.
For Dortmund, Brandts’ long-range attempt was harmlessly at the keeper, then Ryerson, now at right back, saw his low cross evade his team mates. Mainz were still dangerous on the break and after 57 minutes Oniwiso was able to run clear into area, but his shot hit the outside of the upright, then Can’s sloppy pass across his own area nearly fell to Lee.
In between, Haller at full stretch couldn’t get a decent contact to Moukoko’s inviting cross and then Brandt slipped but was still able to his cross in. Mainz partially cleared and the shot from the edge of area was going wide but found Malen, who steered across face of goal and agonisingly for him inches wide.
The game was wild but you felt that if Dortmund got one the floodgates could open. Moukoko’s volley across face of goal produced a one handed save from Dahmen then hit a Dortmund player, but rebounded away from the goal. Reyna then had a shot blocked at close range after which Mainz had a 4 on 2 break which needed need a sliding tackle by Sule to snuff out the danger.
A mad scramble in the 6 yard box saw Reus crowded out then Reyna’s reverse pass to Moukoko was fired across goal and just wide. A goal for Dortmund finally arrived in the 68th minute as nice move between Guerreiro and Reyna, enabled Guerreiro to shot home from 15 yards, going in off the post. Perhaps Dortmund’s fortunes were changing and it was now game on !
Die Schwarzgelben piled forward and Haller beat Dahmen in the air, but the ball went behind Reus whose acrobatic attempt with his back to the goal went over the bar. 17 year old Belgian substitute Julien Duranville, who sounds like a City named in honour of Simon Le Bon’s band and who was making his debut for Dortmund, was sending in several dangerous crosses from the right. Reus headed over, and Haller and Reyna both had headers saved.
At the other end Mainz’s Spanish left-back Aaron had a 30 yard free-kick tipped over. News then came through that Koln had equalised so as it stood Dortmund would be champions.
With 7 minutes remaining, from a Reus free-kick Hummels put a flicked header just wide, although had he failed to make contact it probably would have gone into the corner of the net.
With 90 minutes just about played, Bayern had taken lead again against Koln so Dortmund again needed two goals. They seemed to be deflated though and a great cross by Ingvartsen found Onisiwo unmarked, but the diving Austrian could only head into ground and over the bar, then Bartok’s chip over last man was squandered as Mustapha hastily blasted over the bar when he had time to select his spot.
Dortmund keeper Kobel went up for a corner but the ball was cleared and Barreiro inside his own half went for the open goal, but his effort was weak and intercepted.
Dortmund thought they were still in with a chance went Haller headed home in the 94th minute, but the flag was raised for offside and the goal was chalked off. However, there was still time for Dortmund to send another cross into the danger zone, where Sule controlled on his right knee, then flicked the ball up to volley home left footed for a dramatic equaliser.
The referee allowed the game to restart and Dortmund regained possession. The ball was launched in the direction of Haller but Dahmen made a brave punch to clear and the referee blew the final whistle to end Dortmund’s dreams.
Borussia had a remarkable 30 attempts on goals, 12 of which were on target, but ultimately, they fell to an unexpected defeat to hand the title to Bayern on goal difference. Had they taken advantage of the penalty it might have all been different, but they could point to so many “if only” moments. However, full-credit to Mainz who could easily have rolled over in the intimidating atmosphere. It would be no consolation to Dortmund, but it was a cracking game to watch !
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnVtGdVopbI
BVB Borussia Dortmund : Kobel – Wolf ( Moukoko ), Sule, Hummels, Ryerson ( Modeste ) – Malen ( Reyna ), Brandt ( Duranville ), Can, Guerreiro, Adeyemi ( Reus ) – Haller
1.FSV Mainz 05 : Dahmen – Caci, Hanche-Olsen, Bell, Fernandes, Martin – Barreiro, Kohr, Stach ( Bartok ), Lee ( Ingvartsen ) – Onisiwo ( Mustapha )
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