Who is Borussia Dortmund?
In the Bundesliga, they limp back to fifth place. Haunted by the ghosts of the past year and the trauma of letting the name slip on the final day, they stumbled throughout the season, often aimless and seeming damaged by the experience.
In the Champions League they have fire in their eyes and miles in their hearts.
Dortmund is everything and not nothing; however, they are now Champions League finalists and, in one way or the other, they fully deserve it.
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Their 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday (a 2-0 aggregate win) was the latest triumph in what must be one of the most remarkable runs the festival has experienced in recent years. I didn’t even intend to join the group. They would be beaten by Newcastle United, AC Milan as well and, in this qualifier, also by PSG.
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No, no, no.
Not yet.
They head to Wembley and no one understands symmetry. It’s been 11 years since Jurgen Klopp took them there to their last Champions League final and the heat of that era, of the whole Klopp era, in fact, has been everything the club wants. since.
Your advantage extends to 2⃣ – 0⃣ in total. #UCL pic. twitter. com/T9IY1xyVAg
– Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 7, 2024
Dortmund are not back. No one would describe them as the equivalent of Klopp’s team, but that’s the sweetness of this anomaly and the allure of their success. It’s a charming story that no one saw coming.
Edin Terzic’s team collapsed in Paris. At times, PSG’s offensive push threatened to overwhelm them. Dortmund’s posts shook and their crossbar shook. Its foundations have shaken.
But more broadly, Terzic and his players traveled to Paris with a game plan that worked. They sat down deeply and squeezed between the lines. They channelled PSG’s offensive ownership to the right side, away from damaging central spaces and, above all, Kylian. Mbappé. No there’s a better way to play, but it’s the closest thing to the situations in Dortmund.
Mbappé wasn’t ineffective, but he was never too relevant. Against him, Julian Ryerson had one of his most productive games as a Dortmund player. Jadon Sancho, famous for his attacking influence in the first leg, returned once again confident in possession, but also assiduous in protecting Ryerson, his full-back. That meant Mbappe never had the ball on his own terms, nor the opportunities he delights in.
On the other side of the pitch, Ousmane Dembele and Achraf Hakimi sent 28 crosses between them. In the box, luck on Dortmund’s part, but it’s still the kind of statistic Terzic and his coaching staff were hoping to see. His team is going to be under a lot of pressure somewhere. Playing against a team with PSG’s resources would possibly create a tactical selection for Sophie, but Dortmund chose well. PSG have never been clinical enough to make their technical superiority pay off.
To dwell on the hits on the posts and the rebounds of the ball is to lose the essence of proper positioning in the context of fashionable European football and its many inequalities. Dortmund and PSG are the same. They are controlled in the same way as clubs or for the same reasons.
To make up for this shortfall, Dortmund showed great resilience and humility. Even Terzic’s talented technical players became blue-collar workers on Tuesday and there’s something emotional about seeing craftsmen Julian Brandt, Karim Adeyemi and Marcel Sabitzer harassing and scolding each other. , doing whatever is mandatory for the team.
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That’s what made it so captivating. Dortmund held on. Dortmund threw bodies in front of the shots. Dortmund suffered. Because they had to, because given how unflattering the kindness of this Bundesliga shows them, they were smart enough to give less than nothing.
Today, football celebrates a kind of clinical and blank excellence. Planned celebrations, tactical perfection and composure assured; Those are the new models of the game and Dortmund were not faithful to any of them. It was muddy knees, the smell of frame, and desperation. But Dortmund enthusiasts who travelled to Paris from the Ruhr valley must have felt such overwhelming and guttural pride. : the kind of enthusiasts of all groups who pursue their whole lives, without even experiencing it.
“It’s almost surreal,” Terzic said. Overall, we deserved to get to the final. We came here to play against a team that has a lot of quality. It’s thanks to teamwork, with a bit of luck too. I’m very proud of my team, myself and the total. club.
Last week, Marco Reus announced that he would leave Dortmund at the end of the season. Reus played in the 2013 final and in the following years ended up with terrible, terrible injuries and the stable decline of the team around him. He was confident of leaving the club as a fashion icon, but this season has been on cloud nine as the relationship between him and Terzic has deteriorated due to disagreements over their playing time.
And yet, in this wonderful Champions League campaign, as in so many other Dortmund woes, none of that mattered. This is another changed truth. Reus came on in the second half and stood alongside his teammates, capable of giving everything that was left of his 34-year-old body. It was that kind of night. Primary and simple, with no room for the slightest detail.
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“Tomorrow no one will ask how we won the game,” Reus said. “Shots hit the post probably won’t matter tomorrow. What is being discussed is that Borussia Dortmund are in the final again. No one expected it. It’s just incredible.
No one expected it. From this coach, from those players, from this club. Not now, after so many years.
(Top photo: Ibrahim Ezzat/Anadolu Getty Images)