Annual review – February
Reus sets targets in the race to catch up in the Bundesliga
Some brilliant news for the nearly 10 million Borussia Dortmund fans – Marco Reus, highly sought after by a number of top European clubs, has extended his contract with 8 time German champions BVB until the 30th June 2019.
“Marco can shape a generation, just as Uwe Seeler did before him at Hamburg and Steven Gerrard at Liverpool,” said Hans-Joachim Watzke. “The fact that Marco has chosen to remain at BVB in the middle of a sporting crisis shows his high level of commitment to the club, which we are very proud of”. Reus himself said he was “very happy with my decision. Dortmund is my home, and Borussia my team. I’m looking forward to a successful future with the team and to having the fans behind us all the way. There’s a lot of work to be done, and I’d really like to get stuck in”.
But firstly, the “Dortmund youngster” could do nothing to avoid the next defeat. BVB lost their home match against FC Augsburg 1-0, and missed the opportunity to rise to 14th in the table. Kevin Groβkreutz tore a muscle in the fixture and would be sidelined for 6 weeks!
Before the crunch match against SC Freiburg there was some good news for the team’s line-up : Lukasz Piszczek was to be available, as well as Jakub Blaszczkowski and Erik Durm. With 22 shots on goal, 11 goal-scoring opportunities and with an exciting performance, reminiscent of old-times, BVB stormed the stadium in the Black Forest and celebrated a 3-0 victory courtesy of goals from Reus and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, their biggest victory of the season so far, ending of a run of 5 games without having scored three goals in a match.
There was also finally reason to celebrate at Signal Iduna Park as well: In spectacular fashion, BVB turned the game around against FSC Mainz 05, going from a 1-0 deficit to winning the match 2-1 with two goals within ten minutes from Neven Subtoic and Reus. The score was then equalled, before Aubameyang and Nuri Sahin made the final score 4-2. At the thirteenth attempt, BVB won on a Friday the 13th, for the first time in a match this season after falling behind.
With a 3-2 victory against VfB Stuttgart, BVB finally managed to get to some breathing space between themselves and the relegation zone. The result was closer than it seemed. Aubameyang, Ilkay Gündogan as well as Reus helped the Black and Yellows to a third victory on the trot. Signal Iduna Park was being compared to a madhouse as referee Felix Zwayer officiated the 146th Ruhr derby. Borussia Dortmund overcame FC Schalke 04 3-0 in a highly entertaining match, and with it won their 50th derby. Aubameyang (77.), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (80.) and Reus (86.) scored the goals. As a result, BVB took 12 from an available 15 points in February, and shot up the table from 18th to 10th.
In the UEFA Champions League, BVB missed an opportunity for a good position in the second leg with their first-leg 2-1 defeat to Juventus in the first knockout round. Reus scored to make it 1-1, but Juventus reacted well. Klopp said: “For the performance today, a defeat by one goal is OK, it leaves all our options open”.
Hans-Joachim Watzke celebrated his 10 year anniversary. “Everyone told me that it would take a herculean effort. And so it happened,” said the CEO. “Today we have an orderly fixed account, the stadium belongs to us and we do not have any debt. We can be proud of this”.
The BVB family continues to grow and grow. Weekly around 500 Black and Yellows fans are joining their favourite team. “Even in the week where we were 18th in the table, there were more than usual,” said Treasurer Dr. Reinhold Lunow, as he spoke of a trend that he had been witnessing recently: “Evidently many are saying: now more than ever!” At the end of February the club’s members amounted to 116,792 – a new record for the club and third place in the list of Sports clubs in Germany with the most members.
Boris Rupert