Farewell to an idol, beginning of a busy autumn

In his footballing home, thousands of miles away from the place he really calls home, Leonardo De Deus Santos brought the curtain down on his career as a professional. He spent 13 years with BVB and remained a modest figure throughout: "The fact that I was or still am so popular is actually quite unbelievable. I was not a striker or a number ten, so I was not the one responsible for the exciting moments - I was only a full-back." No, Dede, that's not quite true. You were quite simply the full-back of a Black and Yellow era!

A busy autumn calendar began for BVB, with seven games coming in the space of 23 days. The first of them saw BVB travel to Hanover, where they won their ninth competitive match of the season and remained league leaders following a 4-2 away victory over Hannover 96. In a turbulent encounter, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice from the penalty spot, Mkhitaryan got one and Felipe scored an own goal.

Borussia Dortmund kicked off their UEFA Europa League group stage campaign with a successful comeback, turning around a first-half deficit at home to Russians FC Krasnodar to emerge 2-1 winners in the last minute following a tough battle. Matthias Ginter equalised from a header for the hosts (45+1), before BVB began to set the pace in the second half without actually taking advantage of their chances. But Joo-Ho Park popped up to score a late winner (90+3) from a Ginter cross in his first BVB game.

The next result of note in the Bundesliga came as Borussia Dortmund beat Bayern Leverkusen 3-0, with goals from Jonas Hofmann, Shinji Kagawa and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang keeping BVB top of the pile. It was a lively, high-tempo match at Signal Iduna Park, watched by a sell-out crowd of 81,359 spectators.

It was not until Matchday 6 that BVB dropped points for the first time as they secured a 1-1 draw away to TSG Hoffenheim. Aubameyang became the first player in Bundesliga history to score at least one goal in each of the first six league matches of the season, before Kagawa, Castro, Gündogan and Ramos all narrowly missed the chance to score a winner towards the end. Four days later there was another share of the spoils, this time in their own stadium as BVB were held to a 2-2 home draw by newly-promoted SV Darmstadt 98. Though Aubameyang grabbed a brace to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead, Sulu restored parity somewhat fortuitously in the 90th minute with Darmstadt's fourth shot of the match. BVB went into the international break with 17 points from their first seven games and in second place in the league.

In an historic venue - it was in Glasgow's Hampden Park that Borussia Dortmund became the first German club side to win a European trophy - the German national team prevailed 3-2 against Scotland. Having already featured in the 3-1 win over Poland three days earlier, Borussia Dortmund pair Mats Hummels and Ilkay Gündogan started. The latter scored his fourth international goal on his 13th appearance to secure all three points for the visitors. National team coach Joachim Löw was full of praise, saying: "He's got this dynamism, this mobility. On this form he is almost irreplaceable."

With 25,731 fans watching on at the Millerntor Stadium in Hamburg, Borussia Dortmund secured a 2-1 friendly victory over second-tier outfit FC St. Pauli thanks to goals from Gonzalo Castro and Adnan Januzaj. BVB were without 14 internationals, thus giving some of their youngsters a chance to impress. Both clubs took a stand, extending a warm welcome to refugees arriving in Germany.

Erik Durm underwent a knee operation. The women's handball team also made a successful start to the season: Ildiko Barna's charges followed up victory over SVG Celle by beating Frisch Auf Göppingen 25-21 in their first home game after returning to the Bundesliga.

Boris Rupert