An old tradition has come back to life again in Germany’s football capital: people from Dortmund are hanging the league table on the Christmas tree again. BVB will spend the Christmas break in 2. place in the league. A year ago this was exactly the other way around…

Best second placed team of all time! Even though the team ended the first half of the season with a defeat, the fans are still frenetically celebrating their team after the 1-2 at 1.FC Köln. The team reached their physical and mental limits in their fourth game within ten days, the 30.competitive fixture in the first half of the season. They could not hold on to the 1-0 lead through Sokratis and conceded two late goals in the 82. and the 90.minute. It’s a shame, but in this case the last impression is not the lasting impression. Borussia Dortmund will spend the winter break in second place in the league after a fabulous first half of the season with a nine point gap to fourth place.

The Christmas month started with a bang! In the 12009.match of Bundesliga history the events went topsy-turvy towards the end. For the first time a team that conceded an equaliser in time added on managed to reply and get the winner in time added on. Ricardo Rodriguez scored from the spot in the first minute of time added on to make it 1-1 for VfL Wolfsburg, after BVB had been in the lead for a long time through a goal by Marco Reus. In the third minute of time added on Shinji Kagawa then got the 2-1 winner for Borussia Dortmund.

And they had something to celebrate in front of their own fans: a 4-1 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt, who did take the lead and then successfully defended with six at the back, but they could not withstand the attacking pressure by the Black Yellows. Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Mats Hummels, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Adrian Ramos all scored to make sure of an emphatic win. Seven wins and one draw at home in front of their own fans is a new record for the first half of the season for the Black Yellows.

In the UEFA Europa League there was a 0-1 defeat against PAOK Thessaloniki, even though BVB had 19:1 shots on goal, but they could not finish in first place in their group anyway. Instead, BVB beat FC Augsburg away in the DFB Cup and qualified for the quarter finals. Whilst they did not go for goal enough in the first half (8:6 shots on goal), BVB really upped the pressure in the second half with 11:6 shots on goal. The goals were scored by Aubameyang (67.) with his 27.goal of the season and Mikhitaryan (66.).

The U19 reached their first target of the season in the Juniors Bundesliga by winning the ‘Christmas Championship’. Hannes Wolfs’s boys won the postponed match against Wuppertaler SV easily by 6-0. This means that they go top with still two games in hand (v TSG Sprockhövel and VfL Bochum) with 37 points and they improved their goal difference to 44:5. The success of the U19 team and also the U17 team, who won their second German Championship in June, are a result of the good work by the Youth Academy Centre that is certified with three stars. Lars Ricken, the Youth Academy coordinator of Borussia Dortmund said: “this is a special occasion to say thank you to all my colleagues in the Youth Academy department, because this award is purely down to their passion for football, their tireless efforts and the excellent way in which the whole team works together.” Boris Rupert