Four opening wins: Klopp turns BVB into fast starters
In the 42 years before Jürgen Klopp took over as coach, Borussia Dortmund only managed to win the season opener on 10 occasions. In the five years under his helm, they have won four of their five opening matches in the Bundesliga. Jürgen Klopp has turned Borussia Dortmund into fast starters. On Saturday they will be looking to extend this run with a win at Augsburg.
The coaching team has so far always, with one exception (a 2-0 home defeat to Leverkusen in 2010), managed to put the team in great shape for the start of a season. In 2008, in the first game under Jürgen Klopp, BVB picked up a 3-2 victory at Bayer Leverkusen - their first away win in a season opener in 29 years. Valdez gave BVB an early lead (4 mins.) which was quickly cancelled out by Helmes (21 mins). Kringe restored the Black ´n´ Yellows´ one-goal advantage (37 mins.) before Subotic doubled it with a header from a corner shortly shortly after the interval (49 mins.). After Dede and Weidenfeller got injured, substitute keeper Ziegler found himself under fire, but BVB battled hard to hold on to their lead, with Kiessling the only Bayer player to find the net (83. mins).
A year later BVB welcomed Cologne to Signal Iduna Park for the opening game of the 2009-2010 season. It was a game they controlled for much of the game, yet they still needed 75 minutes to break the deadlock thanks to a Matip own goal, with Tinga also having a hand in it. It was a close, but well-deserved win (shots on goal 22-7; corners 16-1).
In 2011, BVB opened the season with a 3-1 win at home over Hamburg SV in a dazzling display of fast-paced and flowing football. Grosskreutz put the Black ´n´ Yellows into a well-deserved lead on 17 minutes before Götze finished off a textbook move to make it 2-0 (29 mins.). Playing some outstanding football that day, Borussia took a three-goal lead shortly after the break thanks to Grosskreutz´s second goal (47 mins.). Tesche managed to pull one back for Hamburg, but it was too late too little for the visitors who were completely overrun by Borussia´s attacking power.
BVB also came out winners from the 2012 Bundesliga opener, beating Werder Bremen 2-1 in a dramatic match. They took the lead on 11 minutes when Reus scored with his first chance of the game. In a hard-fought match, Bremen equalised through a header from Gebre Selassie on 75 minutes before Klopp made the perfect substitution bringing on Götze who scored the winner only three minutes after his introduction (81 mins.).