Borussia Dortmund delivered a dominating performance to win the first match of their Asia Tour 6-0 (2-0) against the fifth-placed side in the Japanese J-League, Kawasaki Frontale in front of 24,650 enthusiastic fans at a sold-out Todoroki Stadium. Shinji Kagawa and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang each grabbed a brace, with the evening's other goals coming from Mitsuru Maruoka and Jon Stankovic.

Borussia quickly gained the upper hand in the match, dominating the opening 20 minutes and taking an early lead. Hofmann played a clever pass down the right flank into the path of Piszczek, whose pinpoint cross was converted by the head of Kagawa to open the scoring (5). Shortly afterwards Maruoka, the second Japanese player in the BVB team, went close after goalkeeper Arai parried a Reus effort into a dangerous area. The third gilt-edged chance of the game also fell to Maruoka, who narrowly missed the opportunity to double BVB's lead in the 13th minute.

The fifth-placed side in the J-League briefly got a foothold in the game midway through the first half, launching dangerous attacks and narrowly missing the chance to equalise on three occasions before BVB regained the upper hand in what was an open, interesting encounter. Kagawa intercepted a pass in the opposition final third and shot from 17 metres, forcing custodian Arai into a low save. Shortly afterwards the opponents seemed to have fended off a BVB attack, but Castro played the ball upfield again. Subotic, who was still forward following a corner, made a sliding tackle to push the ball to Reus, who ran into the area from the left and squared the ball to Kagawa. The Japan international slotted the ball home from the penalty spot to make it 2-0 (36).

BVB were operating in a 4-1-4-1 formation with Weigl protecting the back four. On losing possession, Maruoka and Castro tended to drop back in line with Weigl to form a three-man defensive midfield in front of the defence. After the break ten substitutions were made, with only Maruoka remaining on the field. Individual training programmes meant Immobile, Kampl, Kirch and Dudziak missed the match.

Ten substitutions made but Maruoka stays on

Weidenfeller denied Kawasaki a route back into the game in the 50th minute. Shortly afterwards Gündogan powered forward with the ball, which was deflected to Aubameyang who coolly slotted home (53). Four minutes later the Gabonese met a cross from Schmelzer with the outside of his right boot, glancing the ball powerfully into the bottom right corner. Following Piszczek's assist for the opener, it was the second goal of the match which came about courtesy of a cross from an overlapping full-back.

Another great goal came moments later as Aubameyang flicked the ball onto Mkhitaryan, who played a perfect through-ball into the path of the onrushing Maruoka. The midfielder was clean through on goal and coolly slotted home to make it 5-0 (59). Subsequently an Aubameyang effort was blocked at the last second (60) before the Gabon international was thwarted by the goalkeeper's agile reflexes (68). It was the centre-back Stankovic who rounded off the scoring after Mkhitaryan won the ball back in midfield and played it into the path of Aubameyang, who squared it for Stankovic to tap into an open goal (80). In the 89th minute, Weidenfeller denied the Japanese a consolation goal with a spectacular save.

BVB 1st half: Bürki – Piszczek, Subotic, Sokratis, Durm – Weigl – Hofmann, Castro, Kagawa, Maruoka – Reus
BVB 2nd half: Weidenfeller – Stenzel, Hummels, Stankovic, Schmelzer – Bender – Sauerland, Gündogan, Mkhitaryan, Maruoka – Aubameyang
Goals: 1-0 Kagawa (5), 2-0 Kagawa (36), 3-0 Aubameyang (53), 4-0 Aubameyang (57), 5-0 Maruoka (59), 6-0 Stankovic (80)
Attendance: 24,650 (sold-out)
Boris Rupert

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