The hope is great: with luck, the U23s should be able to play one more game in the Regional League West to wrap up the 2017 footballing year. Matchday 21 is scheduled for this weekend. In the last home match of the year, coach Jan Siewert's team meet last placed team Westphalia Rhynern on Sunday, as long as the weather allows for it.

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It is an ever reoccurring problem: the coming of winter means matches regularly get cancelled because the pitches are unplayable. The teams hardly ever get into a normal rhythm, and can go up to three weeks without playing a competitive match. It is something that affects two clubs in the Regional League West very often. Sunday's opponents, Borussia Dortmund's U23s and their guests from Hamm, Westphalia Rhynern's U23s, have only been able to play 17 and 16 games respectively.

The teams' current position relative to one another speaks clearly in BVB's favour. Three wins from three games mean they currently occupy berth four in the table, but still with three games in hand. Things are not looking quite as rosy for the visitors. The last placed team in the league have only managed to collect a meagre six points, and only one of which on the road. Nonetheless, our U23s know full well from their first encounter this season that coach Torsten Garbe's team are certainly capable of holding their own. BVB did indeed win the match 4-3, but were only able to get the winning goal in the 93' minute of play.

The duel against Rhynern means Borussia will also come up against a former player of theirs: Salvatore Gambino played for many years as part of the BVB youth set up, and even managed to work his way into the senior team in 2004 under former manager Matthias Sammer. Club and player did indeed part ways in 2006, but BVB fans still have fond memories of Salvatore Gambino. He demonstrated that he can play football really well in the teams' first encounter of the season, when he scored to give his team a temporary 2-1 lead. 

The final match of the year will take place this coming Sunday at 13:00 CET in the Rote Erde stadium. BVB fans can park in the A8 car park, while away fans may park in the C2 car park.

Timo Lammert