The Borussia Dortmund women's football team remain unbeaten and continue their march towards promotion to the Landesliga. In their final game of the first half-season of the Bezirksliga, coach Thomas Sulewski's side ran out 8-0 (4-0) winners over PSV Bork. Around 400 spectators at the BVB Evonik Football Academy watched Virginia Glänzer and Ana Louisa Zabell bag braces for the Black & Yellows.

12 games, 12 wins, 67 goals scored, just two conceded. The league-leaders at Christmas can look back on a perfect first half of the season, as they find themselves nine points ahead of second-placed Lohauserholz. Despite some initial jitters against PSV Bork, there was never any doubt which team would leave the pitch as victors.

Sulewski made three changes to the starting line-up that faced Hohenlimburg in the cup. Stefanie Scheibe made her competitive debut for the side in goal. Last year, after suffering a long-term injury at Lüner SV, she made a brief 22-minute appearance as an outfield player in the Black & Yellow jersey. In addition, Allegra Gerres started at right-back in place of Lisa Klemann (who had a cold) and Lea Rogge-Herper slotted in midfield to replace Marie Grothe (on holiday).

At a brisk nine degrees, the table-toppers needed about a quarter of an hour to warm up. The game saw few chances early on. Mandy Reinhardt was denied by keeper Anna-Lena Bensch (12), and a shot by Vanessa Kuhl was cleared off the goalline by Julia Faßbender (22).

The opening goal, in the 26th minute, came about thanks to an error by the Bork goalkeeper: Kuhl lofted a cross into the area, Bensch misjudged its flight, and the ball sailed over her head onto the feet of Ann-Katrin Lau, who finished from a tight angle. The goal marked the end of Lau's goal drought: she last netted against Ahlen at the start of September. Down the other end, Stefanie Scheibe had the chance to shine, as she made a fantastic save to deny Melissa Herzberg in a one-on-one situation. "The appearance came as a surprise, but I was of course delighted to don the goalkeeper's gloves. It was made even better by the fact that I could help out the team,'' said debutant Scheibe.

Borussia soon found themselves 2-0 up, again with no small amount of help from an opposition mistake: Julia Faßbender tried to clear a Lau cross to safety, only to unwittingly send the ball past her goalkeeper and into the back of the net (30). Two minutes later, striker Mandy Reinhardt got in among the goals. She intercepted a pass as the opposition were trying to build up from the back, bore down on goal and dinked the ball over Bensch to bring the score to 3-0. The lead was soon extended to 4-0 before the break, as Virginia Glänzer pounced on a loose ball after a Kuhl free-kick and drilled home a right-footed finish (38). "I don't know if I've ever scored a goal with my right foot before,'' said a grinning Glänzer after the full-time whistle.

After the interval, it again took around 15 minutes for the Black & Yellow attack to hit top gear. In the 61st minute, Vanessa Kuhl curled a delightful effort into the far-corner to score the side's fifth goal of the day. PSV were aggressive in the tackle, as they set out for damage limitation. The approach didn't help much, as the Black & Yellows merely hammered home their superiority at set-pieces. First, a glancing header from Virginia Glänzer guided a Kuhl corner into the back of the net (70), then, five minutes later, substitute Ana Louisa Zabell volleyed home a Glänzer corner. Zabell also scored the eighth goal of the day, as she took advantage of a lapse in concentration in the PSV backline (85). ''After some early struggles and sloppy passing, the first goal helped us find our flow and we deserved to win by a big scoreline,'' said Scheibe in her post-match analysis. 

Head coach Thomas Sulewski also had a positive assessment of his side's perfect first half of the season: "You can't get much better than that. The girls are doing well, we are deservedly top of the league, the first half of the season was outstanding and we want to repeat that in the second half." The second round of league fixtures will get underway for the Black & Yellows next Sunday, 4 December, as they host SF Westfalia Hagen at the BVB Evonik Football Academy (15:00 CET). 

BVB women: Scheibe – Gerres, Jung, Rechenbach, Glänzer – Becker – Lau (68, Auffenberg), Rogge-Herper (58, Bergmann), Bedarf (58, Zabell), Kuhl (76, Fälker) – Reinhardt (68, Kaul)

Goals: 1-0 Lau (26), 2-0 Faßbender (30/ET), 3-0 Reinhardt (32), 4-0 Glänzer (38), 5-0 Kuhl (61), 6-0 Glänzer (70), 7-0 Zabell (75), 8-0 Zabell (85)

Attendance: 402

(df)