In late October, the news broke that Dieter "Hoppy" Kurrat, one of the most popular Black & Yellows of all time, had passed away aged 75 following a long illness. "In terms of stature he was the smallest. But for all of us he was the greatest," said a very emotional Dr. Reinhard Rauball.

image

Hoppy Kurrat experienced all the highs and lows in his time at Borussia Dortmund, where he played between 1956 and 1974, and came to embody the values of our club like almost no other. The diminutive defender made 612 appearances for the Black & Yellows, winning the Bundesliga in 1963, the DFB Cup in 1965 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1966. He even remained loyal to BVB following their relegation from the top flight in 1972.

"In Hoppy I've lost a good friend. But the memories of the many happy hours we spent together will never fade away," explained Hans-Joachim Watzke. "His warm-heartedness and unrivalled wit will never be forgotten by anyone associated with Borussia Dortmund," added Rauball. "We're very grateful to Hoppy and will remember him with fond memories forever."

For Lukasz Piszczek, the man who occupies Kurrat's right-back berth at Borussia Dortmund half a century later, October was not the best of months. The 32-year-old sustained a knee injury in Poland's 4-2 World Cup qualifying victory over Montenegro, dealing a massive blow to his club. With Erik Durm injured as well, Peter Bosz seemed to have a hard time finding a regular replacement for the role. It was an indication that Piszczek, who had played in every competitive game before sustaining the injury, is more of less irreplaceable.

image

In the Pole's absence, Borussia Dortmund's 41-match home unbeaten run – the longest in the club's history – came to an end as they suffered their first defeat of the season to RB Leipzig. In a frenetic encounter at Signal Iduna Park, which ended 3-2 to the men from Saxony, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang fired the hosts in front in the fourth minute before Sabitzer (10), Poulsen (25) and Augustin (47) all netted for the visitors. With both sides down to ten men – Sokratis was dismissed before Ilsanker was sent off for picking up two yellow cards in as many minutes – Aubameyang reduced the deficit to 3-2 from the spot (64). BVB could have levelled in stoppage time, but Aubameyang was denied by Gulacsi and a surprised Yarmolenko missed the follow-up.

It was followed by a spectacular, fast-paced and open encounter in Frankfurt. BVB went 1-0 up through Nuri Sahin (19) before Maximilian Philipp (57) doubled the lead. But they could consider themselves fortunate that the men from Hesse hadn't scored one or two themselves by that point. Haller eventually pulled one back from the penalty spot in the 64th minute, but Borussia spurned several chances to re-establish their two-goal cushion. After Eintracht shot-stopper Hradecky had denied Pulisic to prevent Dortmund from going 3-1 up, Frankfurt equalised through Wolf in the 68th minute. In second-half stoppage time, Frankfurt's Hasebe cleared a Sahin shot off the line.

Having spent 71 days at the summit, Borussia Dortmund were finally ousted from top spot after losing 4-2 (2-1) at Hannover 96 with ten men. The Black & Yellows twice restored parity – through Dan-Axel Zagadou in the 27th minute and Andrey Yarmolenko in the 52nd minute – but when Zagadou was sent off on the hour-mark, Klaus converted the resultant free-kick to put the hosts 3-2 up. Borussia threw everything forward in search of another equaliser and were hit on the counter, with a Bebou goal sealing the points in the 86th minute.

image

BVB continued their DFB Cup defence by comfortably sweeping aside 1. FC Magdeburg 5-0 to reach the third round of the competition. Goals from Gonzalo Castro (42) and Alexander Isak (47) either side of the break opened the floodgates against the resilient third-tier outfit, before Yarmolenko made it three from the spot. Marc Bartra added another from an excellent header and Shinji Kagawa rounded off the scoring with a beautifully created fifth.
Boris Rupert