The Regionalliga West season, which is slowly drawing to a close, continued on Wednesday evening as the U23s played yet another of their games in hand against eighth-placed SC Verl at the Rote Erde Stadion. In a match of few chances, the 675 fans could see that recent weeks had taken their toll on the Black & Yellows as they laboured to a 0-0 draw.

image

Coach Jan Siewert made some changes to his starting XI, including selecting a new goalkeeper between the sticks. "Jan Pascal Reckert has developed outstandingly over recent weeks. Following a discussion with Dominik Reimann, we decided we wanted to give him a chance today. He's earned that, a lad like him is a perfect fit for Borussia Dortmund," he said of the 21-year-old shot-stopper.

Despite the hosts making an energetic start largely spent in the opposition half, the visitors created the first goalscoring opportunity of the evening when they forced Reckert into action for the first time on the six-minute mark. Both teams cancelled each other out in the period that followed, with lots of long balls and the resulting possession turnover characterising the first half at the Rote Erde Stadion.

It was not until the end of the first period that the tempo began to increase again. More space opened up as a result, but there were still no chances.

On 65 minutes, BVB created their best chance of the game when Gianluca Rizzo latched onto a cross only to see his header from five metres rebound off the bar. The home side were pushing forward more in attack at this stage, though the visitors' solid defence did well to hold them off and as a result long-range efforts were often the only means to register an attempt on goal.

In the final stages, Balint Bajner had the opportunity to wrap up all three points for the hosts, but his effort from close range dragged narrowly wide of the Verl goal and so a hard-fought encounter ended in a goalless stalemate. Fortunately, though, the point did see BVB climb up to third place in the Regionalliga West table.

Siewert said of the match: "I'd like to start by thanking the fans. The support we've had over the entire season has been top-notch. I was particularly delighted by the banner for Jonas Arweiler. I take my hat off to that. As for the game itself, we were lacking in energy a bit today. Having had a demanding few weeks, we wanted to bring in one or two fresh faces today. We gave it everything to get the win but in the end it deserved to be a draw due to the quality of the opposition."
Timo Lammert