It was an unusual week for Borussia Dortmund's U23s: after the away win at Bergisch Gladbach, there were no more matches in the Regionalliga West in the following days. A normal week of training without a game has been rare this season.

And yet the players put the hard work in, as SV Straelen will be coming to Dortmund on Saturday having built up a head of steam. Bolstered by two victories, coach Benedict Weeks' team will travel from the Dutch border to the Ruhr. Within the space of a week, his team beat both Bonner SC (1-0) and Wuppertaler SV (3-0). After a patchy start to the season, Straelen are on the up. Only two defeats from their last ten games mean they lie 13th in the table. 

The last meeting of the two teams lives on in the memory: on Matchday 32 of the 2018/2019 season, SV Straelen came to the Rote Erde fighting for important points to avoid the drop. At that time, BVB were fifth and could no longer finish top. After going into half-time at 2-2, BVB managed to open the floodgates in the second half and won 9-2 in the end. It remains the biggest margin of victory recorded by BVB's second team in a competitive match. The goalscorers that day included Taylan Duman, Luca Kilian and Joseph Boyamba.  

This season, BVB lie in second place, but have two games in hand. Dortmund's youngest plater Ansgar Knauff had this to say: "We have a very good team and so far we have only lost one game. If we win our games in hand, we'll be top of the league." The 18-year-old has made seven appearances for the U23s this season and is happy with his performances: "I think I'll be playing a lot for the U23s. That's really good for me, because the U19s are not playing at the moment. The U23s have a lot of games. The more games you have, the better. I am getting better and better, I scored my first goal and got my first assist against Schalke." Knauff, who recently signed his first professional contract, is enjoying getting some playing time under his belt in German's fourth tier and has clear ideas on how he expects the season to go: "With this team, we want and I want to secure promotion. That's definitely my target and of course I want to get as many goals and assists as possible, no matter where I play."  

Two long-term injury absentees Patrick Osterhage and Moritz Broschinski could be back on the pitch soon. Both are back on the training ground and training with the team. The match against Straelen will come too soon, however. Kick-off is on Saturday at 14:00 CET in the youth stadium on the training ground. The game will be broadcast on BVB-TV. 
Timo Lammert

BVB-TV by 1&1: Ansgar Knauff – a dream come true