Borussia Dortmund's U19s secured the German youth championship on Sunday afternoon! In the final, the coach Mike Tullberg's boys beat North/Northeast champions Hertha Berlin 2-1 (1-1) in the capital.

Personnel situation

Mike Tullberg made one change to his starting line-up from the cup final and thus also opted to tweak his tactics: in place of attacker Julian Rijkhoff, who started on the bench, Vasco Walz was deployed to stabilise the defensive midfield in front of the back-three of Farouk Cisse, Nnamdi Collins and Colin Kleine-Bekel, operating in a double pivot with Dennis Lütke-Frie. Bradley Fink played as a central striker, flanked by Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Göktan Gürpüz.

The game

Berlin's Jamil Najjar was heavily involved in the early stages in the rain. First, he tested Silas Ostrzinski with a venomous drive from 20 yards out after 5 minutes. Then, he was given a yellow card five minutes later after a tactical foul on Jamie Bynoe-Gittens. Hertha started the game the better of the two sides, forcing the BVB defence to make errors – and punished them in the 12th minute, when Julian Eitschberger beat Tom Rothe and his cross found Luca Wollschläger unmarked, who duly put the ball into the net.

"At first, we were a little too deep and defended badly before we went 1-0 down. Later, the tide turned in our favour," said Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke during the break. Together with club president Dr. Reinhard Rauball, future head coach Edin Terzic and sporting director Sebastian Kehl, Watzke watched the match from the beautiful grandstand in the Hertha's amateur stadium.

It took less than half an hour for the Black and Yellows to get back on track and start to up the pace. After referee Justin Joel Hasmann failed to award BVB a penalty after a foul on Bradley Fink by Eitschberger (which Watzke described as  "a clear penalty") and Göktan Gürpüz and Nnamdi Collins were denied by Hertha keeper Robert Kwasigroch, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens finally managed to beat the Berlin shot-stopper in the 37th minute, converting Tom Rothe's cross to give the Black and Yellows an overdue and well-deserved equaliser.

BVB looked lively, dictating the intensity of what was an exciting and entertaining game. Bradley Fink rounded off a fine display to give his side the lead at 2-1 after being played in by Göktan Gürpuz on 47 minutes. The Dortmund team, however, missed the opportunity to quickly extend their lead and allowed the side from the capital to get back into the game. And Borussia were once again upset with the referee, who, after a tough challenge from Hertha's Mesut Kesik against Lion Semic, again decided not to give them a penalty after 65 minutes.

The hosts had to take risks, giving BVB opportunities to hit them on the counter-attack. Lion Semic hit the side netting on 74 minutes, Bradley Fink narrowly missed with a back-heel two minutes later, Göktan Gürpüz fluffed his lines in front of goal after 77 minutes, and Tom Rothe was again denied by Hertha goalkeeper Kwasigroch with seven minutes of regulation time remaining. But those missed chances and Hertha's final flurry of attacks were quickly forgotten when the final whistle blew. It was all over, and the Dortmund fans in attendance rejoiced as BVB celebrated their ninth German U19 championship.

BVB: Ostrzinski – Semic (Husseck, 85), Collins, Kleine-Bekel, Rothe – Lütke-Frie, Cisse, Walz – Bynoe-Gittens (Bamba, 80), Gürpüz (El-Zein, 85) – Fink.

Goals: 1-0 Wollschläger (12), 1-1 Bynoe-Gittens (37), 1-2 Fink (48)

Wilfried Wittke