Sulewski gobsmacked as BVB women reach quarter-finals

"That was a mature performance," summed up captain Lisa Klemann. Coach Thomas Sulewski was almost speechless: "Fantastic! I'm totally gobsmacked." The Borussia ladies impressively demonstrated the magnificent development they have undergone over the previous one and a half years against their third-placed opponents from the Landesliga. The Bezirksliga winter champions overcame their biggest challenge to date and extended their winning streak to 37 competitive matches.

BVB made three changes compared to their league game away to SV Herbern last time out. Marie Grothe returned to the starting XI after recovering from a Covid infection, while Nora Rechenbach and Vanessa Kuhl lined up in central defence and on the left flank respectively. Denise Pörteners, Ana Louisa Zabell and Annika Billig all dropped to the bench to begin with.

The Borussia ladies made a slightly nervy start and made simple errors in their build-up. It came as something of a surprise that the Landesliga side from Hagen showed great respect, withdrew deep into their own half and allowed the Black & Yellows to build the play. That culminated in the home side gaining more and more self-belief – albeit without getting past Hohenlimburg's compact defence and into good shooting positions. Two long-range shots from Mandy Reinhardt were the only glimpses of goal (24, 29).

But then came five crazy minutes at the BVB Evonik Football School: Kimberly Becker finally identified a gap in the Hohenlimburg defence and played a wonderful through-ball into the path of Marie Grothe. Although Grothe's attempt was denied by goalkeeper Pia Holtmann, the attempted clearance struck her team-mate Erisa Hetemi from close range, with the ball rebounding off her leg and into the net (30). Four minutes later, Dortmund won a free-kick on the left flank. Vanessa Kuhl delivered the ball towards the near post and goalkeeper Holtmann first punched the ball vertically up in the air like a volleyball player, before then pushing it into her own net with the second touch. Two goals, both scored by opposing players. The lead was upped to 3-0 within 12 seconds of play resuming. Ann-Katrin Lau immediately won the ball back following kick-off and played in Reinhardt, who delicately lobbed the ball over the goalkeeper as she came charging off her line (35).

"Home game, under the floodlights, first-ever Westfalenpokal second round tie and on top of that we really motivated the girls. It was a little magic potion that worked," said Sulewski in praise of the outstanding attitude from his team. Hohenlimburg were braver in the second period and occasionally carved out chances, but it was the Dortmund ladies who continued to impose themselves on the game. The fact that it ended only 5-0 was exclusively down to the poor chance conversion from Borussia. The duo of Reinhardt and Grothe were responsible for the remaining goals. Reinhardt picked out her team-mate in the box with a wonderful pass that left the latter with a simple tap-in to make it 4-0 (56). Then, Grothe showed her thanks with an intelligent cutback from the byline into the path of Reinhardt, who had an equally simple finish for the fifth goal (77). "Big compliment to everyone. That was highly disciplined, committed and passionate from the first to the 90th minute," said captain Klemann proudly.

The quarter-final of the Westfalenpokal is scheduled for February 2023. The BVB women, who will have home advantage in that tie, will face either Verbandsliga club Germania Hauenhorst or Regionalliga outfit VfL Bochum. That second-round match will not be played until 12 December.

BVB women: Schröer – Klemann, Jung, Rechenbach (Pörteners, 77), Glänzer – Becker – Lau (Auffenberg, 70), Grothe, Bedarf (Zabell, 61), Kuhl (Billig, 82) – Reinhardt

Goals: 1-0 Hetemi o.g. (30), 2-0 Holtmann o.g. (34), 3-0 Reinhardt (35), 4-0 Grothe (56), 5-0 Reinhardt (77)

Attendance: 454

(df)