Men's DFB Cup: Crazy and unstable

The excited people in the audience didn't seem to be quite sure what to do with the moment of this fleeting football happiness. The “rollercoaster” that sports director Ole Book was supposed to talk about after BVB's 3-2 win in the DFB Cup against Werder Bremen had the whole range of emotions to offer: anticipation, temporary enthusiasm, nervousness, fear, exuberance and relief.

In the end, the Dortmund part of the audience was put into a state of acute exuberance by a very late free kick goal from Marcel Sabitzer. Waldemar Anton said he felt “pure joy,” and yet sports director Lars Ricken announced afterwards: “It wasn’t completely euphoric in the dressing room.”

Finally, the duel against FC Bayern Munich is coming up next Saturday, in which the Dortmund team would like to show the international audience how far they have progressed in the 21 months with coach Niko Kovač. And this evening had already provided interesting indications of progress. At the same time, however, the appearance provided evidence of ongoing instability.

In this confusion, it took an unusually long time for the south stand to sing the song about the lederhosen taken off, which is ritually sung here before the duels with FC Bayern. However, the question of whether this cup evening will be beneficial for the upcoming trip to Munich is difficult to answer.

Initially, Dortmund's consistent play in all phases of the game supported the theory that the maturation process could have taken the team to a new level. “I can compliment every single one of our players in the first half,” said Kovač. “We let the opponent run, were patient, looked for the free spaces and found them.” The pressing and counter-pressing were risky, almost flawless and precisely measured. Chief strategist Joey Veerman's ideas not only pleased aesthetes, they were also very effective.

Dortmund played like a real top team, nobody missed the injured Greeks Konstantinos Karetsas and Giannis Konstantelias. It was hard to imagine that this game could turn into a drama after Serhou Guirassy and the strong Carney Chukwuemeka scored two beautiful goals.

Dortmund played better than ever this season for 45 minutes; A performance that is so balanced between seriousness, intensity and footballing quality would also pose problems for Bayern. But BVB is still BVB, despite the grounding effect of coach Niko Kovač. This team has not mastered the fine art of achieving Bayern-like 6:1 or 7:0 successes with constant greed. On the contrary: she tends to be careless. “Things then got wild, we were very disorganized,” said Kovač, while Book spoke of an “administrative mode” that the team switched to.

After two goals from Niclas Füllkrug, Mitchell Weiser even had a good opportunity for a third Bremen goal, which could have plunged Dortmund into a serious emotional crisis. Being eliminated from the cup early again would have put a lot of strain on the coming weeks. The fact that it ended well in the end does not hide the fact that this BVB remains unstable.

Even experienced pillars like Schlotterbeck, Waldemar Anton and Julian Ryerson are still susceptible to slumps in performance that are difficult to understand after the impressions of this game. But Marcel Sabitzer's story gave the entire club an emotional boost that a confident 6-1 win could never have triggered.

Kovač later said that this goal to make it 3-2 in the third minute of stoppage time was “totally crazy” and explained what had happened: “Schlotti actually said to Sabi: Let Svensson cross. But I called in from outside: Sabi, please shoot.” Sabitzer shot, scored, the south shook, beer cups flew, the adrenaline flowed, and when clear thoughts returned, one thing was certain: the duel against Bayern this season will probably not be decided because one of the two teams plays to its own strengths flawlessly and dominantly.

Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich are teams that allow moments and phases of weakness in almost every game. That’s what made this cup evening so exciting. And it wouldn't be surprising if the two clubs' handling of this factor also decided the classic on Saturday evening.