Dortmund 2-0 Bremen: routine win for leaders
The starting line-ups
Dortmund weren’t at their best, but were still relatively comfortable.
Jurgen Klopp selected an unchanged side, and with the exception of the absent Kevin Grosskreutz, this is the XI he has favoured so far this season.
Thomas Schaaf made two changes. Claudio Pizarro in for Hugo Almeida was enforced because of suspension, whilst Philipp Bargfrede came in for Felix Kroos.
It was a basic 4-2-3-1 v 4-2-3-1 battle, with the usual match-ups all over the pitch.
There were differences in how the shapes operated, however. There was more fluidity to Bremen when they got the ball, as the three players behind Claudio Pizarro interchanged and looked lively, whilst Dortmund were more structured, though Mario Gotze made some good runs inside from his wide-left role into central playmaking positions.
It was notable that Bremen’s two holding midfielders played slightly to the right-of-centre. They alternated positions throughout but tended to be skewed towards that side of the pitch – maybe natural, since Clemens Fritz is really a right-back – and probably quite useful, since Shinji Kagawa drifts to left-sided roles.
However, it meant that they were slightly vulnerable in their left-back position, especially with Marin not offering particularly good protection, and tending to wander slightly from his left-sided brief.
Petri Pasanen had to cover a lot of ground and Bremen were clearly undermanned on that side of the pitch, most notably when Pasanen was caught high up and Jakub Blaszczykowski had thirty yards of space to break into. Pasanen looked uncomfortable throughout the first half and gave away two free-kicks in quick succession – the second was expertly chipped into the net by Nuri Sahin.
Difference in pressing
The starkest difference between the sides was their attitude without the ball. Dortmund didn’t press relentlessly, but did so on occasion which forced Bremen into poor passes from their defence. Bremen dropped back when they lost the ball, with Pizarro and Hunt in their own half of the pitch, making Bremen into a 4-2-4-0. At 1-0, Dortmund were relatively happy to keep the ball in non-threatening positions.
The situation changed in the second half when Schaaf instructed his side to press higher up the pitch, and whilst they weren’t pressing as a unit, it did make them a better side and they saw more of the ball in the final third.
Pizarro’s hold-up play in the first half had been good, but in the second he wasted two good chances – first a heavy touch took the ball into the warms of Roman Weidenfeller when he was one-on-one, then he took the ball around the goalkeeper and tried to win a penalty when he could have stayed on his feet.
Bremen threatened when Hunt and Marin came inside, combined and used Pizarro as the focal point for one-twos, but didn’t get breaks inside the box.
Dortmund rounded off the win when Kagawa popped up unmarked at the back stick to volley home a cross that may have taken a touch off substitute Robert Lewandowski on the way in. From then on, Dortmund were safe.
Conclusion
An understated performance from Dortmund who ground out a result rather than powered their way past Bremen. The main difference between the sides was pressing in specific terms, and organisation and cohesiveness as a whole. Dortmund defended better as a unit and got men forward into the box, whereas Bremen looked, at different points, lopsided and then disjointed.
Dortmund 2-0 Bremen: routine win for leaders
any chance of a juve v lazio analysis?
Seems you always pick our worst games. Last one you covered was the defeat to Leverkusen.
Any chance that you do an analysis on Sevilla – Dortmund on wednesday? Could be an interesting game cause it’s a real final for both clubs.
What Dortmund is doing now is pretty special. To be leading the league at the halfway mark by 10 points is remarkable by itself but to do it with a squad with average age 21~22? Who’s says you can’t win kids?
Dortmund leading the lead by 10 or 11 points is quiet boring. But the rest of the season is also strange and the Bundesliga will be interesting till the end. (even if some teams are very disappointing this season.)
Now about this game. The Pizarro penalty situation was a big thing, because the Borussia won a free-kick with a situation where the player was searching for the contact (and it was nearly no contact). The referee was judging with a different measure. An other point about penaltys is: When an attacker tries to move around the goalie he often loses the control over the ball or moves away from the goal and the angle gets worse. (the question: is it still a chance to score a goal? how will the ref punish the goalie?) An other problem is that a lot of refs don’t blow the whistle if the player does not go down like a moribund swan.
Werder is not very good this season, for different reasons (and that makes Inters defeat big. usually a B-team member tries to benefit and tries to join the A-team. *g). But the last matches Bremen improved, not perfect, often not even good, but improving.
I agree with the GK thing – one of the greyest areas in football.
It happens a lot at the top and the usual response is “X team were awarded a penalty for something similar” therefore you are biased.
Also the refs when issuing a penalty seem to take a huge number of intangible factors into account; such as how likely the player was to score, how *much* contact there was, if the GK eventually touches the ball, the context with regards to outcome of the game, the size of club/atmosphere of stadium, how the attacker has reacted (not enough reaction=no pen, too much reaction=dive), if the attacker is heading out of play after his final touch, etc etc – Too much to list.
It’s difficult to envisage the referee can take *everything* into account and make an immediate decision. A similar incident for Celtic resulted in the referee initially giving the penalty, consulting the linesman and then issuing a drop ball instead(!?).
I don’t think there’s any bias involved – it’s simply an incredibly hard decision to make and many refs aren’t good at calling it.
I thought the Pizarro one was a penalty but his final movement direction was almost strangely away from goal and possible even heading out of play….
‘one of the greyest areas in football’ that’s the point
Yes I know, which is why I replied 0_o
speaking of referees: the 2nd goal is offside
Yes. We could say: the ball would have gone in anyway, but offside is offside.
One other thing I would change is the punishment for diving. yellow card is okay. BUT if the diver is provoking/simulating a red card foul for the defender (like goal scoring opportunity/last man etc.), the diver should be send off. (I know this is an other grey area.)