BINH DUONG
Borussia Dortmund have come very close to winning the 2022-2023 Bundesliga title after an important victory at Augsburg in round 33. Dortmund is only one win away from the title. Even in the final round 34, they can still win the championship if Bayern Munich does not win.
Dortmund players (left) have a chance to break Bayern Munich's monopoly. Photo: Reddit
Not only Dortmund but also German football is waiting for the moment when this team ends Bayern's 10-year consecutive domination of the domestic league. Notably, Dortmund played brilliantly in the season without "heavy artillery" Erling Haaland. Replacing Haaland to shoulder the attack is Sebastian Haller. However, Haller cannot play from the beginning of the season until January 2023 due to cancer. During that period, rookie Karim Adeyemi failed to score. When the Bundesliga was suspended to make way for the 2022 World Cup, Dortmund ranked 9th on the rankings. Therefore, it is difficult for anyone to believe that the black and yellow team will climb to the top of the table after round 33.
However, Dortmund surprisingly won all 8 of their first matches in 2023 and earned 10 more points than their opponents since the turn of the year. Since the beginning of the year, Dortmund players have played more focused and regained confidence, but more importantly, Haller has had a spectacular revival. Despite only playing for half a season, Haller is currently sharing the title of the club's top scorer in the league with teammate Julian Brandt with 9 goals. It was Haller's achievement of 5 goals in the last 3 matches that helped Dortmund have one hand on the Bundesliga Silver Plate.
Haller's return has also had a positive effect on his teammates, one of whom is Adeyemi. After a lacklustre start, the young striker has contributed six goals in 2023. Meanwhile, veteran centre-back Mats Hummels remains a key figure for Dortmund, but young midfielder Jude Bellingham has emerged as the new leader. At 19, Bellingham is Dortmund's most-started player in the Bundesliga this season.
Kicker believes that seeing the championship opportunity in front of them has made Dortmund more motivated to try harder than when they were chasing last season. The Ruhr team only won 16 points in the last 9 matches of last season, but this season they have pocketed 17 points in the same period when the tournament still has 1 round left to finish.
Another turning point for Dortmund is coach Edin Terzic, who only took over the club last summer. For Terzic to win the Bundesliga as Dortmund coach, two factors are required: direct rival Bayern Munich must stumble and Dortmund must play well despite regularly selling key players to stabilize finances. Mr. Terzic has both of these. Saying goodbye to key striker Haaland, the 40-year-old strategist brought in Haller and Adeyemi and they did not disappoint him in the decisive stage. Coach Terzic also successfully replaced Manuel Akanji with Niklas Sule, who played 28 matches in the Bundesliga this season.
The last time Dortmund won the Bundesliga was in the 2011-2012 season, before Bayern "dominated" the tournament for a boring decade that many people called the Bundesliga "Bayernliga".
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