Borussia Dortmund’s narrative of newfound consistency and stability under Niko Kovac is put to the test in the league and cup doubleheader against Leverkusen.
Defeats against FC Bayern and Manchester City, draws against RB Leipzig and Juventus Turin: Borussia Dortmund has yet to prove this season that it can beat even the absolute top teams. Against Bayer Leverkusen, with matches in the Bundesliga and then the DFB Cup within three days, the team now has the chance to successfully demonstrate its stability under coach Niko Kovac against a top-tier opponent.
“Leverkusen is a top opponent, but both teams know who they’re up against; it doesn’t matter whether the opponent is big or small—every Bundesliga match is difficult,” Kovac dismissed the statistics ahead of Saturday’s first clash (6:30 p.m./Sky). “We have the qualities to be successful there, just like last year.” If they fail to do so, BVB would go three Bundesliga games without a win—a first under Kovac. The “return leg” of the Cup round of 16 is already scheduled for Tuesday (9:00 p.m./ARD and Sky) in Dortmund.
While just one point separates the two teams in third and fourth place in the league, the doubleheader appears to be a pivotal barometer, especially for BVB. The matchup may hold the answer to a suspicion—namely, that the 4-0 win against Villarreal was deceptive. The rout, coming in the midst of the first results crisis under stabilizing force Kovac, felt more like a whitewash than a resounding victory. “Borussia Dortmund between a sigh of relief and whitewashing,” headlined the Tagesspiegel; Der Spiegel offered a similar verdict with “With lots of hands and few feet.”
In fact, we saw Kovac’s BVB in its purest form: unadventurous in play, convincing in the final result. Extreme swings and outliers are rare under the 54-year-old, both in the positive and negative. The former credo of “full-throttle performances” has long since given way to pragmatism.
“We’re missing those truly spectacular moments of brilliance where an opponent is completely dismantled on the field,” Mats Hummels complained afterward on Amazon Prime. Dortmund shows little flair with the ball. Their style of play is too static, their approach too risk-averse. “You get the feeling you’re watching a solid team that gets the basics right on the field. But in a negative sense, that’s also all you see,” added the former fan favorite.
In Leverkusen, by contrast, they seem to be a whole step further along in their development. After a rocky start to the season, the massive overhaul is taking hold surprisingly quickly. The impressive win in Manchester (2-0) was their fourth consecutive competitive victory; under Kasper Hjulmand, the team has lost only to PSG (2-7) and Bayern Munich (0-3) in 15 matches—but stood no chance in either game.
Hjulmand wants to build on the “night we’ll remember for a long time” in league play as well. “We have so much potential; we can get even better. A win like the one against City is fuel for our development,” the Dane declared.
Indeed, thanks to their surge under Hjulmand, Leverkusen seem to have momentum on their side. In the recent past, however, Borussia has become a bogey team for the Werkself: Bayer has won only one of the past six league clashes. During the most successful phase in Leverkusen’s club history, no other German team managed to do that.
