A dream in men’s soccer, reality in the A-youth league: Borussia Dortmund will face Schalke 04 for the second time this season on Saturday (October 19, 11 a.m.). History speaks in favor of BVB.
On Saturday morning (19 October, 11 a.m.), the U19 derby between Borussia Dortmund and FC Schalke 04 will kick off at Dortmund’s Hohenbuschei football park in the DFB youth league.
The BVB U19s have dominated the league so far at will. They have won all eight games – the goal difference of 32:4 speaks for itself. In view of this dominance, Mike Tullberg, coach of the BVB U19s, recently spoke of underchallenge and criticized the DFB’s new youth league system.
Only four goals conceded in eight games – never more than one goal per game – are impressive statistics. With a win in the derby, Dortmund can secure their place in League A early on and thus take the next hurdle on the way to the German championship. Preußen Münster, currently fourth in the youth league Group C, would then be unable to catch up with BVB.
Their rivals from Gelsenkirchen are also well on their way to promotion to League A. Schalke have the second-best goal difference after Dortmund and are in third place behind Fortuna Düsseldorf. However, Düsseldorf have played one game more than the Royal Blues. A win over BVB would put S04 back in second place, although third place would also mean qualification for League A.
The two rivals have already met once this season. In August, Dortmund won 3-1 away at the Parkstadion. Zaid Amoussou-Tchibara scored the opening goal for Schalke. The 18-year-old scored nine more goals in the following games. With ten goals this season, he is the clear leader in the scoring charts.
The situation is different for BVB’s U19 team: 13 different players have scored the 32 goals this season. Six Dortmund youth players have already scored at least three goals this season. Diego Ngambia Dzonga leads the team’s internal scoring chart with six goals.
A look at recent years shows that BVB has been ahead in the league since the coronavirus break, but S04 has regularly knocked the Black and Yellows out of the cup competition. Last season, Dortmund won both derbies in the league but lost to Blau-Weiß in the cup.
In the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons, Dortmund also beat Schalke in the league most of the time, but in both seasons, FC Schalke 04 was the final destination in the cup. The talents of the Knappenschmiede will do everything they can to break this streak by defeating BVB in the league again.