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Ousmane Dembele Electric as Borussia Dortmund Overcome Controversy at Hoffenheim
- Updated: December 17, 2016
For the third time in nine days, Borussia Dortmund proved their mental resilience on the road, once again coming from behind to earn a vital point against 1899 Hoffenheim on Friday in the Bundesliga.
Unlike the late 1-1 draw with Cologne on the previous matchday, the 2-2 result against the south-west Germans will feel like a victory for the Black and Yellows. Everything that could have gone against them did go against them.
It started with a number of key injuries, as Dortmund were without 10 men, including regular starters Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Lukasz Piszczek and Gonzalo Castro.
It continued with another blunder from backup goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller less than three minutes into the game and ended with a few incredible refereeing mistakes that could easily have cost them the match.
Head coach Thomas Tuchel was proud of his team in his post-game press conference: “The reaction that we subsequently showed to all those things that were going against us was, I think, extraordinary. I feel that given the unlucky way in which the match developed for us, we deserved to take a point home.”
While the entire team put in a fantastic effort to fight against the odds, the man who deserves the most credit for Dortmund’s latest comeback is Ousmane Dembele.
The 19-year-old was simply electric, his dashing runs time and time again causing confusion in a Hoffenheim defence that had been quite sturdy in recent weeks. The hosts had no legal answer to Dembele’s excellence on Friday.
The Frenchman was only fouled four times during his 69 minutes on the pitch, per sport magazine Kicker (link in German), but that number is misleading and speaks volumes about the way referee Benjamin Brandt failed to protect Dembele.
He had to be taken off with heavy bruising, per the club’s official website, after a number of crushing collisions that did not even yield free-kicks for Dortmund. Tuchel correctly pointed out that his substitution “was a real disadvantage” for his side, as “the tiring opposition would not have been able to deal with his turns.”
Given the way he had punished Hoffenheim throughout the game to that point, it is no stretch to assume Dembele could have made the difference and perhaps provided a winning goal for the Black and Yellows.
Bagging two assists—one with determination and the vision to find Mario Gotze in space, one with a perfect pass to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang—Dembele was “breathtaking,” as ESPN FC’s Stefan Buczko put it, rating the 19-year-old’s performance at nine out of 10.
The vine below shows the quality of his second assist early in the second half:
Notice whose run (top of screen) made room for and kept Aubameyang onside… yep, @cpulisic_10. Not sayin just sayin https://t.co/kDDy2zVH5v
— Sam’s Army (@BarstoolSam) December 16, 2016
It was the kind of match that made this writer think Dembele could win the Ballon d’Or some day, as detailed in an earlier piece.
His outburst of efficiency over the last few matches of the …
