Planet Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund will travel to Karlsruhe without Nelson Valdez after the player limped off injured shortly before time. Valdez aggravated a leg muscle, with the possibility of a tear in the muscle. So he is ruled out of next weekends clash.

Sebastian Kehl also left the field today after a challenge by Inamoto. Kehl received treatment at the pitch side and proceeded to return to the pitch, but the pain was too much for him. He will receive an x-ray later in the week to determine his problem.

Neven Subotic headed home two goals today as Borussia Dortmund pushed Eintracht Frankfurt aside in a 4-0 win. A match which seen Dortmund sport their new Christmas kit. The win now takes Borussia Dortmund to 6th place after 13 games.

The first goal did not take long in arriving, after just 4 minutes Owomoyela had a shot deflected out for a corner. Tamas hajnal stepped up to take the corner as the ball floated in Neven Subotic managed to nip infront of the goalkeeper to head it into the back of the net.

Dortmund coped with the pressure applied by Frankfurt, and then added a second goal on 19 minutes, Kuba took a run into the box and passed the ball across goal where Hajnal was waiting to slot the ball into the bottom corner.

Only 3 minutes later and Dortmund nearly added a 3rd goal. Owomoyela shot from distance only for the ball to come back off the post and into the goalkeepers arms.

On 26 minutes the third was added Neven Subotic latched onto the end of a long free kick. This goal was his 5th of the season.

Before Half-time Dortmund were unlucky to lose Kehl and Valdez to injury, with Zidan and Sahin coming on to replace them.

The 4th goal was headed in by Santana on the 69th minute. The defender managed to head home a corner and score Dortmunds 3rd headed goal of the match.

Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller - Owomoyela, Subotic, Santana, Lee - Kehl(Sahin,32mins) - Tinga, Kringe - Hajnal - Kuba (Frei, 73mins), Valdez (Zidan, 40mins).

Dortmund protested the suspension of Robert Kovac after the BVB defender was critical of the referee following the match against Hamburg last Saturday. The initial ruling saw Kovac possibly sitting out for a total of 3 games but saw his suspension reduced.  Kovac now has to sit out two games and will have to fork over a sum of 15,000 Euro. Kovac will be sidelined for the games against Eintracht Frankfurt this weekend and Karlsruher SC the following weekend.

Borussia Dortmund Head Trainer Juergen Klopp was fined 12,000 Euro for his actions following the match against Hamburg on the weekend. Klopp stormed the pitch after the final whistle in an attempt to voice his concern with how the extra time was handled. Klopp threw midfielder Tamas Hajnal away and made very clear to center referee Dr. Jochen Drees that he was not happy about the allotted extra time. Klopp has since apologized for his actions and hopes for a better relationship with the referees.

Borussia Dortmund limp into Hamburg with some major injury problems. Mats Hummels tore his ankle ligament during the match against Bochum and is expected to be out for four weeks.  The outstanding star for Dortmund Kuba had nasal surgery on his broken nose. He is questionable for this weekends match but is expected to start training on Thursday. Things however, go from bad to worse for Dortmund. Star striker Alexander Frei also tore his outer ligament in his ankle and is also expected to be out for an extended period of time. Dortmund’s rising star Marcel Schmelzer is also questionable for the match against Hamburg suffering from a torn thigh muscle. Dortmund look to surpass Hamburg this weekend in the standings with a win. A win would secure the Westfalen side the fifth spot in the table. Dortmund are sitting on 18 points in 6th place while Hamburg are sitting on 20 points in 5th place. Both sides are looking to improve on their performances last week.

After three consecutive draws Borussia Dortmund took all three points from 1. FC Cologne on Wednesday evening. The match up saw the guests Dortmund walk away from the RheinEnergie Stadion with all 3 points. The match started off with the guests in full control of the proceedings. Florian Kringe shook Petit away from him and delivered a perfect cross to the head of Nelson Valdez. Valdez forced a good save out of the keeper but his follow up shot could only find the post. Dortmund continued to stay in control of the proceeding until halftime, but lacked the discipline to finish the multiple chances that the guests created.

The second half offered more of the same. After an awkward decision to award Dortmund a throw, they nearly made the best of it. A nice combination between Valdez, Tinga, and Kuba saw Kringe’s header land on the post. The guests were finally rewarded with their good play in the 65th minute. Tinga sent in a beautiful rainbow cross that found Kringe who converted from about 10 meters out past the helpless Mondragon.  Dortmund moved up into seventh position on the table and welcome Bochum at home this weekend.

Borussia Dortmund youngster Marcel Schmelzer tore his thigh muscle in training and will be out a total of 7-10 days. Dortmund will have to travel to Wednesday’s game against Cologne without the youngster. Some options still remain for BVB. Patrick Owomoyela is back to health and could see a start. Antonio Rukavina is the other option having fallen out of the line-up in recent weeks with the stellar play of Schemlzer and new signing Y. P. Lee.

Only after 16 minutes played of todays match against Hertha Berlin, Kuba had to be substituted.

Kuba, who recently was linked to Liverpool, was accidentally hit by an elbow across the face. He was given treatment at the side of the pitch but the bleeding proved to be too violent and had to be replaced.

Whether or not he will sit on the sidelines for the next few games is unknown, but we wish Kuba a speedy recovery.

On a damp day in the Westfalenstadion, Borussia Dortmund once again came from behind to score a draw against Hertha Berlin.  Despite the weather the two teams played some nice attacking football.

Hertha Berlins Cicaro converted a penalty on 31 minutes and Sebastian Kehl equalised with 71 minutes played. Only the two goals were scored, but both teams created alot of chances.

This extends Dortmunds unbeaten run to 4 games and they are sitting 8th in the league on 14 points.

The injury list for Dortmund saw a week of ups and downs. Some players came back to the team in full health, and others have to take a seat due to injury. Tamas Hajnal comes back from the International break with a torn muscle, that was incorrectly diagnosed by the Hungarian football association. Hajnal injured himself during the international break and was falsely diagnosed by Hungarian Doctors who claimed he only had muscle problems. A later appointment with the Dortmund medical staff and a scan showed that Hajnal has a torn muscle. Hajnal will be available on October 26th against Berlin, but has to sit out this weekend against Bremen. Read the rest of this entry »