Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund homecoming was not a bad one, there was a lot of love flowing for the man who created a different vintage of the Black and the Yellows, renewing its stature in the Bundesliga under his reign. That template remains, nurtured ever more so by Tom Tuchel as a vibrant counterpoint to Bayern Munich’s hegemony domestically while remaining a formidable foe in European competition. Robert Lewandowski has gone, so has Mario Gotze, Shinji Kagawa left and came back, Pierre- Emerick Aubameyang, Marco Reus, and Mats Hummels have been linked with a dozen top clubs. In fact, its a miracle Dortmund still exists, it should have been in all reality scavenged clean by predators. But it hasn’t happened and the fans provide an inkling as to why – no money can substitute a match played in the Westfalenstadion. When their fans join in singing YNWA in an emotional tear jerker, it conjures an oasis, a serendipity in an ocean of cynicism. They know football. It’s hard to leave to play for a more sterile atmosphere.
Be that as it may, Klopp came, saw, and conquered. Sort of. Against the run of play, Liverpool scored through Divock Origi. Dortmund sweating the spadework had to rely on Hummels for the equalizer. An underwhelming performance partly brought on by Mamadou Sakho and rub your eyes if you don’t believe, Dejan Lovren. They were the bedrock exposed as the river ran dry. The CW was Dortmund’s potency matched only by Bayern would be hard to stop. But Liverpool’s greatest feat today was to stem that narrative while banishing another, their own innocuous attack, without the services of Daniel Sturridge.
Highlights:
Borussia Dortmund 1-1 Liverpool HD – English… by football-goals-live