When Dick led the team back to Dortmund, he was in a very good mood. Winning the League Cup added another championship trophy to Dortmund's honor room, and filled another gap in his resume.
However, his good mood disappeared three days later. When the first round of the Bundesliga began, Dortmund did not continue their victory. In the Ruhr derby, they played Schalke 04 away to a 2-2 draw. Flat, failed to get off to a good start this season!
In fact, Dortmund was relatively lucky in this game, because in the first half and the 58th minute of the game, Altentop's two goals made them two goals behind. Fortunately, two minutes later, Klinn scored Grid stepped in from the back row and used a long-range shot to help Dortmund regain a point. Then Dortmund launched a bombardment in the away game. In the 90th minute, Arshavin broke into the penalty area and pushed into the far corner under the attack of two defenders. After succeeding, the score was narrowly tied.
"Our state has declined somewhat, but I am satisfied with the fighting spirit of the players. The league has only begun the first round, and our players will prove themselves in the next games."
Dick said it quite lightly after the game. However, most media believed that Dortmund's decline in strength was inevitable. However, Dick was able to mobilize the enthusiasm of the players, and at the same time, Dortmund's tenacious fighting spirit was retained. In this way It may be difficult for Dortmund to win the championship, but their results will not be that bad.
After the game was tied, Dick drilled these young people hard after returning. The drill made them complain. But young players have this advantage. Although Dick drilled them harder, they had no complaints. , because they instinctively feel that not winning the game is their problem.
This approach allowed them to immediately show a state that surprised everyone in the second round.
In the second round, Dortmund faced Wolfsburg at home. Although Wolfsburg has money now, Volkswagen cannot spend money endlessly like Abramovich, so their current strength is still not special. Excellent, but when Dortmund was tied in the first round, people also felt that even at home, Dortmund would probably encounter a tough battle
Something happened that surprised everyone.
The first half was normal. Dortmund relied on Borowski's long shot from the back row to score the first goal for Dortmund. Although Wolfsburg did not score a goal, they also had many opportunities. However, in the second half , Borowski scored a long shot from 30 meters away, extending Dortmund's lead to two goals. This ball completely broke the balance, and Dortmund began to use offense to destroy Wolfsburg.
In the 74th minute, Arshavin extended the lead to three goals. Dortmund, who had a huge advantage, still did not stop scoring goals. Gomez, who was constantly looking for scoring opportunities on the court, finally found one in the 86th minute. With a chance, he received a pass from substitute Donovan after a breakthrough and scored the ball into the Wolfsburg goal in the penalty area, adding another point for Dortmund!
Four to zero! Dortmund showed excellent offensive ability at home and achieved a brilliant victory!
"Dortmund's youth army is starting to work hard! Borowski shines on the court, and his long-range shots are almost unstoppable! Arshavin continues his outstanding performance. The Russian has shown top performance since joining Dortmund. At the same level, Gomez has also started to score goals in the league This kind of performance is enough to make people feel happy!¡±
When the media began to praise the performance of Dortmund's youth team, Dick began to remain calm: "A victory in one game cannot prove anything We played this game smoothly. What I value more is that in the first round I hope everyone won¡¯t praise them too much for what we showed in adversity during the game Young players need a quiet environment to grow up.¡±
Dick's words at the press conference aroused a lot of discussion, and the German media unanimously believed that Dick's words were right. We cannot be like the British media and add chaos to the growth of young players. Just keep belittling us as journalists with professional ethics!
The poor British media has been shot hard in this way.
But somewhat unexpectedly, Dortmund got a relatively quiet adjustment time.
Although externally Dick asked reporters not to praise too much, within the team, Dick still praised what should be praised. However, after he finished the praise, he would still remind the players, such as telling Borowski not to get carried away. In the game, you must defend honestly. It is very important to go forward, but your task is still to defend.
Borowski is a very honest player. He had no objection to this, but nodded to accept it.
As for Arshavin, Dick reminded him not to be too superstitious about his speed and skills. The defenders in the Bundesliga are not familiar with you yet. Once you are familiar with him, you will still use this style of play. It is easy for others to deal with him, and he still is. It is necessary to strengthen cooperation with teammates so that we can have sustained performance.
When the veterans and stars are almost gone, Dick has supreme prestige within Dortmund, and his words can be listened to by the players.
After another week of rest, Dortmund ushered in the third round of the league on August 16, playing against 1860 Munich at home. In this game, Dortmund's young players once again performed well. Although they failed to score in the first half A goal was scored, but Arshavin relied on a lightning counterattack to break the deadlock for Dortmund at the beginning of the second half. Five minutes later, Olic created a penalty kick. Arshavin calmly took the penalty and scored twice. In the 60th minute, Olic scored twice. Leach scored Dortmund's third goal, and it was not until the last moment that Munich 1860 regained a point due to a mistake in the defense.
After three rounds, Dortmund ranks second in the league with seven points and six goal differences, beating Bayern, Werder Bremen and Stuttgart, who also have seven points. The first place is LeBron James, who seems to have begun to recover this season. Wakusen, they are ranked first in the league with three consecutive wins.
In the fourth round of Dortmund's away game to Cologne, considering that the European Super Cup is the next weekend, Dick also rotated some players in this game, such as letting Kyle and Warnes rest, and Arshavin also sat on Cologne is not a very strong team without the bench. However, in this game, Dortmund's performance began to decline. They missed many opportunities in the game, and Cologne's young forward Podolski's lightning strike The attack caused Dortmund to swallow the bitter pill of defeat!
Almost instantly, Podolski became another shining star in the Bundesliga. You must know that Cologne suffered three consecutive defeats in the first three rounds and only scored a total of two goals. Podolski was a temporary replacement. He was transferred from the youth team, and he immediately rewarded Cologne with a goal!
"Podolski's performance was outstandingGermany's youth training has now begun to gradually bear fruit, and I am very happy to see this. Of course, I am not happy about the defeat in this game, even if I rotated part of it Players, we should also perform better I hope that in the next European Super Cup, our players can return to their previous form. We can make mistakes in the league, but absolutely not in the cup."
However, Dick also had to admit that the young Dortmund may be able to perform very well in some games, but a drastic change in status is also very possible. Youth means more possibilities, and it also means instability.
After three days of rest, Dick took the whole team and flew to Monaco. It was a place that made him smile when he thought about it. But it was obvious that although Dick could relax a little while going to Monaco this time, However, he has a more important task.
The award ceremony of last season¡¯s Champions League, the draw ceremony of this season¡¯s Champions League, and the European Super Cup. For Dick, he has not won the European Super Cup. He came to Dortmund after winning the last time at Atletico Madrid. , and Dortmund has never won the European Super Cup. After they won the Champions League last time, they lost to Barcelona, ??the European Cup Winners Cup champion that year, in the European Super Cup. For Dortmund, this is also in the honor room. A blank item.
As the defending champion, Dortmund is the first-tier team in this Champions League, and the second-tier team in this Champions League is a gathering of talents. Although AC Milan has reached the final of the Champions League, their points There are only 97 points, one point less than Deportivo La Coru?a, which makes them a second-tier team. In addition, the second-tier teams include their city rivals Inter Milan, last season's UEFA Cup champion Porto, Turkey's Galatasaray, Ligue 1 hegemon Lyon, Premier League Chelsea, Greek team Panathinaikos and Eredivisie's PSV Eindhoven.
With the addition of Marseille and Ajax in the third tier, and teams such as Celta Vigo and Monaco in the fourth tier, the possibility of a death group in this Champions League draw is very high.
This season the Champions League has been restructured again. The second stage of the group stage has been abandoned. After the group stage, it will directly enter the knockout rounds. This will allow the team that eventually wins the championship to play four fewer games in a season, although there may be some problems with broadcasting. , the income may be reduced, but it relieves the team a lot of pressure.
"Champions Cup reform? It's not possible to say whether the current system or the previous system is betterbut now the competition that professional teams have to play isThere are more and more. Bundesliga teams are okay. If they are Premier League teams, they will indeed be under huge pressure with the previous schedule. In this way, the number of broadcasts of the Champions League will be reduced, but the two group matches are indeed easy to cause aesthetic fatigue The effect of this reform now depends on the subsequent facts. In any case, it is a good thing that UEFA has such courage to continue to make changes. Even if the changes will cause problems, it can also let us know that there will be problems in doing so, so I hold a supportive attitude towards this. If you don¡¯t do it, you will never make progress. "
After arriving in Monaco, Dick accepted an interview. This interview made the UEFA officials feel very comfortable. At least, they encountered a lot of resistance during the restructuring of the Champions League. Now they can Hearing Dick praise them like this made them very happy.
"I hope these guys can assign us a better group. Otherwise, given our current situation, if we are assigned to a group that is too difficult, we may be killed" Dick thought in his heart.