A New Hope Has Emerged in the Bundesliga

Will Dortmund win a title this season? Maybe not, but what this team has done in this past week is nothing short of phenomenal. Hell, what this team has accomplished this season is nothing short of spectacular despite losing the best player in the World in Jude Bellingham. Bellingham, unlike many Dortmund players, did not fall to the dark side and join Bayern Munich, but rather joined Real Madrid to better his career instead. Dortmund has found a way to reach the Champions League quarterfinals, remain in top form, and do something they have not done in five years.

              On my birthday last year, (February) I was so happy as a Dortmund fan. At the time, they were truly in the hunt for the Bundesliga, something they had not won in ten years, and they had just beaten Chelsea in the first leg of a Champions League tie. They would beat Chelsea by a score of one goal to nothing on a great run and finish from Karim Adeyemi. By no stretch of the imagination were they the better team, but this gave me hope going forward. It felt like this was the season of destiny for Dortmund, as the resistance to the Bundesliga empire was finally shaking.

              In March, Dortmund during a Bundesliga title race had an easier schedule but a difficult second leg to win going back to Chelsea. On March Seventh, they would lose to Chelsea by two goals which knocked them out of Champions League play. It was amid one of the worst seasons in recent memory for Chelsea. Later that week, Dortmund would play soon to be relegated Schalke and would fail to secure a victory which we will later see how important those points were with just ten games remaining in the campaign.

              If there was a year Dortmund would end the dark years of the Bundesliga it would have been this one with world class midfielder Jude Bellingham on the roster. The game was indeed played on April Fool’s Day and that is what I found myself being: a fool. Dortmund would play Bayern, who just seven days prior fired their coach Julian Nagelsmann in what is still one of the more questionable decisions made by a football club in recent years. Despite that, the empire would go on to win by a score of four goals to two at Borussia Dortmund. With just eight games left, I was heartbroken thinking this was the end of a magical season for Dortmund but that would make me a fool as well.

              Let's pick up on May 27th, 2023, a day that will forever be remembered in infamy in the minds of Dortmund fans. With about a week left in the Bundesliga campaign, Bayern Munich dropped points as Dortmund won. What this meant was all Dortmund had to do was beat a decent Mainz squad in front of their raucous home fans and the Bundesliga was theirs. Twenty-five minutes into the match though, Dortmund found themselves down by two goals. Dortmund would end up tying the match up, ninety-four minutes into it and came oh-so-close to winning the game but the winning goal never came and once again, Dortmund comes up second to Bayern.

At that moment, I did not see any team in the near future taking the Bundesliga from Bayern as they would go on to sign Harry Kane. Later in the month, I will discuss how Bayern Munich has ruined German Football through monopolizing it. Dortmund gave Bayern a run for their money and a true challenge for once. For all the Harry Potter fans out there, it felt like when Dumbledore died and, in that moment, all was lost, but not forever. For now, though in the Bundesliga, let us just say they are the Mongol Empire and look to be completely unstoppable.

              When the Champions League group stage draw was released for this season, I was so sad because Dortmund was in one of the hardest groups I can remember. A PSG side who is always a powerhouse in world football, an AC Milan squad who are currently second place in a stacked Serie A, and a Newcastle side who was simply magical last season and looked like they would only get better from there. On the surface, without Bellingham Dortmund was the weakest team in the group. That is on the surface though, because Dortmund would lose just one game in the entire stage and win what is known as the group of death. This would mean their draw would be a little easier in the round of sixteen.

              In November, Dortmund played their archnemesis, Bayern Munich and got absolutely pummeled. They lost by a score of four goals to nothing, which meant for the fourth year in a row they had lost to Bayern Munich at home. At this point, it looked like Bayern Munich would beat Dortmund at home later in the season for what would be the tenth time (in Bundesliga play) in eleven games and the seventeenth in twenty-two matches. In that stretch of twelve seasons, Dortmund managed to beat Bayern just three times and get draws twice. Pure domination has been exhibited from Bayern Munich and anytime there was hope for Dortmund, there is Bayern to steal it in the most soul crushing way.

I emphasize the fact that Bayern holds a monopoly over German football which will be revisited in a later article, but to say they have dominated German football would be an understatement. In the early 2000s, Dortmund was struggling financially, and Bayern was the only reason they did not go bankrupt. A classy move from that football club, but it shows just how much power Bayern has held and still to this day holds. Two years ago, this team had won twenty-one of the thirty domestic trophies available and as of now has won eleven Bundesliga’s in a row. They had established a true empire in Germany and had found a way to maintain it. Anybody that would come in their way would fall short as it felt like Bayern was using the dark side of the force to control German football.

              In January of this year, Dortmund showed why they on the surface were looked at as the weakest team in that group in the months of December and January. In December, Dortmund would fail to win a single game and in January that streak looked like it would last to February. It felt like a new period of dark times strictly for Dortmund. Then, a switch flipped, and they would go on to win four of their next five games by an average of three goals. They entered the right mode, going into the knockout stage of the Champions League. They would come away with a two-goal victory over PSV and advance to the quarterfinals.

This all brings us to the moment I am discussing, Saturday afternoon. If you have not seen the Allianz Arena, it is quite ironic that it looks a little like the Death Star. It is rare to see Bayern struggle, even more rare to see Bayern in a position where they are in a must win situation in March. It would not be crazy if I told you they were chasing Dortmund, but no. They are chasing Leverkusen who coming into Saturday, is ten points ahead of Dortmund and after their win became three wins away from clinching the Bundesliga. This is with seven games left in the season. So, Bayern needs to beat Dortmund, but the good news is they are at home, and in all competitions have not lost at home in ten years. Have.

              Ten minutes into the match Karim Adeyemi opened the scoring and gave Dortmund a one-goal lead. At this moment, I was wondering how long this lead would last. The chances Bayern would have in the first half were abundant and on any other day those chances would have been goals, but not this day. Throughout the duration of the second half, it looked like either team could score at any moment. That moment did come, and it was a gut-wrenching moment. Though not for Dortmund, this time for Bayern as Julian Ryerson had a beautiful finish to all but clinch the game with seven minutes plus stoppage time remaining. As the clock kept ticking, part of me kept thinking when the moment is that Bayern’s force steals this game, and it never came.

              A team that has seen so many heart-breaking moments, including last May in that infamous Mainz game, had finally done it. No not win a trophy, but if you ask me something far more special; restore a new hope to German Football. In this tale of David vs. Goliath, the empire (Bayern) did not strike back as the rebels (Dortmund) found a way to steal the last remaining hope Bayern had of winning the Bundesliga away from them. The dark ages might not be completely over for Germany, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. A moment like this in sports does not come too often, but when it does, we must appreciate it.

On the surface, it is a result in a season that might not be the true difference in the standings, but it was one that is so powerful for Dortmund fans as well as any fan of German football who does not support Bayern Munich. A new day is upon us and hopefully this will mean greater competition in the Bundesliga, and the fall of an empire and the rise of a collective powerhouse league. For all my Star Wars fans out there, this win for Dortmund felt like when the rebel fighters blew up the Death Star and although they didn’t topple the Evil Empire, a new hope was upon the galaxy so far away. In the country that is quite far away, there is hope for the resurgence of German football thanks to Borussia Dortmund’s massive win.