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In football, every season is like a lifetime and a new season is like a new life. No two seasons are ever the same. It does not matter if the team in question are champions, mid table teams or relegation stragglers. Evidence of this is Borussia Dortmund. In the last two seasons, they absolutely dominated the Bavarian powerhouse of Bayern Munich. This domination reached its peak and turned into annihilation when Bayern Munich were dished out a 5-2 drubbing.
But that is all history. This season was different from the ones that passed away. Dortmund’s dominance in the league was ended by Bayern. In the league, Bayern have been almost invincible. And this lack of slip-ups by its opponent has harmed Borussia greatly.
When the season wound up, Bayern sat on first with 91 points while Borussia finished second by a long distance on 66 points. While the gap seems huge, we must take into account the fact that Bayern Munich have enjoyed a dream season and rewritten every record they could get their hands on. Also, we must take into account that the German schedule is one of 34 games and 19 wins out of them is more than decent. One thing that Borussia fans would hate is that rivals Schalke did a double over them. Both the matches ended 2-1 to Schalke and were undoubtedly the lowest points of the campaign. The best match in Borussia’s season was the 6-1 drubbing of Greuther Furth, but the most memorable was the 3-3 draw that was played at Eintracht Frankfurt. Reus and Gotze were chief destroyers in that match.
The Pokal champions looked set for another run at the cup when they were drawn against Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals. Last year’s finalists had a rematch and the winner was a near certainty to sweep home the cup. Bayern pulled off a master-class and freed themselves from the mental block that came when they faced Borussia. They had started the process when they had defeated Dortmund 2-1 in the DFB Super cup, but a crucial win like this ensured that Bayern were re-establishing themselves over Dortmund. The loss to Bayern dimmed in the memory of most due to the performance Borussia had put in to beat Hannover 96, 5-1. Gotze had scored a great hat-trick in the game and the Polish duo of Lewandowski and B?aszczykowski too chipped in with a goal apiece.
But their real forte this season has been Europe. They have been simply magnificent on European nights. The form which seemed to have been missing from the league campaign was present in abundance during continental ties. Borussia’s European story has been nothing short of incredible. They were drawn in the ‘Group of Death’ along with three other league champions in Manchester City, Ajax and Real Madrid.
The way they went about their business is worthy of respect. They defeated all their visitors and, in the cases of City and Ajax, did it pretty convincingly. Their travels were no less magnificent. While they defeated Ajax, it was Pepe’s last minutes equalizer and an unbelievable display by Hart that saved the Los Blancos and Mancini’s City team from home losses. The next round versus Shakhtar Donetsk was an entertaining tie between attacking teams. While the first leg ended in a 2-2 draw at Donetsk, it was assumed that BvB would dispose of their opponents with ease at the Signal Iduna Park, and that is exactly what they did. For any football fan, the quarterfinal between Malaga and Borussia is unforgettable. While the first leg was a scoreless draw, it was more entertaining than a 10-goal thriller. The second leg was awesome to say the least. After needing to score 2 goals in 10 minutes to counter Malaga’s pair of away goals, no one could be blamed for eliminating the thoughts of a Dortmund comeback. Klopp’s men pulled off a United-esque comeback and scored twice in extra time to reach the semifinals.
The semifinals were a spectacle that took their football to the next level. The 4-1 victory over Madrid has to be their match of the season. On that night, they clicked perfectly. With the exception of Hummels everyone had a great game, and Lewandowski was on another planet with his finishing prowess. Getting four goals in a match is a huge achievement as it is; to achieve the feat in a European semifinal against the most successful team in Europe is the stuff dreams are made off. The reverse fixture conversely was the low point in Dortmund’s European campaign. They were nearly knocked out but survived to add another chapter to their European odyssey.
Player of the year
For me, the player of the year has to be Robert Lewandowski. The Polish marksman has simply been awesome this season. His combination of goals and assists is mind-boggling. In his 47 appearances this season, he has scored 35 goals and set up 10 more. It directly means that he has been involved in scoring in every match he has appeared bar two. His awesome streak garnered more headlines than his team’s results and he more than covered for the injury enforced absences of B?aszczykowski and Gotze. But there is no doubt that had these two had an injury-free campaign, Borussia would have been much closer to Bayern in the final standings.
Match of the year
The 4-1 win against Real has to be the match of the year for Dortmund. It was a historic night for the men in yellow and their performance was as perfect as a footballing performance can be. Had it not been for Lopez’s impressive keeping, Dortmund would have scored more.
Most Valuable Player
Marco Reus: A new arrival this season, he more than filled void left by Kagawa. For me, his pace, strength and directness offer more than Kagawa did. Lewandowski may have been hitting all the goals but Reus was not far behind. One of the quickest runners with the ball on his feet, Reus was a catalyst at many key moments.
Goal of the year
Malaga led 1-0 at the Westfalenstadion and Borussia needed a goal. Suddenly, an innocuous pass was played to Reus who back-heeled it without looking at the ball. It fell perfectly for Lewandowski who finished with aplomb. In terms of pure skill and implementation, this is the goal of the year.
Moment of the year
The comeback against Malaga showed loads of character. When all hope seemed lost, Reus scraped in a goal and minutes later, Santana bundled over from an offside position to send the Signal Iduna park into raptures.
This season, the dream team that was built by Klopp will be broken up. Gotze has confirmed his move to Bayern while Lewandowski seems to be on the exit road too. It would be a proper send-off to this great group of players if they defeat Bayern on Saturday night. Not only would the win bring them respect and status, it would also provide them with a lot of cash which would help in replacing the departed members of the squad.
