Marked for Jonas Lang
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad16 Sep 2047
A one-man rearguard from João Pedro
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match14 Sep 2047
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Match14 Sep 2047
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Borussia Dortmund have 7 straight wins of it.
Squad16 Sep 2047
Tim Herrmann: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Borussia Dortmund have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market16 Sep 2047
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Borussia Dortmund is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad16 Sep 2047
Jonas Lang is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Player ratings16 Sep 2047
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad16 Sep 2047
Mehdi Ebrahimi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings16 Sep 2047
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
In brief
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Match
Another one collected away from home
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Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Marco Frank at his very best
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Player ratings
Michael Winter in the eights
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Aug 2047
SC Freiburg come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Borussia Dortmund did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market19 Aug 2047
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Christian Meyer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Borussia Dortmund the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market19 Aug 2047
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Borussia Dortmund will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad19 Aug 2047
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jonas Lang is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Aug 2047
Words at Borussia Dortmund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mehdi Ebrahimi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad19 Aug 2047
Marco Frank has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Borussia Dortmund will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market22 Jul 2047
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Borussia Dortmund have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market22 Jul 2047
FC Augsburg come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Borussia Dortmund did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market22 Jul 2047
Only the photograph left for Marcel Simon
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcel Simon will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Borussia Dortmund the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Jul 2047
Words at Borussia Dortmund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mehdi Ebrahimi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad22 Jul 2047
Marco Frank has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Borussia Dortmund will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad22 Jul 2047
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonas Lang and Borussia Dortmund agree another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Jun 2047
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Borussia Dortmund is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 Jun 2047
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jonas Lang is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad24 Jun 2047
Words at Borussia Dortmund training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mehdi Ebrahimi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad24 Jun 2047
Marco Frank has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Borussia Dortmund will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market24 Jun 2047
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Borussia Dortmund will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad24 Jun 2047
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Robert Baron, and the manager let it.