From ‘Echte Liebe’ to pragmatism: Dortmund’s evolution is constant

WWhen Borussia Dortmund coach Edin Terzić mused a few weeks ago that his plan for the season had been to make his team “less sexy and more successful”, you might have imagined that his Newcastle United counterpart, Eddie Howe, nodded approvingly. The latter’s emphatic improvement in pace from one of English football’s perennial underachievers over the past two years has been dazzling, remarkable and commendable but, unlike the highlights of the first Kevin Keegan era, was based more on sweat than swagger .

After Dortmund’s 2-0 Champions League victory over Newcastle on Tuesday, Howe may have harbored a grudging admiration for Terzić and may see further parallels for where he wants to take his players in the future. The German side, who have helped develop the careers of American stars such as Gio Reyna and Christian Pulisic, have beaten Newcastle twice in less than a fortnight, home and away, with pragmatic, measured football that saw the Geordies look ahead on both occasions looked just as green. like the glowing away shirts they wore during their match in North Rhine-Westphalia. Tuesday’s match is not only an indicator of where Newcastle, a very differently managed and financed club to Dortmund, may need to improve if they are to match their hosts’ consistent presence in the Champions League, but also reminded us that the Bundesliga giants strayed from the recipe that made them such a popular ‘second favorite team’ for many – just as Newcastle had been during Keegan’s heyday in the mid-1990s.

When the world looks at Borussia Dortmund, much of it still sees the parameters that were built around Jurgen Klopp’s successful team a decade ago. The image of a young, vibrant entity. Heavy metal football, the Yellow Wall, a catalog of color and excitement, defying the odds until big, bad Bayern Munich comes and takes away their best players. Around the time of the 2013 Champions League final in London (lost to Bayern, of course) Real Liebe – true love – became the marketing slogan aimed at distilling the feeling around the club and the atmospheric Signal Iduna Park stadium. It spawned later attempts to do the same, to quantify high emotions for commercial purposes, as Liverpool did with theirs This means more slogan. The two clubs share more than just an anthem.

The cliché now often trumps reality, a cliché that irritates many of those regulars at the Yellow Wall, even though the club has worked hard to maintain BVB’s authenticity (for example by only allowing a small portion of tickets to go on general sale ) while at the same time continuing to maintain the authenticity of the BVB. working on its internationalization. But after the perceived peak of 2013, some kind of evolution was inevitable. It had already started in the wake of the first of two consecutive Bundesliga titles under Klopp, in 2011 and 2012.

That 2011 championship had been astonishing, a veritable fairy tale, achieved on a modest budget (at the time BVB famously had a lower wage bill than Queens Park Rangers), just six years after the club had faced financial and institutional ruin. While they celebrated the title in ecstasy Borsigplatz, the club’s birthplace in 1909, the future had already arrived. Influential midfielder Nuri Sahin stood on crutches that day among delirious fans, knowing he had already agreed to a move to Real Madrid, and the feeling of a gang of friends against the whole world playing for kicks rather than for the money had clear limits. Success is one thing. Repetition is expensive. Good players, successful players, want and deserve to be paid.

Maintaining, building and rebuilding was time-consuming and expensive, and a big part of Dortmund’s (re)growing pains. Its details are often glossed over. Take one of the biggest BVB clichés, Bayern just rushing in and pinching their best players. Since Klopp took the Dortmund job in 2008, ten players have moved between Bayern and Dortmund, six of whom have signed for the latter. The examples of Mario Götze and Robert Lewandowski leaving Westphalia for Bavaria in 2013 and 2014 remain in the memory (obviously as key pieces of Klopp’s beloved team), but they are far from the norm. Such was Dortmund’s success in nurturing young talent (one of the tropes is actually true) that Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland, for example, were both outside Bayern’s financial resources.

It is necessary to understand where the club came from in the 1920s^e century, before it was touched by Klopp’s hand. Borussia Dortmund was both a big spender and a winner, especially after becoming the first German club to go public in 2000, a move Bayern always considered far too risky. That idea was strongly endorsed when Dortmund faded into oblivion in 2005. There is a before and after 2005 for the club. Since then, there has always been a handbrake on spending. So ever since Klopp’s team hit the world in 2013, there has been conflict at the core of the club’s existence. Build, grow, be the great club you’ve always been – but never let yourself wander along the edge of the abyss again.

This is obviously not an issue that will affect Newcastle in the short to medium term. The Saudi club’s only real financial dilemma is how to spend what it wants without incurring the wrath of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play watchdogs. However, like Dortmund, Newcastle are facing a reckoning when it comes to what they want to become on the pitch. Their own growing pains have been evident in the Premier League this season. Howe’s team doesn’t always feel comfortable leading the way, rather than being reactive as is increasingly expected and required of them. That was certainly not the case after Niclas Füllkrug scored a goal in the first half on Tuesday.

Terzić’s team may be feeling better, but only just. It’s been a while since Dortmund has had a team that’s an urgent counter-attacking monster, so BVB’s calmer pace compared to the past isn’t all that new, nor is it tied to the current coach, a former terrace diehard in Signal Iduna Park. himself. However, the word that is the case is not yet fully known. The persistent image is at odds with reality, although significant progress in the Champions League this season could change that.

Newcastle and Howe may have tips they would like to take from Dortmund and Terzić. However, the latter show that clearly defining yourself is a continuous and difficult process.