Thanks boys - thought I'd try one more attempt. Part Six - Dortmund
With a league title under my belt at last I am in good spirits as I cast my eye around Europe looking for my next challenge. I settle on Germany as my next stop and decide to try out
Borrusia Dortmund for size. The team plays at the magnificent
Westfalenstadion, which has a capacity of 83,000. Amazingly they have no money in the bank at all when I take over on 29th June 2003 but I have been allocated £1.8M in transfer funds. They have 55 players on the books and I see a number of well-known players. I recognise Czech internationals
Tomas Rosicky and
Jan Koller, Brazilians
Amoroso,
Dede and
Ewerthon as well as
Christian Worns, Sebastian Kehl, Cristoph Metzelder, Torsten Frings and
Lars Ricken. The bookies make
FC Bayern the overwhelming title favourites with us at 16-1 second favourites with
VfB Stuttgart.
The German League Cup is played at the start of the season and begins in late July. We win our Quarter Final against
HSV on penalties and three days later beat
VfB Stuttgart 2-0 in the Semi Final. The final was played against great rivals
FC Bayern and we took an early lead through teenage midfielder
Stefan Hoffmann. We outplayed Bayern in the first half but they came back strongly after the break. They tied the game on 70 minutes through
Roy Makaay and went ahead 5 minutes later,
Mehmet Scholl getting the goal. But moments later
Hoffmann got his second of the game to put us back on terms. There was no further scoring and the trophy was decided on penalties, Bayern winning the shootout 4-3.
The league campaign gets underway in August with an excellent 3-0 win at home to Hertha BSC. Sebastian Kehl puts us in front shortly before half time and
Tomas Rosicky adds a second after the break before being withdrawn what appears to be a minor knock. He is replaced by
Stefan Hoffmann who scores our third ten minutes after coming on.
Rosicky’s injury is worse than it first appears and he will be out for three weeks with a groin strain. It is Champions League action in midweek with the home leg of our qualifying game against
Dinamo of Croatia. The game is quite one-sided and I am disappointed that we have just a single goal from
Ewerthon to show for our efforts. We are soon back into league action, travelling to Werder Bremen and getting another 1-0 win courtesy of
Cristoph Metzelder. A busy month continues with a trip to non-league
Aindling in the German Cup and I field my second string. The home side catch us cold and score in the first minute but then we get into our stride and score three times before the break. But we go to sleep after the interval and concede another goal before was score again late on for a 4-2 win. I revert to my favoured eleven for the second leg of our tie with
Dinamo and an even contest remains scoreless until 15 minutes from time when the home side equalise. With extra time beckoning we get a crucial away goal through
Amoroso and a stoppage time strike from young
Hoffmann makes double sure. A 2-1 win on the night and a 3-1 aggregate victory takes us into the group stages alongside
Real Sociedad, Besiktas and
Rosenborg. A frantic month is rounded off with a league match at home to
Rostock and goals from
Amoroso and
Ewerthon give us a 2-0 win.
Going into September we are second in the table on goal difference behind surprise leaders
Bochum and bookies favourites
FC Bayern are 12th, having lost two of their three games so far.
Rosicky is back in the team for the trip to
VfB Stuttgart and his goal in the first minutes proves crucial as we win 1-0. But no sooner is he fit again that he hurts his wrist in training and will require another three-week layoff. The visit of 1860 Munchen brings another 1-0 win – we are far from prolific in attack it seems but defensively we look pretty good, thanks in no small part to young goalkeeper
Roman Weidenfeller. With 5 straight wins we have yet to concede a goal in the league, as do surprise package
Bochum. We do concede a goal in our first Champions League group match at Real Sociedad and an early one at that. But two strikes from the excellent
Hoffmann takes us into the interval in the lead.
Amoroso adds a third in the second half for a satisfying 3-1 win. We concede again in the league match at
1.FC Koln and go into half time a goal down. The home side have a man sent off but we fail to take advantage and with less than 20 minutes remaining we go two down. But late goals from
Hoffmann and
Amoroso salvage a point in a 2-2 draw. We make up for that disappointment in our next league game with an excellent 4-0 win at home to
Frankfurt with
Hoffmann scoring twice and
Ewerthon and
Amoroso also on target. We end the month with Champions League action and once again
Hoffmann is the man, scoring the only goal in our 1-0 defeat of
Rosenborg. We are now on top of the table, two points clear of
Bochum.
FC Bayern have been on a roll and 5 straight wins has moved them up to 3rd, just ahead of unbeaten
Kaiserslautern.
October begins with a top of the table clash as we travel to
Bochum.
Rosicky is back in full training but still slightly lacking in fitness so
Hoffmann retains his place in the starting eleven and the Czech sits on the bench. An enthralling contest ensues as the home side really put us under pressure. They take an early lead and have ample opportunities in the first half to extend their advantage. But we improve significantly after the interval and goals from
Amoroso and
Hoffmann put us in front. But Bochum don’t lie down and within minutes of our taking the lead they square the game. The 2-2 scoreline flatters us slightly given the balance of play but both sides at least maintain their unbeaten records. The trip to
SC Freiburg sees
Rosicky come off the bench at half time and come through 45 minutes unscathed,
Amoroso and
Ewerthon providing the goals in our 2-0 win. It’s off to Istanbul next for Champions League action and a tough game at
Besiktas. We fall behind in the second half but
Ewerthon rescues a point with an equaliser.
Rosicky starts the game at home to
Hannover 96 and his corner just before half time provides
Ewerthon with another goal. Unfortunately we are slack at the back and the visitors snatch a goal in the second half for a 1-1 draw. At the end of the month we still head the table but it is all very tight with just three points separating the top four. Our star this month has been 33-year-old keeper
Guillame Warmuz who has taken over from
Weidenfeller after the youngster was injured. Transfer listed when I took over, the experienced Frenchman has had a great month and is recognised with a Player of the Month award.
We open November with a trip to
HSV and a rather poor performance brings our first league defeat of the season as we lose 1-0. We also lose the influential
Lars Ricken for a month with torn knee ligaments. We bounce back with a 2-0 defeat of
Besiktas in the Champions League with
Amoroso and
Rosicky providing the goals, although with more than half of out 25 scoring attempts off target we really should have won by a bigger margin. We dominate our next league game, beating
Gladbach 4-0 –
Amoroso excels, scoring twice with
Hoffmann and
Ewerthon also on target. The same three are amongst the goals again as we dump
Hannover 96 out of the German Cup with a 3-0 win at home. We face a tough test in the league next, a trip to high-flying
Kaiserslautern. They have lost their unbeaten record but they are in excellent form nonetheless, and in
Miroslav Klose they have a striker at the top of his game. It’s a cracking game with both sides attacking freely and I am surprised that there is still no score at half time. The home side take the lead within five minutes of the restart however, but shortly after that we equalise through
Amoroso. Despite chances at both ends there is no further scoring and we can be thankful for the brilliance of keeper
Warmuz in keeping it that way. I have to rest a few players for the visit of
Real Sociedad but we have no difficulty in securing a terrific 6-0 win to qualify for the knockout stages with one group game remaining. We close the month with what will be one of the biggest games of the season, a visit by
FC Bayern. My feeling is that if we are to stop the Munich giants from winning their 5th Bundesliga title in 6 years then we have to win today. Unfortunately we fail in that objective as, despite taking an early lead through
Ewerthon we can’t build on our advantage and the visitors equalise in first-half stoppage time. They outplay us in the second half and but for keeper
Warmuz we would surely have lost. As it is he denies the Bayern attack time after time and we hold on for a 1-1 draw. We have now slipped to 3rd place in the league, a point behind Kaiseslautern and a further point behind FC Bayern. Striker Amoroso is recognised as Player of the Month thanks to his fine strike rate of 7 goals in his last 5 starts.
Our first game in December is a midweek cup-tie at
Bochum. After a promising start to the season their league form has fallen away recently and we add to their discomfort with a 1-0 win courtesy of young
Hoffmann. We have a nightmare start to our league match at home to
Schalke 04, falling a goal behind in the first minute. Our play improves slightly in the second half and
Ewerthon equalises on 65 minutes, but that is as good as it gets and we drop points again in the 1-1 draw. We concede early on again in our final Champions League group game at
Rosenborg. Despite creating a host of chances we fail to convert and we fall further behind after an hour, finally losing 2-0. In our next league match at
Wolfsburg we yet again give away an early goal but this time we are able to mount a comeback with
Amoroso and
Ewerthon taking us into the break in front. Both sides are creating lots of scoring opportunities – our poor finishing helps the home side and brilliant goalkeeping from
Warmuz keeps our lead intact. A tiring
Rosicky finally gets a shot on target to increase our lead and then substitute
Hoffmann round off the scoring to give us a 4-1 win. The scoreline flatters us but I’m not complaining. We face Second Division
Aue in the German Cup Quarter Final next. They defend stubbornly in a one-sided game but we eventually get a stoppage-time winner from
Ewerthon. Our last game for some weeks is at
Leverkusen and, having taken a first-half lead through
Hoffmann, we are denied the win by a late equaliser. We enter the winter break having lost more ground to
FC Bayern and we are now 6 points behind with the title slowly slipping from our grasp.
We get back into action in mid-January with a game at
Hertha BSC. We struggle for most of the match but eventually gain a 2-0 win thanks to two substitutes.
Jan Koller gets our first goal and the second comes from young forward
Emmanuel Krontiris who just came back from being out on loan a couple of weeks earlier. Our next game at home to
Werder Bremen ends in a disappointing scoreless draw. Despite totally dominating the game we just couldn’t score a goal.
Rosicky was the prime culprit – he played very well, often getting in to great positions, but with only 1 of his 8 scoring chances actually hitting the target he is not exactly proving to be a natural goalscorer. Two more points are lost at
Rostock with a 2-2 draw. They take the lead early but we equalise through an own goal and the
Amoroso puts us ahead just before the break. But we somehow manage to give away another goal and then squander the chance of a win when
Amoroso misses a last-minute penalty. At the end of January we are now down in 4th place on 39 points, behind
Bochum on goal difference with
Kaiserslautern on 40 and
FC Bayern on 47.
We begin February with the German Cup Semi Final against
Kaisrslautern and the star of the show is
Stefan Hoffmann. Just turned 20, the young midfielder is having a fantastic season, keeping
Tomas Roskicky on the bench more often than not. He scored a magnificent hat trick inside the first 20 minutes and it was game over as we won 3-0. In our next game the youngster gets his 20th goal of the season, with
Dede adding another as we beat
VfB Stuttgart 2-0. A rare goal from
Sebastian Kehl gives us the lead at
1860 Munchen and
Amoroso adds another after the break and we win 2-0.
Ewerthon and
Hoffmann both bag a brace in our next league game as we easily beat
1.FC Koln 4-0. We have Champions League action next as we play the home leg of our tie against
Milan. A cagey affair is settled late in the game when substitute
Rosicky gives us a 1-0 lead to take to Italy.
Ewerthon and
Amoroso give us a narrow 2-1 win at Frankfurt in our final league game of the month.
FC Bayern have drawn 4 of their last 5 games in the Bundesliga and we are now just two points behind, trailing a resurgent
Bochum on goal difference.
Having scrapped our way back into contention, much of our good work is undone when we lose our first league match in March 1-0 at
Hannover 96. We then travel to
Milan defending a one-goal lead in our Champions League tie. The home side draw level on aggregate shortly before half time from the penalty spot. We concede a second just after the restart and are in a situation where we have to score to progress. When Milan go 3-0 ahead with 13 minutes remaining all seems lost as we are not playing at all well. But substitute
Krontiris gives us hope with a goal on 81 minutes and then two minutes later
Hoffmann scores a crucial second. We hold on for a 3-3 aggregate score meaning that we qualify on away goals.
VfB Stuttgart and
FC Bayern are both eliminated at this stage leaving us as Germany’s sole representatives in the Quarter Finals. Buoyed by the unlikely win, we face the visit of
Bochum with renewed optimism. Our opponents had taken over at the top of the table the previous weekend after
FC Bayern had another draw and a win is crucial for us. We start well and take the lead on 22 minutes through
Ewerthon but the visitors equalise 15 minutes later. Thankfully
Ewerthon scores again in the second half and we get a vital 2-1 win. We still trail
Bochum on goal difference, and with
Bayern winning the next day, we sit three points behind them as they move back to the top of the table. We beat
SC Freiburg 2-1 win our next game, a result that was more comfortable than the final score suggests.
Metzelder gives us an early lead as we dominate play but fail to push home our advantage. The visitors equalise just after the restart with what turns out to be their only scoring attempt but
Hoffmann gets us a winner shortly afterwards. We journey to
Newcastle next in the Champions League and come back with a decent 2-2 draw. We go into half time in the lead thanks to
Hoffmann but the Magpies strike back twice in the second half before a late goal from
Ewerthon squares the game.
Moving into April,
Ewerthon scores twice in our 3-0 defeat of
HSV with
Torsten Frings providing the third. But our hopes take a battering when young midfield star
Stefan Hoffman suffers a broken leg and is ruled out for the rest of the season. The return leg against
Newcastle ends scoreless and we progress to the Semi Finals on away goals where we would face
Man United. Back in the league our title hopes were all but extinguished with a dreadful 3-1 defeat at
Gladbach, allowing
Bayern to move 6 points clear. However we were able to get a win in the crucial game at home to 3rd place
Kaiserslautern, coming back from a goal down to win 4-1 with a
Rosicky hat trick and one from
Amaroso. The first leg of our Champions League match took place at Old Trafford and in the circumstances the 2-1 defeat wasn’t too bad a result. We lost two players to injury inside the first 20 minutes and barely had a sniff of goal all evening. With time running out we were losing 1-0 to a
John O’Shea goal when
Ewerthon scored against the run of play. But justice was done when
van Nistelrooy scored a stoppage-time winner. We can thank keeper
Warmuz for keeping the scoreline so tight. The title race was done and dusted after our visit to
FC Bayern - outplayed from start to finish we came back with a 3-0 defeat and our hopes in tatters. With three league games remaining Bayern were home and dry and we sat in 3rd place on goal difference behind
Kaiserslautern.
We recover from the disappointment with a 2-0 win at home to
Leverkusen as
Jan Koller, making a rare start for the injured
Amoroso, and
Rosicky get the goals. In the return game at home to
Man United we had to score to have a change of making the final but despite exerting fairly constant pressure there was no way past an inspired
Fabien Barthez. When
Nicolas Anelka scored a breakaway goal in the 93rd minute then it was definitely game over. In our penultimate league game at
Schalke 04 we made half time two goals ahead thanks to
Ewerthon but we tired in the second half and were really up against it.
Ebbe Sand pulled a goal back straight after the restart and a tragic own goal by
Cristoph Metzelder with two minutes remaining robbed us of the win. We were fired up for our final league match at home to
Wolfsburg and had a very satisfying 4-0 win to sneak second place in the table. Our last competitive game of the season gave us a final chance to bet one over on rivals
FC Bayern as we face them in the German Cup Final. We got off to a dreadful start, falling behind after just 6 minutes to a brilliant
Deisler free kick. But thankfully we were able to fight back and two goals from
Amoroso, the first from the penalty spot, gave us the lead at half time. A third from
Rosicky shortly after the restart proved to be conclusive and at last we gained revenge with a 3-1 win. Turkish side
Gaziantepspor were the surprise winners of the UEFA Cup, beating
PSV 1-0 with a silver goal and
Inter won the Champions League with a 2-1 defeat of
Man United.
On the playing front,
Amoroso was our highest rated player with
Rosicky and
Hoffman also doing very well.
Ewerthon was our top scorer with 27 goals,
Hoffman managed an incredible 25 and
Amoroso scored 22.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Pos | Inf | Team | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | C | FC Bayern | 34 | 23 | 8 | 3 | 78 | 15 | +63 | 77 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Dortmund | 34 | 20 | 10 | 4 | 65 | 26 | +39 | 70 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Kaiserslautern | 34 | 21 | 7 | 6 | 67 | 33 | +34 | 67 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Bochum | 34 | 17 | 9 | 8 | 71 | 39 | +32 | 60 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Leverkusen | 34 | 14 | 12 | 8 | 43 | 40 | +3 | 54 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Schalke 04 | 34 | 13 | 13 | 8 | 54 | 45 | +9 | 52 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Werder Bremen | 34 | 13 | 9 | 12 | 32 | 33 | -1 | 48 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | HSV | 34 | 13 | 9 | 12 | 43 | 50 | -7 | 48 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Gladbach | 34 | 12 | 8 | 14 | 36 | 49 | -13 | 44 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Hannover 96 | 34 | 12 | 8 | 14 | 44 | 58 | -14 | 44 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Hertha BSC | 34 | 10 | 13 | 11 | 38 | 42 | -4 | 43 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | SC Freiburg | 34 | 12 | 5 | 17 | 40 | 54 | -14 | 41 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | 1860 München | 34 | 10 | 9 | 15 | 45 | 50 | -5 | 39 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | 1.FC Köln | 34 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 31 | 41 | -10 | 38 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | Rostock | 34 | 5 | 17 | 12 | 24 | 38 | -14 | 32 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | R | VfB Stuttgart | 34 | 7 | 8 | 19 | 25 | 50 | -25 | 29 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | R | Wolfsburg | 34 | 6 | 9 | 19 | 38 | 66 | -28 | 27 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | R | Frankfurt | 34 | 2 | 9 | 23 | 15 | 60 | -45 | 15 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|</pre>
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