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The good old days. At the end of Borussia Dortmund’s 4-2 win over Atletico Madrid on Tuesday, this was what everyone remembered.
Dortmund won 2-1 in the first leg and won 8-4 in the Champions League final 5-4 on aggregate, doing so with the emotion and urgency that was once their hallmark.
It was so remarkable because it has become increasingly rare.
Dortmund sit fifth in the Bundesliga and were knocked out of the DFB-Pokal, Germany’s FA Cup, five months ago. It has not been a season to remember. It has lacked stability, strength and attacking power. In the league, they have scored fewer goals than the four teams above them.
But their Champions League personality has been different all year and never more so than against Diego Simeone’s struggling Atletico side, who were knocked out last night by goals from Julian Brandt, Ian Maatsen, Niclas Fullkrug and Marcel Sabitzer.
There was a connection and purpose to Dortmund with the ball – and a healthy desperation in their work without him. It was full of do-or-die brutality. Old Dortmund. Powerful, intense, cranked up to 11 Dortmund.
Marcel Sabitzer celebrates his goal (Leon Kuegeler/Getty Images)
Many had forgotten that this version of the team could exist. Next year will mark a decade since Jurgen Klopp stepped down as their coach. While not exactly a smooth downward trajectory, that season has seen the club move away from the identity Klopp built.
Back then, Dortmund were a team famous for their tireless counter-pressing. In the years since, that identity has melted away, leaving a team increasingly individualized and dependent on the performances of a few star players. Jadon Sancho, Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham were all capable of allowing the spectacle to live, to an extent, and ensuring that Dortmund’s performance did not completely collapse.
Edin Terzic, the current head coach, has been subject to this criticism. Terzic’s football is uninspired, say his skeptics, and his teams are only ever as good as the players they contain.
And one of his biggest problems, since taking over the job permanently in the summer of 2022 after being held out for the second half of 2020-21, has been the steady decline in the quality of his squad. There is no Haaland or Bellingham in the lineup anymore. There are some leading lights, but none who are intimidated by other teams or enjoy neutrals.
At its worst, Terzic’s Dortmund have been chaotic and porous. But even at their best, they tend to have a commercial quality that, due to shaky defenses, is never quite convincing.
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This weak identity means that no one can be sure how they are going to perform from week to week. Klopp’s Dortmund was a product of the club’s regional environment: the hustle and bustle of the Westfalenstadion’s home ground. The symbolism and synergy were obvious.
On the other hand, one of the problems with this Dortmund are, as they look, unbeatable. They come from the same tunnels and wear the same color shirts as those teams of the past, but are not really from the same place.
But Champions League performances have repeatedly challenged that perception. Terzic’s Dortmund were excellent (for different reasons) in both group games against Newcastle United. They were excellent in the opening stages at the San Siro too, beating AC Milan in last season’s semi-final.
Moreover, these games featured all sorts of notable individual performances that again were very much at odds with the trend of the season and this recent one. Nico Schlotterbeck and Mats Hummels have had exceptional tournaments. Brandt, Sabitzer and Sancho have all had a big impact too.
And Tuesday night was the clearest example of this strange dichotomy.
Schlotterbeck made two of the finest tackles you could hope to see; one in the first half, another in the second. Hummels, who was unlucky to concede an own goal just after half-time, shot to the defense and was the architect of the first goal of the game with an outrageously elegant pass. Sabitzer and Brandt were equally great: dynamic and vertical, determined to push their way into the night.
Mats Hummels scores an unfortunate own goal (Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images)
The combination between the two that led to Fullkrug getting past Dortmund on aggregate might have been the best play of the entire 180 minutes of the tie. Sancho was mature with the ball. Maatsen was very effective. So were Julian Ryerson and Emre Can.
The broader point is that everything worked. Somehow.
One of Dortmund’s biggest weaknesses is their inability to control the ball. They lack an orderly No. 6 who can set the pace of a game and make sure it doesn’t just go back and forth between the goal lines.
It’s a fatal flaw and in the 20 second half, when Atletico scored twice and looked to have taken control, it looked to have cost them once more. But with sheer willpower, the rare array of star players that Terzic possesses, and a quick burst of power set up with just enough poise and class, they were able to make it seem like it didn’t matter.
Overwhelming cons? External weaknesses? Relentlessly stalking a supposedly stronger opponent and then finding enough faction, when he’s terrified and confused, to put him away? They are typical Dortmund features belonging to another era.
That they happened to reappear at this point in the season doesn’t affect the broader conversation about Terzic, nor the broader concerns about his team and its future.
But on Tuesday, it’s no wonder the Westfalenstadion bounced and burned as before.
(Top photo: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
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