What went wrong? How did Dortmund fall behind 5 other Bundesliga teams, while losing less, allowing less goals, and having a superior goal differential? It is all explained when you look at a single statistic, ties. BVB finished with the second most ties in the Bundesliga at 14. So obviously the Schwarzgelben had the ability to keep up and match that of any other club in the Bundesliga, as they scored an equal amount of goals or more than their opponents in 29 of their 34 (85%) games. And this is where the limiting reagent hindered BVB’s success in 2008.

The reagent was simply the inability to finish. Whether the team lacked the skill to overcome a draw, or just didn’t have the killer instinct to finish the opponent off. Dortmund suffered from the lack of a sense of urgency, this is undeniably clear through out the season, but especially in their final match against Borussia Mönchengladbach. As BVB was on the brink of attaining a spot to compete internationally, the club reached yet another draw, allowing Borussia
Mönchengladbach to keep its head above water and remain in the Bundesliga.

Perhaps you can argue that Borussia Mönchengladbach was in dire straights, while BVB was only looking to put icing on a successful season. Regardless, a team capable of achieving what Dortmund did should be able to overcome a 1:1 draw, unless of course there is something missing.

Another way to look at this is obviously the lack of scoring goals when the club absolutely needed it. Alexander Frei led BVB with a total of 12 goals, followed by Valdez, who had 8. Not to discredit either of these players, but it’s clear that Dortmund lacked a star striker, or even a formidable duo. Now with Alexander Frei leaving the Schwarzgelben for FC Basel, BVB is going have to rely on a breakout performance from one of their players, or their summer acquisitions. But this is something I believe BVB will overcome, and as long as they continue to play at the same level as they did last year, we should be in for a treat.

By all means, last season was an awful one for Borussia Dortmund. At one point, we were staring relegation square in the eye. But a few wins stringed together with an exclamation point against Schalke — only to see the season end on a low note to Leverkusen, of course — made up for most of the season that was. But we failed on our ultimate goal: to reach Europe.

Given the position we were in, it’s hard to fault the team for finishing ninth (which, by the way, must improve this time around), but it’s still bittersweet. An Intertoto Cup spot was excruciatingly close, and if we would have landed that IC spot, that would have meant that we were excruciatingly close to where we wanted to be. But being excruciatingly close to being excruciatingly close to where you want to be is, quite honestly, a failure.

Look at Bayern. They finished fourth in the league, lost out to Aachen in the Round of 16 in the FA Cup, and fell to AC Milan in the Champions League. The aftermath? One of the largest summer spending sprees that brought in the likes of Luca Toni, Franck Ribery, Miroslav Klose, etc. There are many others, but I don’t want to waste my time writing out the billion other imports to the oversized golf ball known as the Allianz Arena.

But that’s my point. Our season was without doubt far from where we want to be and Bayern’s season was dreadful (by their standards at least) as well. And while we’ve also been bringing in some quality talent that definitely excites me about our chances this season (but not on the Bayern level of spending, mind you), I hope that everyone on the team has the mentality that results have to be better. We must improve in the league. We must not crash out early in the FA Cup. And finally, we absolutely have to get back into a European competition. It is the only way the club will get back to where it once was.

And if that happens?

A successful season, indeed.

UPDATE: Kicker is saying this is now a done deal. (7/20/07)

I don’t understand this. Long-term it’s not such a bad deal, but it might come back to bite us this year. We’ve already loaned out Nuri Sahin to Feyenoord (without an option to buy, by the way), so who is going to play central midfield for us? Maybe we’re only planning on playing three in the midfield, with Petric playing in between the midfielders and forwards (4-3-1-2?)…

If so, who are those other three? Kuba will most certainly be one of them, as he has been receiving high praise from Thomas Doll (although Doll has said that he’d like to see Kuba be more selfish in front of goal). I’ve also gotta think that Sebastian Kehl and Tinga will figure in there somewhere. Then again, Giovanni Federico is a new acquisition and a goal scorer, so he should also see playing time. Also, you can’t rule Florian Kringe out of the mix. Doll certainly has plenty of choices as to who he wants to play!

On a different subject, I’ve been trying to figure out who will be playing forward with Klimowicz while Frei is still injured. I’m leaning towards Ebi Smolarek, but Nelson Valdez did just score two goals (amazing, I know) in our last friendly, so maybe he’s going to actually do something this year. This is all assuming Petric plays in that hanging role, of course. I’ll put my money on Ebi at this point.

Your thoughts?

Dortmund were without Alex Frei and Nelson Valdez (both have injuries), but 22 other BVB players saw playing time against Witten. Giovanni Federico scored the first goal of the match in the third minute, and amateur player Sahr Senesie made it 2-0 in the 12th minute.

But we were only getting started at that point. Diego Klimowicz made it 3-0 in the 19th minute, Sensie added another in the 36th, and Klimowicz scored again to make it 5-0 on 38 minutes.

Mladen Petric (playing as a striker, not a goalkeeper) scored his first goal for BVB in the 67th minute. Ebi Smolarek also got in on the goalscoring action to make it 7-0 (70th minute). Finally, the scoring was wrapped up by Petric, who brought us to our final score in minute 87.

Wow. Again, Witten is awful, but 8:0 is very encouraging — especially given the fact that Klimowicz, Petric, and Federico all found the back of the net. I’ll wait to see how the boys do in their next friendly against BSC Young Boys before I start getting too excited, but optimism is rushing through me at this point.

Continuing with the Reviersport theme today, they recently interviewed Michael Zorc, who has assured us that Petric and Giovanni Federico aren’t too similar in their playing style. I hope he’s right…

And finally, Zorc has said that Dortmund won’t rule out loaning Nuri Sahin to another club. However, “everything has to fit exactly”. For now though, Zorc says that nothing concrete is lined up.

I don’t think it’s the fact that nobody wants to join Borussia, but rather that people are easily persuaded by the thought of lucrative contract deals (see: Newcastle – Rozehnal) and European football (see: Stuttgart – Bastürk). Honestly, I can’t blame these players for their decisions to play elsewhere.

But still, you’d think Dortmund would be more of an attraction than it currently is. Sure, the management of the club currently sucks and finances are in awful condition. But Dortmund is a legendary name in German soccer. The club was the first German side to win the European Cup Winners’ Cup, and they’ve won the Champions League (in 1997). Plus, the side has six German Championships to its name.

And if the above accolades weren’t enough, any player coming to Borussia Dortmund gets the opportunity to play in front of 80,000 passionate fans.

Whatever. “Money makes the world go around”, right?

Maybe that’s why Dortmund’s world is looking pretty bleak right now.

First off, Gooch is a mammoth of a human being. He is 6′4” and clocks in at 210 pounds. He is physically imposing and would give Bundesliga attackers an absolute handful. He would also be an asset on set pieces, as he is definitely capable of finding the back of the net on headers (see: US vs. China from last Saturday).

And honestly, what’s not to like about a player like that? He’s currently with Standard de Liege — albeit unhappily — so why wouldn’t he be interested in a move to the Bundesliga? He’d get to play in the amazing Westfalenstadion, all while going up against the likes of Luca Toni, Franck Ribery (has this been confirmed yet?), Diego, Miroslav Klose, et. al.

So here’s to hoping Dortmund make an offer to Standard and somehow get Onyewu to join the club.

Your thoughts? Agree with me? Think I’m crazy? Let me know.