In other news, Thomas Doll has resigned as head coach. It’s about time, too. Seriously, if your team lets in 62 goals in one season, you deserve to be fired. Stats like that don’t lie, and those numbers are unacceptable. Hopefully his replacement will be able to secure a higher finish in the league (and a decent showing in the UEFA Cup).

We needed three points out of this match, as did Nuremberg. It was obvious that both sides would be pushing for goals, but neither Dortmund nor Nuremberg were able to hit the back of the net. 0-0 it is.

In the end, it was a pretty disappointing result. Alex Frei had a handful of opportunities to score but wasn’t able to finish. Kuba also had a chance, but the finishing just wasn’t there tonight. With Frei and Mladen Petric up front, you’d think the goals would be pouring in but they’re not and why that’s the case is a mystery to me. The results have to be better next season, and the first step in ensuring better results is hiring a better coach. Hopefully this result puts the nail in Thomas Doll’s coaching coffin.

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Speaking of Doll, kicker recently ran a story with the headline “No clear commitment to Doll”. If and when Doll gets fired (please let him get fired), who are the candidates Dortmund have lined up to replace him? Your guess is as good as mine, but I’m fairly certain that anyone would be an improvement.

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On a brighter note, Nuri Sahin will be returning to Dortmund next season after spending a year with Bert van Marvijk in Rotterdam. Hopefully his time in the Eredivisie will make him a better player at Dortmund (we need all the quality players we can get at this point). Sebastian Tyrala is another player I’d like to see get some more time in the first team. He’s a talent that needs to be pushing for a starting spot.

So, what does that leave us? It leaves us a decent amount of money to spend (not quite the amount that Bayern likes to waste, but it’s still a start). It’s hard to say how far Dortmund will look to stretch their budget — especially since we don’t even know the exact amount they’re willing to spend — but I would guess they’re looking to bring in three or four new faces. Any guesses as to who they’ll be?

In an official release from the club, Dortmund will be wearing a slick looking new jersey for the 2008-2009 season. The predominant color is yellow (none of this half-and-half crap) with black pinstripes. The club will wear black shorts donned with the BVB logo (yellow shorts are also available).

For you fancy people out there, the jersey was made with Nike’s Dri-Fit system (seriously, does that really do anything?). Anyway, whatever Nike did with this new kit sure “hits the spot”.

Oh, and the best part about the new jerseys? No hideous exclamation mark.

As for this weekend’s match against Bochum; we will be without Frei, who is injured yet again (knee problems as a result of the Switzerland/Germany friendly). The first meeting this season went to the good guys with Federico providing the game-winner. Hopefully we can make it two-for-two in Bochum because our standing in the league is way too low. A string of wins at this point in the season would be very nice.

Thanks to the over-spenders in Munich’s win over Wolfsburg last night, Borussia Dortmund is virtually guaranteed a spot in next year’s UEFA Cup. Should we fail to win the Cup in Berlin, we’ll be given a spot anyway since Bayern will be finishing in a Champions League spot. But that kind of thinking is unacceptable. We know our opponent and we’re going to win.

Now if our league play wanted to pick up a little bit, that would be great…

Dortmund’s opponent for the April 19th clash at the Olympistadion is not yet known, but it will be either Bayern Munich or VfL Wolfsburg. The two teams will meet tomorrow to determine who gets to play opposite Borussia in one month’s time.

HSV’s goal scoring exploits started fast and furious, with José Paolo Guerrero putting them ahead with only seven minutes gone by. Rafael van der Vaart, who I said would be the key man in this match, then made it 2-0 to Hamburg just before halftime.

On the other side of the break, Florian Kringe went and got himself sent off in the 51st minute, paving the way for Ivica Olic to make it a resounding 3-0.

Dortmund now sit in ninth place with nine points from seven games played.

Last Saturday, we lost 3-2 at Hertha. But today we welcome HSV to the Westfalenstadion, where we recently beat Werder Bremen by a resounding 3-0 scoreline. A win here would do us wonders, as we would move back up to the upper echelon of the table.

According to Thomas Doll, the Dortmund players are “fit as fiddle”, so we shouldn’t worry about them being unprepared. Hopefully he’s right. It will certainly take lots of energy and effort to contain Rafael van der Vaart. If we aren’t able to do that, it could be a long match for us.

9/22/07 - Hertha Berlin vs. Borussia Dortmund (11:30 AM EST) - GolTV
9/29/07 - Borussia Dortmund vs. Hamburg SV (time TBA) - GolTV

YES.