Why Dortmund can't beat Hoffenheim

Groundhog day

Matchday 2 is over. Bayern lucked their way to three points, my friends from Herne-West won 5-1 against Köln, who collapsed after they conceded a controversial penalty. Leverkusen scored their winner AFTER Michael Ballack got subbed off and Mainz, who were too crappy to beat Gaz Metan Medais, lead the table.
Typical Bundesliga stuff.

And of course we lost in Hoffenheim. Again.
It was not our best match, but there are several reasons why we lost.
First of all we overslept the first 10 minutes. Hoffenheim were pressing brave and high, we lost too many tackles in the midfield and in our own half which lead to nervy losses of possession. Too often we tried to pass the ball over 2,3 meters and we ended up losing the ball because Hoffenheim players were quick enough to interfere. A situation like that was the reason why we conceded a freekick, which Salihovic converted in a perfect way.
Of course, it was lucky, but not undeserved at that point and it was already our kiss of death.
Hoffenheim's tactic from now on was: Hold the 1-0, destroy the game and wait for counter attacks.
And I guess, there is not a better team in the Bundesliga when it comes to destroying a game. They know how to defend! They work very hard, are always in a good position and near their opponents. And if their opponent has a little advantage they just foul. Nothing serious, just a little push or a little shove that gets the opponent out of his rhythm and so they gain possession, or concede a free kick but usually don't concede a Yellow even though it was a tactical foul.
Also many of our players were tired from the international break so there wasn't as much movement on the pitch as it usually is, which forced our defenders to operate with long balls, not a good idea to search for Shinji Kagawa who is covered by one of Hoffenheim's tall guys.
Mario Götze and Shinji Kagawa were too tired and they shouldn't have started in the first place. They completely lacked freshness, which lead to many sloppy first touches and mistimed passes.

Jürgen Klopp has a lot of work to do. He has to teach the kids to use the wings more when the middle is too dense.  BVB often tries to carry the ball into the goal with little one-two's and flicks through the middle, which won't work so well in every game as it worked against Hamburg.

We really didn't manage to creat many chances this game, and those we had were executed poorly. Starke was never really forced to make a superb save. Kevin Großkreutz with the best chance in the game, but he made the wrong decision when he aimed for the near post. Of course we were a bit unlucky when Kagawa was fouled in the box, but I can't blame the ref, because it wasn't easy to see and Vorsah touched the ball (after he "touched" Kagawa's legS). Another good example why we should have referees based at the goal-line.

Positive impacts

Yes, there was not much positive for us to draw out of this game, but there is one: Ivan Perisic.
He came on in the 56. minute and had many good actions over the left side and was very unlucky when his header only hit the woodwork. But it showed that Perisic can be a very important player for Dortmund this season.

Also, it may sound stupid, but having a bad game like that early in the season is always helpful, as long as the team got a healthy amount of confidence. There are many things Dortmund can and will learn from. Learning from mistakes was and is one of Dortmund's greatest strengths under Klopp. We always came back after defeats, so watch out Nürnberg!