Borussia Dortmund won 7-0 against Westfalia Rhynern. After the first pre-season friendly, BVB coach Edin Terzic spoke about the game, Mateu Morey and the captaincy question.

Edin Terzic on the friendly:
“Westfalia Rhynern organised everything perfectly. Many families with children came along. It’s extremely important for us to have not only momentum in training, but also the conditions to show good football. We’ve succeeded with that. I think that many people are going home with a smile on their face today.”

…the sporting performance:
“We keep offering opportunities in the friendlies. We had a few players from the youth performance centre involved. It’s nice when you can finish off the blocks that you set in training with a friendly. That was our second training block, our first friendly. We saw many good things. You could already recognise some good things from the second half of last season.”

…the return of Mateu Morey:
“I speak with Mateu a lot. He has had a difficult time with us. He hasn’t been on the pitch for almost a year. We’re extremely happy. We built him up carefully so that we could take him into pre-season. Today he was able to play for 45 minutes. That means a great deal to him and us.”

…the late return of the international players:
“We’ve had a similar situation in recent years and over the winter. We’ve learned from that. We’re in regular communication with all the boys. They’re all doing well and we expect good results from the performance diagnostics at the weekend. Then they will be built up like we did with the lads who were already in Dortmund in order to prepare them for the important period with the friendly fixtures in the USA.”

…Julian Rijkhoff:
“He’s now taking part in pre-season with the first team for the third time. That’s the roadmap that we always want to follow with talented youngsters. They should get the opportunity to take the next steps with us. He’s still a young guy, but we’ll be keeping close tabs. Everyone gets their chance and he can now showcase himself. Today he did well. As is the case with everyone else, there’s still room for improvement. But we’re happy with the development.”

…the injured trio of Adeyemi, Moukoko and Nmecha:
“Five players are not yet completely fit. The aforementioned trio are joined by Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and Gio Reyna, who unfortunately got injured with their national teams. The lads are on a good path. Four of them will be on the training pitch tomorrow and then we hope to have them all fit by the end of pre-season at the latest. In Karim, Youssoufa and Felix’s case, we hope that they will already be able to participate fully in team training next week.”

…Felix Nmecha:
“We brought Felix in because we believe he can play an important role in our team. He possesses a lot of skills to enhance our game, especially in the centre. We really like his physicality combined with his technical capabilities in confined spaces. We hope that he now gets healthy and that he can complete the full workload with us so that he can find his role in the friendly matches.”

…the captaincy question:
“We’re thinking about it, we’re having a lot of talks and good ideas. We’ll make the right decision. The team will be the first to know. We’re not complete yet and will take a few more days.”

…Niklas Süle: 
“Niki is making a really good impression, putting his foot on the gas and has big ambitions. He became increasingly important for us throughout the season, not only on the pitch but in the dressing room too. He’s on a really good path.”
Transcribed by Christina Reinke