The Borussia Dortmund women’s footballers beat the VfL Bochum reserves by a 2-0 (0-0) scoreline on Matchday 12 of the Women’s Landesliga season. Marie Grothe proved to be the match-winner, notching a goal and an assist in the closing stages.

The BVB women are Landesliga winter champions. Thanks to their derby victory against Bochum and second-placed TV Brechten’s 3-1 defeat in Herten at the same time, the Borussia ladies can no longer be ousted from top spot in the table with one round of matches remaining.

Coach Thomas Sulewski made three changes to the starting line-up at the Youth Centre in Bochum. Starts were handed to Katharina Jäger in goal, Kimberly Becker in defensive midfield and Merle Greulich on the right flank. Sandra Schröer, Mia Macarena Bedarf and Marjana Naceva started the match on the bench.

In a first half with few highlights, BVB sought to get themselves into good shooting positions against a deep-lying Bochum team. But apart from a long-range effort from Marie Grothe that was saved, they did not pose a threat to the Bochum goal from open play (32). As a result, the most dangerous moment came from a corner that Ana Louisa Haslsteiner almost put over the line with her knee, only for VfL keeper Ricarda Rumohr to gather the ball at the second attempt. “We were perhaps not courageous enough in one or two situations to get into the decisive areas,” Grothe said.

Borussia continued to set the tone after the interval and increasingly registered shots but initially failed to find the net. Sulewski then brought on two new faces in Bedarf and Naceva, who played an important role in Dortmund bringing home the three points. Naceva asserted herself in the penalty area in the 77th minute and was subjected to a foul worthy of a penalty. The referee played the advantage, Grothe reacted the quickest and slotted the loose ball into the net. It was already the 10th time that the midfielder has scored the all-important goal for 1-0 in a competitive game for BVB. “It was clear to us that if we stayed patient, the spaces would open up at some point. And if that only happens in the 75th or 80th minute, that’s also okay,” the goalscorer said.

Grothe then assisted the decisive goal that made it 2-0 in exemplary fashion in the final minute. She danced past two opposing players on the byline and played the ball in behind the defence, where Bedarf met it with a spectacular shot into the top-left corner. “We wanted more consistency in the final third and to move the ball about more quickly in the second half. The girls implemented that and deservedly won 2-0,” Sulewski said.

The winter champions will round off the first half of the campaign by taking on the SpVg Berghofen second team next Sunday. Kick-off at the BVB Evonik Football Academy will be at 15:00 CET.

BVB women: Jäger – Tayeh, Jung, Haslsteiner, Geldschläger – Becker (Bedarf, 57) – Greulich, Grothe, Gomulka, Tan – Reinhardt (Naceva, 68)

Goals: 0-1 Grothe (77), 0-2 Bedarf (90)

(df)