Borussia Dortmund’s U19s had a day to forget in the first round of the German youth cup, the DFB-Junioren-Vereinspokal, losing 6-0 away to TSG Hoffenheim. In contrast, the U17s celebrated their fourth win in a row with a 5-0 victory at VfB Waltrop.

“I will take the blame for the fact that we lost by so much because I told them to risk everything in the second half,” said U19s head coach Mike Tullberg. From the beginning, everything went against the Borussians, who had started the season so well. Melvin Onos scored a free kick to make it 1-0 while the Black and Yellows were still arguing with a decision the referee had made. BVB keeper Marlon Zacharias did not cover himself in glory when Max Moerstedt – a member of Germany’s U17 European Championship winning side – made it 2-0, and shortly before the half-time break, Moerstedt punished another slip in the Dortmund defence to make it 3-0.

“We had nothing to lose at that point and then went all or nothing, pushed Hoffenheim back into their own half and tried everything we could to pull one back,” said Mike Tullberg. But any hopes of a comeback were extinguished on the hour mark. After BVB gave the ball away, the hosts countered and Paul Hennrich increased his side’s lead to 4-0. “After that, the boys no longer believed in themselves and their ability to turn the game around,” Tullberg admitted after the biggest competitive defeat of his tenure at Dortmund. Blessing Maleko Makanda (70) and Milan Rehus (90) put the final touches on the emphatic victory in the closing stages.

“We made too many individual errors and did not even come close to the performance we are capable of against a strong Hoffenheim team,” said a disappointed Mike Tullberg. In the upcoming international break, the U19s will play a friendly match against TSG Sprockhövel (Friday 8 September, 18:00 CET). Tullberg is expecting a defiant response to the cup exit in Hoffenheim from his young charges in their next Bundesliga match at Arminia Bielefeld (Saturday, 16 September, 11:00 CET).

BVB: Zacharias – Korzynietz, Mane (Meiser, 63), Posadas, Kabar (Ubani, 21 (Onofrietti, 46)) – Campbell, Lubach, Wätjen, Krevsun – Brunner (König, 77), Herrmann (Diallo, 77).

Marco Lehmann’s team take off

The U17s cemented their place in the group of leading contenders for the B-Junioren Bundesliga West with a comfortable 5-0 victory against VfB Waltrop in the Mengeder Volksgarten. “With the exception of a ten-minute period where we fell into a deep sleep at the beginning of the second half, this was a convincing performance,” commented coach Marco Lehmann.

The newly promoted side from the neighbouring town set up in a 5-3-2 formation, but BVB played their way through the deep-lying Waltrop side, linking up well in the tightest of spaces to carve out a number of excellent opportunities. In addition to the strong midfield of Fritz Fleck, Nick Cherny, Tim Degener and Mussa Kaba, attackers Diego Ngambia Dzonga deserved special praise for their first-half showings.  After fine build-up play from Nick Cherny, Dzonga gave his side the lead on 15 minutes, bagging his seventh goal of the season in the process. Cherny doubled the BVB lead to 2-0 in the 35th minute.

“Then we became wild and uncontrolled, which I didn’t agree with, but luckily we rediscovered our structure and rhythm in time,” said Lehmann regarding the early stages after the restart. By the time Fleck made it 3-0 from a Justin Hoy assist, BVB were clearly in control of proceedings again. Joshua Burstedde crowned his comeback after weeks out with a torn ligament, scoring the goal of the day to make it 4-0 in the 76th minute. Fritz Fleck capped another excellent performance with the fifth and final goal on 83 minutes.

During the international break, Valon Cena will link up with Kosovo’s U17 national team, while Tyler Meiser and Nick Cherny have been called up to the Germany U17 team. Next Friday, Marco Lehmann’s team will play a friendly match against the Hombrucher SV U19s. Their next Bundesliga match will take place on Saturday, 16 September, against Viktoria Köln.

BVB: Herdes – Cena, Feddersen, Vrlijic, Driedger (Blaszczyk, 59) – Fleck, Degener (Burstedde, 68), Kaba – Cherny (Ucar, 68), Hoy (Schwarz, 59), Ngambia (Svitek, 79).

Wilfried Wittke