After a good ten days of intensive preparation for the new £. Liga season, the Borussia Dortmund U23s played away to Oberliga club ASC 09 Dortmund at the Aplerbecker Waldstadion on Saturday. The BVB team, which was severely depleted due to call-ups to the Bundesliga squad, ran out 2-1 (1-1) winners in temperatures above the 30-degree mark. Ted Tattermusch and Moses Otuali scored the goals for Borussia.

Since Thursday, several U23 players have been with Edin Terzic’s first-team squad. For today’s friendly, however, U23 coach Jan Zimmermann was able to call on four of these players in Franz Pfanne, Michael Eberwein, Lion Semic and Göktan Gürpüz. Zimmermann started with Silas Ostrzinski in goal, Patrick Göbel, Mario Suver, Felix Irorere and Hendry Blank formed the back four. Franz Roggow, Ayman Azhil and Dennis Lütke-Frie directed play in midfield. Falko Michel, Moses Otuali and Ted Tattermusch were charged with getting the goals.

It was Tattermusch who gave the Black & Yellows an early lead at the game held in the Aplerbeck area of Dortmund. In the eighth minute, he was the quickest to react to a loose ball after a corner and fired into the back of the ASC net to give BVB a 1-0 lead. The Oberliga side responded well, however, as Borussia were pushed back and mainly looked to attack on the counter. In the 33rd minute, Maximilian Podehl converted a penalty kick to level the scores.

After the half-time break, three new BVB players – Tiago Estevao, Rodney Elongo-Yombo and Bjarne Pudel – entered the field of play, while ASC switched their entire team. With substitutes Pfanne, Eberwein, Semic and Gürpüz coming on over the course of the second half, BVB gained the upper-hand and controlled proceedings. The young BVB side had a few big chances in the ASC penalty area in the space of a few minutes. First Semic had a good sight of goal, but his shot was deflected and hit the crossbar. Then, in the 70th minute, Moses Otuali took his chance with aplomb to give coach Jan Zimmermann’s team the lead once again.

Shortly before the final whistle, Göktan Gürpüz had the chance to increase the lead, but he just failed to connect with Otuali’s pinpoint cross. BVB, who dominated the game, had earned their lead through a committed performance and managed to hold on to it all the way to the end, though ASC did have a late equaliser in injury time disallowed by the refereeing team due to an offside.

After the final whistle, coach Jan Zimmermann commented on his team’s performance: ”The conditions were difficult: the high temperatures, some of the boys were with the first team and we only had a small group of players to work with in training during the week. But that can’t be an excuse for the rather sluggish first half. From the 60th minute onwards, we played the kind of football we want to see.”

The Black & Yellow U23s will play their next friendly match against Mainz 05’s U23s next Friday, after which the team will travel to Austria for a week-long training camp.