The Weekly Take, Issue 222: Powering Through Adversity

To say that the past off-season has been a difficult one for Borussia Dortmund would be a grave understatement. Chief among the reasons for this is the sale of Erling Haaland to Manchester City for the almost impossibly low transfer fee of €60 million. The word "travesty" does not even come close to adequately define allowing a generational talent like Haaland - one who will almost certainly become one of the all-time greats - for that price.

Dortmund would later be dealt another setback. Soon after signing Sébastien Haller from Ajax, ostensibly to serve as Haaland's replacement up front, the Ivorian striker would be diagnosed with testicular cancer. Certainly, Die Schwarzgelbe's preparation for their Bundesliga season-opener against Bayer Leverkusen did not lend itself well to peak performance. Many Dortmund fans, myself included, would not have been all that surprised to have seen Dortmund succumb to a one-sided loss.

However, Dortmund emerged from the match with a 1-0 victory. Club captain Marco Reus scored the only goal; however, the player who deservedly earned the most plaudits was Gregor Kobel. The Swiss goalkeeper twice prevented Patrik Schick from putting Leverkusen on the board with close-range shots.

Much like Dortmund's entire off-season, "overcoming adversity" was the theme of this match. Striker Karim Adeyemi had to leave the match after 23 minutes after injuring his big toe, while defender Nico Schlotterbeck suffered an injury of his own but was able to play through it. On the field, Leverkusen also managed to put the ball into the net twice more, but neither goal stood as both were waived off for offside.

Though this may have been just the first match of the new league season, if Dortmund can continue playing like this throughout the remainder of the campaign, they should find themselves firmly in contention for second place in the league behind Bayern when the season ends. Right from the opening whistle, it was clear that Dortmund were playing as though they had a point to prove to the rest of the league. Ultimately, that had a great deal to do with the outcome of the match. Dortmund's sheer grit and resolve made all the difference as they not only claimed all three points; they did so at the expense of one of their closest league rivals.

Much like almost every season for the past decade, Dortmund will almost certainly be reduced to mere onlookers as far as the Bundesliga title is concerned - Bayern Munich will, barring a nearly improbable sequence of events, win the league by an enormous margin while also being the league's only genuine contender to bring the Champions League trophy to Germany. However, the race is well and truly on behind them. Dortmund, Leverkusen, Union Berlin, RB Leipzig, and arguably even Freiburg will likely be locked in a dogfight for next season's last three Champions League berths.

Having taken over from Marco Rose as Dortmund head coach, Edin Terzić was always going to have his work cut out for him. In any case, though, it does seem as though he understands how this team ought to be playing - after all, Terzić does have insider knowledge. He had already been working for Dortmund in various minor coaching roles since 2018.

It may be somewhat of a cliché by now, but it's no less true - the ability to "win ugly" is one of the most important traits in football. Dortmund displayed exactly that at Signal Iduna Park. In spite of everything that had been happening on the pitch as well as off it, Dortmund dug deep and gutted it out. That's exactly what they need to continue doing against the league's other top-four contenders.

Now that Haaland has left, Dortmund can no longer depend on star power to carry them over the line as they had previously been able to. This season will be a true test of this Dortmund team's resolve; however, the signs after this first match are positive indeed. This is exactly the type of start to the season they needed - what more amidst these circumstances.

On the surface, it may just have been a 1-0 win over another their fellow North Rhine-Westphalia club, but in the grand scheme of things, it could yet come to mean so much more.