On the opponent radar: Borussia Dortmund

After the start of the English week at SC Freiburg (2:3), the first home game of 2025 for our storks is on Tuesday, January 14th. After 13 years, Borussia Dortmund is returning to the Holstein Stadium.

Even though there was nothing for our storks to gain in the historic competitive games against Borussia from Dortmund, they are still one of the highlights of the club’s recent history. Finally, our KSV Holstein sensationally reached the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup in 2012, but there was a final war after a 4-0 defeat against BVB. Nine years later it was even the semi-finals when the whole of football Germany looked forward to the duel between Dortmund and Kiel, which Borussia won 5-0.

The party on the 17th matchday, however, is under different auspices, as both clubs are now playing on equal terms in the league. Evening game and floodlights – in terms of atmosphere, however, parallels can be drawn to the last duel between both teams in the Holstein Stadium.

Last season, Borussia Dortmund, one of the largest clubs in the world with more than 210,000 members, had to settle for fifth place in the Bundesliga. Even when the final of the Champions League was reached (0-2 against Real Madrid), there was a change in the BVB coaching bench: Edin Terzic was followed by former BVB professional Nuri Şahin.

Numerous transfers at Borussia

A lot has also happened in the Borussia squad after last season. With Marco Reus (LA Galaxy) and Mats Hummels (AS Roma), two influential figures left the club for free. National striker Niclas Füllkrug (27 million euros, West Ham United) as well as Ian Maatsen (on loan) and Jadon Sancho (on loan) also no longer wear black and yellow. Tom Rothe (5 million, Union Berlin), Ole Pohlmann (1.6 million, Rio Ave FC), Marius Wolf (FC Augsburg) and Mateu Morey (RCD Mallorca), who were recently loaned out to our KSV Holstein, also had to go. Youssoufa Moukoko (OGC Nice), Sébastien Haller (FC Utrecht), Salih Özcan (VfL Wolfsburg) and Soumaïla Coulibaly (Stade Brest) were loaned out.

These departures were offset by investments in well-known players. Maximilian Beier, one of Germany’s greatest striker talents, was lured from TSG Hoffenheim to the Ruhr area for 28.5 million euros. BVB was also able to lose two top performers from its direct competition: Waldemar Anton (22.5 million) and Serhou Guirassy (18 million) moved from VfB Stuttgart to the Ruhr area. National player Pascal Groß (7 million) came from Brighton for midfield, and Yan Couto was also loaned from Manchester City.

Nuri Şahin’s team will tackle the evening game in the sold-out Holstein Stadium with full enthusiasm – regardless of the Black and Yellow’s personnel situation. Our storks have to fight back with courage and fighting spirit in order to be able to keep points on the fjord when BVB returns to Kiel.