BVBLA August 2023

The start of the season almost seems anticlimactic after San Diego and Las Vegas. Some of us were hosting Dortmund in Southern California for the second time, but many more had their first experience of Dortmund in the USA.

But On To Bundesliga

19.08 Sat Dortmund vs FC Köln – 9:30am, ESPN+ and LA Draught in Santa Monica.

Topspiel first week at home is the perfect situation. First team is healthy, except…Adeyemi is doubtful. Köln is (believe it or not) having more injury problems than us, including obvious starters like Ljubicic and Hübers. This should be good.

26.08 Sat VfL Bochum vs Dortmund – 6:30am, ESPN+

This is as close as we get to a Derby nowadays, so I guess we make the most of it.

31.08 2023/24- 9am – Champions League group stage draw – Details Here

You’ll all want to see who we get. There are some weaklings in Pot 1 that could really help us out.

March Madness – Join The Party

Out of Champions League, disappointing result in the Derby. Keeping tabs on who’s injured and who’s not. After 10 straight victories, setting new records, it’s back down to earth again.

Long time fans will recognize this roller coaster of emotions as a typical Rückrunde, but here’s the difference: The team seems to have fixed a lot of its issues this year (defense, set pieces, mentality) and the Coach is not in danger of losing his job.

With that in mind, we are still looking at three meet-ups in a row. That too is probably a record. So after the Derby, two more big weekends.

Borussia Dortmund vs Köln – March 18 at 10:30am @ LA Draught

You may remember our sad showing in Köln last October. Alexander Meyer started, along with Anthony Modeste. Brandt scored our single goal. Tigges put the game away for Köln. This time may be very different. Haller is up front, and Kobel should be back. Reus should also be back.

Köln is sitting at 12th in the table coming off a 2-0 defeat to Bochum. They are not having a good year. Will this match put us back on winning ways?

Bayern München vs Borussia Dortmund – April 1 at 9:30am @ LA Draught

I can’t say I like the Der Klassiker title added to this match, but if it generates more interest in the Bundesliga… If you remember back to the Hinrunde, we played them to a 2-2 draw with Anthony Modeste supplying a miracle header for the tie.

I won’t make any predictions this time around, but I will say that if Adeyemi, Brandt, Kobel and Reus are all healthy, we can go toe to toe with the current Bayern team.

LA Draught

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