“To be honest, you have to say”: reactions to BVB defeat in Osaka | OneFootball

Gregor Kobel, Waldemar Anton, Ramy Bensebaini, as well as Marcel Sabitzer and Maximilian Beier: none of them were on the pitch in the friendly against Cerezo Osaka. BVB coach Niko Kovac (54) had to do without his World Cup players in the opening game of the Japan tour.

Instead, Borussia Dortmund fielded numerous U23 and U19 players in the 1-0 defeat at Osaka’s Yanmar Stadium Nagai. “The lads probably won’t play together in this setup all that often either,” Kovac also said in a club interview. The experienced coach is taking it very calmly: “That’s just how it is in pre-season when there has been a major tournament.” But he has not lost his ambition. “Even so, you never want to lose games, no matter the circumstances,” he said in response to the disappointing start.

Kovac wants to “pay a compliment” to his young team, in which goalkeeper Alexander Meyer (35) and striker Serhou Guirassy (30) were by far the oldest Dortmund players on the pitch. He said his youthful side “stood up physically,” even if “quite a few things can still be improved” in footballing terms.

“The automatisms are simply missing”

Lars Ricken (50) agrees with his head coach. “To be honest, you also have to say that today we saw a team made up of U19, U23 and only a few professionals. The automatisms are simply missing,” the managing director for sport explained of the defeat on Japanese soil. “The internationals will be back in the next game,” he said, looking ahead to the match against FC Tokyo on Saturday (1 August, 12 noon).

Photo: IMAGO

One of those on the pitch in the hot and humid conditions was the man between the posts. Meyer admitted that the weather and the opponent “demanded a lot” from Dortmund. The veteran summed up: “We got into the game better in the second half and then had some good chances as well. I think in the end a draw would also have been deserved, but the ball just wouldn’t go in.” The biggest chances went begging for Guirassy shortly before the break (40th minute) and Fábio Silva (24) in the closing stages (84th).

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.