Cerezo Osaka 1-0 Borussia Dortmund: BVB suffer second pre-season defeat in Osaka | OneFootball

A first-half goal from Solomon Sakuragawa secured a friendly win for Cerezo Osaka against Borussia Dortmund. Nico Kovac’s side also lost to Fortuna Düsseldorf just before traveling to Japan, where they will stay until August 2nd.

The J1 League side scored their goal after ex-BVB star Shinji Kagawa’s curling effort from outside the box resulted in a corner-kick inside the first ten minutes. The 24-year-old scored from close range following a short corner-kick routine.

Summer signings Joane Gadou, Justin Lerma and Takato Yamamoto all started for Dortmund. Apart from a forced first-half substitution following an injury to Filippo Mane, Kovac waited until the hour mark for his first changes as Fábio Silva was among the eight players coming on as a substitute.

Roméo Ritter thought he equalized for the Germans in the last action of the game, but it was ruled out for an offside. The 18-year-old center-back saw the only yellow card of the game moments earlier.

Kovac used a total of 21 players in the game, with goalkeeper Alexander Meyer and Gadou playing the entire 90 minutes. The fans booed 18-year-old Yamamoto because he came through the youth ranks of Cerezo Osaka’s fierce rivals, Gamba Osaka.

Dortmund will play against FC Tokyo at the National Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on Monday. J1 League will commence on August 8th as both Cerezo Osaka and FC Tokyo are in an advanced stage of pre-season compared to Borussia Dortmund, who will play their first competitive game of the 2026/27 season on August 22nd (vs. FC Bayern in the Franz Beckenbauer Super Cup).