Hope you all had a great weekend! I haven't written in a while, so here's what's going on in BVB land:
Normally, I wouldn't really care about a win in a preseason friendly, but after so much acrimony among the fan base after BVB's lackluster friendly performances in **** an, I'm happy to see a positive result, especially against an **** nal team that had quite a few of its elite players in the lineup.
There are many young players who have a very strong chance of playing big minutes this season. Several of them were in the squad today, and they gave us fans many reasons to be excited. Everyone will speak highly of Konstantinos Karestas and his wonder-goal, but I was even more impressed by Samuele Inacio. He was using his pace very effectively throughout the game, and was positioned perfectly to finish a chance set up by Felix Nmecha. On the defensive end, Joane Gadou had a terrific game, looking right at home defending against players like Viktor Gyökeres and Kai Havertz.
On the negative side, I do not think that this experiment of playing Maximilian Beier at wing-back has legs. It's not that he's a horrible defender, but I just don't like giving one of our more talented attacking players so much defensive responsibility. Beier only had 19 touches in 59 minutes and had essentially no offensive impact. Kauã Prates also came on for a cameo and conceded a pretty sloppy penalty.
The **** nal YouTube channel posted the game's highlights:

#beier #chance

Borussia Dortmund lost the first match of their ******* an pre-season tour 1-0 at Cerezo Osaka in the absence of many regular players on Wednesday.
Solomon Sakuragawa scored an early winner for the J-League club whose line-up included former Dortmund player Shinji Kagawa.
Dortmund's team mainly featured youth team players as a large number of others are on holiday after the World, led by Germany defender Nico Schlotterbeck who is also injured, Switzerland goalkeeper Gregor Kobel and Norway full back Julian Ryerson.
But Jobe Bellingham and Fábio Silva are part of the squad in ******* an along with Maximilian Beier, Felix Nmecha and Waldemar Anton, who could feature in the second match on Saturday against FC Tokyo.
Coach Niko Kovac has said there will be "less training than some may have expected" and that the date for the ******* an trip in the third week of the pre-season was chosen "so that we just play."

#dortmund #season #players

Borussia Dortmund will play their second pre-season fixture on Saturday afternoon as they face 3. Liga side Fortuna Düsseldorf at Merkur Spiel-Arena. The hosts are well ahead in their preparations for the 2026/27 season since their league campaign will start on August 7th.
World Cup participants Felix Nmecha, Waldemir Anton, Maximilian Beier and Daniel Svensson started their first pre-season steps after their return to the club on Friday. However, Niko Kovac's side will be without those four players, while Ecuadorian Justin Lerma and ****** anese Takato Yamamoto will be in the spotlight.
Fortuna Düsseldorf: Rieß, Heintz, Bouchama, Hendrix ©, Hottmann, Consbruch, Schleusener, Zimmermann, Risch, Arden, E. Egouli
Subs: Lord, Van der Sloot, Eixler, Oberdorf, Benger, Goncalves, Meiser, Paulina, Sauck, Slimani, Mentzel, Amaniampong, N. Egouli, ****** o
Borussia Dortmund: Meyer, Gadou, Mane, Albert, Kabar, Yamamoto, Duarte, Azhil, Riedl, Mirza, Guirassy ©

#season #borussia #dortmund #fortuna

In their first match of the knockout stage against Paraguay, the German national team found themselves 0-1 down in the 42nd minute. Shortly before half-time, Felix Nmecha, who had started the match, missed a golden opportunity to equalise when he found himself unmarked. His deflected shot went wide of the left-hand post. It was the Borussia Dortmund player's last involvement in the match; he was substituted after the break.
Although Germany managed to equalise in the 54th minute, no further goals were scored in normal time, so the match went into extra time. In the 102nd minute, Germany took what appeared to be a 2-1 lead, but the referees ruled that Waldemar Anton had fouled the goalkeeper beforehand, so the goal was disallowed. The Borussia player had come on as a substitute in the 79th minute. Anton missed the chance to score the winner shortly before the end of extra time as his header from five yards out went straight at the opposition goalkeeper (119).
In the penalty shoot-out, Germany lost 3-4 after missing three penalties, meaning the tournament is over for the team. Maxi Beier remained on the bench for the entire match, while Nico Schlotterbeck was sidelined through injury.
This Tuesday evening, Julian Ryerson and Norway face the Ivory Coast, while Daniel Svensson plays for Sweden against France.

No fewer than four Borussia players are in the German national team line-up: Waldemar Anton, Maximilian Beier, Nico Schlotterbeck and Felix Nmecha will be competing in Group E. Ramy Bensebaini represents Algeria in Group J, while Carney Chukwuemeka and Marcel Sabitzer are also competing for Austria in Group J. This will see the first-ever Borussia derby in the tournament. Gregor Kobel is between the posts for Switzerland (Group B), Julian Ryerson leads Norway onto the pitch in Group I, and Daniel Svensson kicks off the tournament with Sweden in Group F.
Qatar – Switzerland (21:00 CEST in San Francisco)
Sunday, 14.06.2026
Germany – Curaçao (19:00 CEST in Houston)
Monday, 15.06.2026