Borussia Dortmund

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Dede: We Must Play To Our Own Strengths

[2.11.] DSC Arminia Bielefeld is the current cause of sensation in the German Bundesliga. With a 5-1 victory against Alemannia Aachen, the East Westfalen (Westphalia) club catapulted themselves to 5th place in the Bundesliga standings, higher than the club has ever been at the one-quarter point of any Bundesliga season. "They also surprised for a long time last season", said coach Bert van Marwijk of BVB´s opponents on Saturday (3:30 PM CET) at Signal Iduna Park. However, Arminia´s success story ("Bielefeld: A Fall Fairy Tale" read the club´s own homepage) has two sides. The team is nowhere near as dominant away as they are at home.

Wörns against Porcello: Last season BVB shoved Bielefeld aside at home with a 2-0 victory.

Arminia has earned 12 of their 14 points at home in the SchücoArena. Only Mönchengladbach has fewer away points. But Bielefeld has this going for them on road trips: They are hard to beat. They have suffered extremely tight defeats in Bochum, where they lost 2-1, but were the better team for phases of that match, and just 1-0 in Gladbach. They earned points with 1-1 draws in Hamburg and Nürnberg (Nuremberg) respectively.

Nevertheless, the euphoria is gigantic. 3,500 Arminia fans snapped up the available 3,500 tickets for the away supporters in Dortmund. "They are not to be underestimated and at the moment, they are playing good football", says Bielefeld expert Oliver Müller (Radio 91.2). Christian Wörns, Borussia´s team captain, has a similar view: "Naturally they are coming with their chests stuck out further than normal. They are on a good run. Naturally, we want to break it." Phillip Degen says: Bielefeld are on a superb run that is breeding self-confidence! However, we are BVB and we have higher ambition."

With a victory, BVB could make a huge advance up the table. Bielefeld, who are on 14 points, one more than Borussia, would be passed, Berlin and Nürnberg meet, canceling themselves out for max points, Cottbus has to play in Bremen, Stuttgart goes to Aachen, and even the third place team, Schalke, has to face Bayern. On this tenth match day many places could change hands. "On Saturday we must succeed in finally making a breakthrough", hopes Nelson Valdez. In order to make this happen, "we must simply play to our own strengths", demanded Dede.

Original article by Boris Rupert/Translated by Keith Richardson

Bielefeld Coming: On Saturday, BVB Meets The Surprise Team Of The Bundesliga

Projected Line-Ups