Why is everyone always so surprised when Hoffenheim beats Dortmund? They’ve been doing it now pretty regularly. I explain it like this: there’s a lot of bad blood between Dortmund and Hoffenheim for such a remarkably short period of coexistence in the Bundesliga. One of the main reasons is Watzke, the CEO of Dortmund, who dissed Dietmar Hopp mercilessly until Dortmund won the Championship last season and the money started to flow in. (Trash talking is rare in the Bundesliga except from Uli Hoeness of Bayern München and personal attacks in public even rarer.) Watzke knew damn well that he was inciting the rabid Dortmund fan base and he deviously used and abused that. At the end of last season Watzke made up with Hopp but he forgot to communicate that to his fans. So they still behave like barnyard animals when they visit the Hoffenheim stadium. Witness burnt fan blocks and filthy songs at top volume.
I think Hoffenheim at the beginning of their rivalry played particularly well against Dortmund because of this motivating background scenario. There was a huge amount of loyalty to Hopp from the players in 2008-2009. Then last year in the first half of the season, instead of winning a game in Dortmund which was absolutely theirs, they had to settle for a tie because of a completely wrong call and an Elfmeter in literally the last second of the game which later the ref admitted was wrong. That game more or less launched Dortmund on its way to the title and it was a bitter, bitter result for Hoffenheim.
Even more amazing, however, was when Hoffenheim beat Dortmund in their terrible second half of the past season. They shut Dortmund down and they won. Obviously they knew how because they had done it in the previous game but just weren’t rewarded for it. And since Dortmund is still the same team playing basically the same game, it’s no wonder that Hoffenheim knew how to shut them down this year as well. With every Dortmund game, they have more confidence that they have Dortmund’s number – and it shows.
Dortmund is not an anomaly. It just shows what Hoffenheim can do when it’s motivated and confident.
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