Postmatch Reaction: Dortmund’s Pokal Lost Sees Poor Finishing, Sad Pieces, and… a Big Letter?

Breaking News – Borussia Dortmund’s chances at winning the treble are over. Niko Kovac’s maiden DFB Pokal campaign in Dortmund ended after only the third round. The club’s path to the trophy was always difficult you would hope a home crowd advantage would have lifted Dortmund above Bayer Leverkusen, a team they beat just three days prior. Unfortunately, sad-pieces come for all black-and-yellow dreams.

Kovac made several changes to the lineup with Fabio Silva coming in for the now vilified Serhou Guirassy as the headline swap. Dortmund started on the front foot in this match and dominated possession early. Karim Adeyemi was the protagonist and it seemed like the team was just missing the final pass or shot. Bayer Leverkusen’s Ibrahim Maza was more than happy to demonstrate, however, and buried a well-taken shot in the 34th minute. Dortmund responded well but failed to force difficult saves out of Mark Flekken.

The second half was more of the same. Dortmund did well to dominate the ball and Leverkusen played counter-attacking football. Dortmund had a flurry of chances around the 60th minute but, again, it was Leverkusen who put the ball in the back of the net. Comical defending from Emre Can gave Martin Terrier the opportunity to convert but the Frenchman’s back (yes, back) was offside by centimeters. A triple change in the 67th minute saw Julian Brandt, Maximilian Beier, and Guirassy come on to lay siege against Leverkusen’s goal. It ultimately was not enough and Dortmund failed to convert any of their chances.

Narratives will follow in the next couple of days about how the club is doomed (maybe) and the season is a failure (probably) but the reality of this match came down to which team converted its chances. Dortmund will watch the DFB Pokal on the sidelines and resume Bundesliga play on Sunday. In the meantime… you can read my takeaways below!

Poor Finishing

Star striker, Serhou Guirassy, found himself on the bench for today’s match after one goal in his last six Bundesliga matches. Fabio Silva took center-stage but the Portuguese striker’s finishing was equally poor. In fact, Dortmund’s finishing in general was downright atrocious. Most of this comes down to creativity around the box and decision-making. Despite 20 shots, Dortmund only racked up an xG of 1.33 and 4 shots on target. This includes 11 shots inside the box. Karim Adeyemi in particular was poor with all five of his shots missing the target including a point-blank header in the last seconds of the match. While there is turmoil around Kovac’s competency, it’s difficult to argue that the blame does not fall on the players.

Revenge of the Sad Pieces

It’s the 2025/26 season and football is dominated by set-pieces. Sports journalists have heralded the arrival of the set-piece bubble as the prices of meaty center-backs and out-swinging corner kicks jump to record highs. Everyone from lowly blogs to the BBC are claiming that the game has changed and soccer will never be the same. Here at Fear The Wall, however, we swim up a different stream; the sad-piece. The sad-piece has long been an integral part of Borussia Dortmund fandom. Historical linguists have actually identified that Echte Liebe translates to ‘sad-piece’ in medieval low-German.

This match was the epitome of the sad-piece. Borussia Dortmund had 11 corners compared to Leverkusen’s 0. Daniel Svensson, Julian Ryerson, and Pascal Gross all took corners but not a single corner created a meaningful chance for the team. In fact, Leverkusen had several breakaways thanks to a Dortmund corner going awry. In Dortmund have only created one goal off a set-piece this season, in the Bundesliga opening weekend against St. Pauli. 54(!) teams have created more goals from set-pieces then Dortmund across Europe’s top 5 leagues and only two teams in the Bundesliga have created less. Set-pieces can be the difference makers in coin-flip matches against rivals or in cup competitions. Unfortunately for Dortmund, they rarely get pass the first defender.

The Sudtribune Protest

The first 12 minutes of today’s match were eerily quiet as Dortmund’s Yellow Wall was protesting. Suprisingly, the protest was not around the club’s form or inability to score a set-piece. Instead, the fans raised a massive letter aimed at German politicians. Currently, their are discussions in Germany to adopt a hard-line approach to policing football fans in Germany. There is concern amongst fans, including those at today’s match, that the policy change is dominated by rhetoric rather than fact. I won’t weigh in on the debate (I’m a moron) but it is a space to watch for anyone interested!

Your Thoughts

Why can’t Dortmund finish? Are you or a friend available to take set-pieces? Is this the most German protest you have ever seen?