Birthday Goals and Talking Points from Dortmund’s 3-0 Win Over Hamburg

Remember those worries about fixture congestion and the lack of depth with our injuries? Yeah, me neither. The Black and Yellows held on to a slim lead for much of the match before putting it away with two second-half goals to defeat Hamburg on the road. Christian Pulisic and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored as well as Shinji Kagawa notching his first goal of the season.

The victory moved BVB back into the top position in the league table ahead of Bayern and they still have yet to allow a goal this season. Even scarier for opponents, Marc Bartra, Andre Schurrle, and Mario Gotze did not make an appearance in this match. However, as Dean reported recently, all three are nearly back to boost the squad’s depth. Let’s dive into more of the important talking points from this match

Birthday Boy Etches Name in the Record Book

Christian Pulisic celebrated his 19th birthday this week and on the pitch again made an impact. He helped set-up Aubameyang’s goal with his excellent play through the middle and scored the final goal of the match. That goal was BVB’s 3,000th Bundesliga goal, something the young American seemed to treasure. “The 3,00th goal in the Bundesliga? That’s an incredible post-birthday present,” he beamed after the match. It was also his second of the season and first in the league. While Pulisic can be somewhat inconsistent at times, his importance to the club grows seemingly every match.

Yarmolenko Quickly Becoming a Key Cog for This Club

Andrij Yarmolenko’s acquisition didn’t garner the headlines during the summer transfer season that others did but the former Dynamo Kiev man is quickly becoming essential to BVB. In this match, he was the playmaker, setting up the first two goals and generally disrupting the Hamburg backline. He is in no way a complete replacement for Ousmane Dembele but as he showed in this match, he is skilful enough that he certainly lessens the blow immensely.

Numbers, numbers, and more numbers

The 3,000th goal of BVB’s Bundesliga history was just one of the impressive statistics from this match. Kagawa’s goal to open the match tied him with Shinji Okazaki for most goals by a Japanese born Bundesliga player. For the first time ever, The Black and Yellow have topped the table for the first five match days. The victory was Dortmund’s 750th in Germany’s top division; they potentially could pass Werder Bremen (761) this season. Peter Bosz has also etched his name in the record books, becoming the first manager to oversee clean sheets in his first five matches.

This Victory is More Impressive Than It Seems

This loss drops Hamburg to 11th in the table, with six points in five matches. Der Dino barely escaped relegation last season and at times looked like the same battle was their destiny in this match. By the end of the season, however, this victory could be one of BVB’s most impressive. Hamburg are riddled with injuries and have some potent talent up front. Pulisic’s U.S. national teammate Bobby Wood looks to be a solid Bundesliga talent with more playing time. While Hamburg had moments of poor play and their left side (especially Sakai) was bad, they could stabilize to a mid-table side that will take points from the top if they can become healthy and more consistent.