Hertha Berlin v Borussia Dortmund Man-of-the-Match: Jadon Sancho
Last week, not many Bundesliga or in particular Borussia Dortmund fans would’ve heard of the name Jadon Sancho. But after his impressive full league debut last weekend against VFL Wolfsburg, and tonight’s strong showing for the second successive week against Hertha Berlin, it would be no surprise if he’s soon a fans favourite with these kind of performances.
Confidence is clearly a factor in Sancho’s ability to perform on the pitch and earning his only second league start, would’ve done nothing but bolster this characteristics. With his performance tonight, you would think he had been playing in Germany for several years however he has many more years ahead of him to improve as a player which should excite Dortmund fans.
Manager Peter Stoger spoke about Sancho following last week’s game against VFL Wolfsburg and had nothing but praise to say about the England u19 international:
“He has real quality, even though he isn’t quite the finished article in front of goal.”
“Jadon is a very, very talented lad, a real livewire.”
However, Stoger is not going to get complacent over the potential Sancho possess as he admits that whilst he has impressed him so far, they need to see how he “how he handles the situation from here.”
Relating back to today’s game, Dortmund as a side couldn’t get out of first gear in the first half, as they could consider themselves lucky to be level with Berlin going into the break.
However, this all eventually changed as the second half reached the 60 minute mark, Sancho became more of an influence and was actually the man who assisted Kagawa’s equaliser after brilliant individual work.
Driving at defenders, taking them on and beating them with ease similarly to last week, but this time with either a dangerous cross or shot to end his dangerous runs going forward.
On numerous occasions, this would happen and as the game got into the later stages, the more Berlin defenders struggled as the more confident Sancho was becoming.
His assist also was beautiful, beating three defenders originally before his second attempt at a delivery perfectly finding team-mate Kagawa to nod home with ease.
A presence against Wolfsburg, an assist against Berlin, could we see that finishing touch in front of goal that Stoger believes Sancho is currently missing but has more than faith in the English youngster to achieve?
