Photo by Max Maiwald/DeFodi Images via Getty Images

We won the Revierderby! (Kind of) Let?s not kid ourselves?the first 44 minutes of this match were abysmal for anyone wearing yellow and black. Borussia Dortmund were outworked and outplayed all over the pitch despite maintaining a significant advantage in possession, and they deserved to go in at half-time down to Bochum. While BVB looked okay early in the first half, with a Karim Adeyemi header forcing a great save in the 11th minute, Bochum exposed every weakness that Dortmund has shown this season from that point on.
Dortmund were slow in the build-up, especially when transitioning out of defense, and failed to do anything with their possession. In the 16th minute, Philip Hofmann and Matus Bero got the opening goal for the visitors after a well-worked (albeit very easy) one-two combination. That goal was a calamity of defensive errors as Yan Couto, Nico Schlotterbeck, and Waldemar Anton all committed to winning the ball within a 3-second span and failed miserably. In the 24 minutes following the opening goal, Dortmund would fail to register a shot on target, while Bochum doubled their lead in the 21st minute. Myron Boadu put Gregor Kobel under pressure following a difficult backpass from Julian Ryerson, and the goalkeeper handed the ball over to Dani de Wit to convert the opportunity. The visitors could have added a third in the 33rd minute, but Boadu fluffed his lines in a one-on-one. The match ...