Tough times for Dortmund amid bus bomb woes
Print Edition
SOMETIMES, it’s hard to focus on a soccer game.
Borussia Dortmund players had to, though, less than 24 hours after a bomb attack on their team bus. And they will have to do so again tomorrow, when Eintracht Frankfurt visits in the German Bundesliga.
“It comes in waves. Today feels the worst,” Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel said yesterday. “We have to find a way to deal with it. But we don’t know yet how that’s supposed to happen.”
Dortmund midfielder Nuri Sahin made it clear that his thoughts were far from the field in the rescheduled UEFA Champions League quarterfinal match against Monaco on Wednesday — a game Dortmund lost 2-3 after an uncharacteristically hesitant start.
Teenager Kylian Mbappe struck twice as Monaco claimed victory at Signal Iduna Park.
“Until I was on the pitch in the second half, I didn’t think about football, to be honest. Because last night I didn’t realize what happened, and when I was at home and my wife and my son were waiting in front of the door, there I felt how lucky we were,” the visibly shaken Sahin told former Norway international Jan Aage Fjortoft, now a journalist.
“I know football is very important. We love football. We suffer with football. I know we earn a lot of money, we have a privileged life, but we are human beings. There’s so much more than football in this world. Last night we felt it.”
Dortmund defender Marc Bartra was hit by shrapnel as three explosions hit the bus. The Spaniard was taken to the hospital and had surgery on a broken bone in his wrist. He will be out for four weeks.
“I can’t forget the faces,” Sahin said of his teammates, who ducked for cover when the explosions hit. “I will never forget these faces in my life for sure. Oh yeah, when I saw Marc there and I saw Schmelle (Marcel Schmelzer), I sat next to Schmelle and I will never forget Schmelle’s face. It was unbelievable.”
On Wednesday, Tuchel was stinging in his criticism of UEFA for going ahead with the UCL game so soon after the attack.
“We had the feeling that we were being treated as if a beer can had hit our bus,” said Tuchel, who claimed he wasn’t asked about whether to proceed with the game.
But Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke said on Tuesday that a congested calendar meant there was little option for postponing the game further.
UEFA spokesman Pedro Pinto said that the governing body was in touch with all parties.
Tuchel may have been trying to protect his players but it’s clear that the attack had an effect on his side.
“Most players hardly slept, myself included,” Dortmund midfielder Julian Weigl said. “I tried to come to terms with it with my family, tried to wind down and switch off. In the end in the game we made the best we could of it.”
Amid increased security and while the investigations continue, Dortmund will have to make the best of it again tomorrow as it seeks to improve upon its fourth place to secure automatic UCL qualification. Fourth only brings a playoff.
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