When Borussia Dortmund’s coach Edin Terzić mused a few weeks back that his plan for the season had been to make his team “less sexy, more successful,” you could have imagined his counterpart at Newcastle United, Eddie Howe, nodding with approval. The latter’s express speed improvement of one of English football’s perennial underachievers in the past two years has been dizzying, remarkable and laudable but, unlike the high points of the first Kevin Keegan era, built more on sweat than swagger.
After Dortmund’s 2-0 Champions League win over Newcastle on Tuesday, Howe may well have furthered a grudging admiration for Terzić, and may see even more parallels for where he wants to take his players in the future. The German side, who have helped develop the careers of US stars such as Gio Reyna and Christian Pulisic, have beaten Newcastle twice in less than two weeks, home and away, with pragmatic, measured football that on both occasions made the Geordies look as green as the glowing away jerseys that they sported for their match in North Rhine-Westphalia. As well as being an indicator of where Newcastle, a very differently run and funded club than Dortmund, may need to improve in order to be able to replicate their hosts’ consistent presence in the Champions League, Tuesday’s game reminded us that the Bundesliga giants have drifted from the recipe that made them such a popular ‘second favourite team’ for many – just as Newcastle had been during the mid-90s heyday of Keegan.
