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Could help the club - if he leaves: Dortmund's Erling Haaland
Photo: Martin Meissner / AP
As a player and as a manager, Michael Zorc has already faced relegation and bankruptcy with Borussia Dortmund, celebrated five championships, won a Champions League final, lost one, and transferred a number of players.
Sometimes it was a flop, sometimes it was Robert Lewandowski.
And now, after months in a state of emergency, the outgoing manager has been able to experience the stadium at full capacity.
But nothing more.
Trembling for every point or even every goal on the home stretch of a season, playing for a final in knockout competitions, all this is denied to him.
Or saved, depending on your point of view.
At least spread joy
After the 4-1 draw against RB Leipzig, Dortmund are nine points behind leaders FC Bayern and twelve points ahead of fifth.
"After today's result, we don't have to talk about the Bundesliga title," said coach Marco Rose on Saturday: "We wanted to push something, but we slowed ourselves down."
That he would push something was also the wish of the club behind Rose's commitment.
Dortmund should at least spread joy if it's only ever chasing after FC Bayern.
Attractive football was one goal, in addition to the obvious one given the personnel costs of around 200 million euros: to get back into the Champions League.
Rose will fulfill the latter, but everything else will have to wait.
A fan march took place on Saturday from the Westpark to the Westfalenstadion, which had been opened exactly 48 years earlier.
The active scene had celebrated its return with it, just like with the choreography before the game.
She stayed away from the south stand for more than two years.
Now she was back to push against the club from Leipzig, which was still seen as a marketing construct.
They experienced: the third home defeat in a row.
BVB had previously lost to Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen, the other two teams at the top of the table.
Jude Bellingham, who played for the first time in front of more than 80,000 spectators in Dortmund, once again said goodbye to the fans alone after the game, while his more experienced colleagues pointed out BVB's dilemma.
Central defender Manuel Akanji, for example, said that he was "incredibly sorry for such a performance": "That's not possible."
The BVB defense chief also said what everyone had known for a long time: “There is no longer a look up.
Now it's about laying the foundation for next year.«
Kehl promises improvement - and asks for patience
What are BVB's claims?
This question will outlive the time of manager Zorc, who hands over his department to Sebastian Kehl.
In an interview with the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" he promised new players, a beneficial competition and a positive influence of the coach.
Football according to Rose's ideas "may not have really arrived yet because she couldn't do it.
But that will come," Kehr continues.
"I want to have all boys here, but they're really into this club, tear themselves apart."
The coach fits, the squad doesn't suit him - that's the message from Kehl's sentences, which above all demand patience from the fans, because the optimization will "probably take several transfer periods".
It will be about cementing the status as the second best team in Germany and giving fans away from the active scene joy.
The task is difficult, especially for a novice like Kehl, whose first transfers should be viewed a little more critically.
A departure of the courted center forward Erling Haaland, who also remained pale on Saturday, could even be helpful in trying to advertise another change.
Because the word upheaval - and the promises that go with it - is not the first time they have heard it in Dortmund.
With material from the sid