Bullied Borussia Dortmund Squander Chance in Bundesliga Title Race at Leverkusen

It was all on a silver plate for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga on Saturday evening.

Bayern Munich had dropped their first two points of the Carlo Ancelotti era, with a 1-1 draw with high-flying FC Cologne spoiling not only the Italian's perfect league record, but also the team's Oktoberfest trip. A win would have put Dortmund just one point behind the Bavarian giants ahead of the international break.

A win would also have put the Black and Yellows eight points ahead of their opponents Bayer Leverkusen, arguably their biggest rivals for second place this season. Two birds, one stone. What unfolded in BayArena, however, was far from Dortmund making good use of this golden opportunity.

A thoroughly deserved 2-0 defeat not only saw Bayern win a point on the Ruhr side and Leverkusen draw closer, it also confirmed a worrying trend for Thomas Tuchel's team. Once again, his side crumbled under pressure, with the hosts physically dominating the match from the first to the final whistle.

Leverkusen executed a similar game plan to the one RB Leipzig had beaten Dortmund with on Matchday 2, only that the Rhinelanders arguably did it even better. Of course, the flow of the game played into their hands.

It's moot to speculate how the game may have turned out had Julian Weigl not lost his footing in the 10th minute and allowed Admir Mehmedi a free header off a Hakan Calhanoglu corner—a slight push from the Switzerland international was enough to throw Weigl off his tracks, it was a good no-call from referee Manuel Grafe.

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The goal was almost a symbolic scene for the entire match. Much like Mehmedi bullied Weigl, Leverkusen bullied Dortmund. The hosts walked a tightrope between playing hard and playing unfair, as they registered 21 fouls compared to seven for Dortmund, per sport magazine Kicker (link in German), but Grafe was lenient in dishing out bookings.

Captain Marcel Schmelzer, who watched on from the bench in the first period, said after the game, per the club's official website: "In the first half it was a little excessive. But in football you are allowed to go in hard and that’s why yellow cards are given."

Tuchel, meanwhile, lamented in his post-match press conference that it was the third time opponents had accumulated more than 20 fouls against his team. Considering how little Dortmund created from the following free-kicks, however, they only have themselves to blame.

With their firm grasp on the game, Leverkusen put the clamps on the Black and Yellows in midfield. Roger Schmidt's team were happy to concede possession and allowed Dortmund to pass the ball back and forth in their own half.

It's no coincidence that the visitors' three most defensive players, centre-halves Matthias Ginter and Sokratis Papastathopoulos and right-back Lukasz Piszczek, ended up with the most touches of the ball.

Per WhoScored.com, the three registered 112, 130 and 133 touches, respectively. To put that in perspective, Calhanoglu led his side with 56 touches, only two more than Schmelzer had after coming in at left-back for the second half.

As the passing map below indicates, Dortmund had next to no penetration once the ball reached their midfield lines:

"Dortmund's normally effective combination play, consisting of quick interchanges, failed to spark into life," Ross Dunbar opined for Deutsche Welle.

It didn't help that Gonzalo Castro, who had been in excellent form, was a nonfactor in the game, or that youngsters Ousmane Dembele and Christian Pulisic had arguably their worst performances to date.

Whereas the young American was never involved in his team's play—Dortmund were lopsided to the left where Raphael Guerreiro advanced far higher up the pitch than Piszczek on the right—Dembele had a number of opportunities to wreak havoc.

However, the 19-year-old looked sluggish and almost disinterested at times, as his stats after roughly half an hour of play indicated:

It was little short of a miracle that he spent the entire 90 minutes on the pitch. Tuchel opted for two substitutions at half-time, with Schmelzer and Emre Mor coming on for Castro and Pulisic, who both earned three out of 10 ratings from ESPN FC's Stefan Buczko, but he waited until the 71st minute for his final change.

Hindsight is 20/20, but introducing Shinji Kagawa earlier (or bringing on Mario Gotze) to have more security in possession would have seemed a better decision.

The 43-year-old had anticipated a high-intensity struggle against the Rhinelanders and opted for more beef and dynamism with Rode and Castro in midfield, a plan that may well have worked had Leverkusen had to contribute to the flow of the game.

However, thanks to their early lead, the hosts could rely on precise counter-attacks through Javier Hernandez, Mehmedi, Julian Brandt or Charles Aranguiz to remain dangerous. Whereas it felt as though Dortmund wouldn't score if the game went on for five hours, a second goal for Leverkusen was always in play.

When the Mexican star striker added that second goal 11 minutes from full time, it was as if he put Dortmund out of their misery. An offside goal from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang that gave their fans hope for all of one second summed up what kind of day it was for the Black and Yellows:

It must be particularly annoying for Tuchel and his team that such a defeat comes at the end of a rather impressive seven-game stretch in the span of 21 days. Big wins over Legia Warsaw in the UEFA Champions League and SV Darmstadt, VfL Wolfsburg and SC Freiburg in the Bundesliga, as well as a solid 2-2 draw with Real Madrid, were thus bookmarked with disappointing away defeats at Leipzig and Leverkusen.

Now, those are two of the most difficult away fixtures the Bundesliga has to offer, and, generally speaking, Dortmund will be happy with their start to the season. However, Saturday has to be considered a squandered chance.

"Some thought that this exciting young Dortmund side could halt Bayern's inexorable charge towards a fifth consecutive Bundesliga crown," Dunbar concluded. "On Saturday's evidence, they may have to wait a good deal longer for Dortmund to usurp the dominant Bavarians."

It's probably unfair to expect the Black and Yellows to challenge Bayern in this first campaign after a summer of upheaval. "We should not forget that we have many young players and that our team has not been together for that long," Schmelzer said after the match.

Even if you don't believe in a title race, however, the meeting with a direct opponent for the Champions League spots was a classic six-pointer. Having an eight-point advantage over Leverkusen after just six matchdays would have allowed Dortmund to dream bigger.

As it went, fans, players and coaches go into the international break with a sour taste in their mouths. With his players scattered across the four winds, Tuchel will not get to work on too many things on the practice pitch.

The head coach has to find a way for his team to combat physical, high-pressure opponents. Leipzig and Leverkusen have offered the league a blueprint to stymie Dortmund's high-octane attack.

Lars Pollmann also writes for The Yellow Wall. You can follow him on Twitter.