Borussia Dortmund Push on with Season Recovery Through Marco Reus Brilliance

Friday night could have so easily been another false hope for Borussia Dortmund. Within the first minute of their Bundesliga clash with Mainz, the famous Black and Yellows were already a goal down.

Jurgen Klopp looked furious, the stadium came to a halt and all hope of escaping the current troubles looked lost. Then along came Marco Reus. 

The man who had just signed his name to a new long-term deal at the club had already made most fans' year by committing to his boyhood side, yet the performance that we saw from Reus against Mainz was a truly special one.

We all knew that the German international was Dortmund's best player, and he showed it on Friday by nearly winning the game single-handedly. 

As we've so often seen this season, Klopp's side began the game two steps back, when Elkin Soto took advantage of some poor judgement on Roman Weidenfeller's part and chipped the onrushing goalkeeper following a rebound. 

The home team responded in kind with sloppy passes, direct long balls up the park and hastily organised attacks against a comfortable Mainz defence. Essentially, Dortmund huffed and puffed for much of the first half but showed little contrast to what we've seen from the former champions all season.

Kasper Hjulmand's side went in at half-time with one hand on a victory and little else to suggest Dortmund would be able to pull themselves out of this mess. 

Yet something changed at half-time—a characteristic we haven't seen from Dortmund this season—as the Westfalenstadion side came out to their frustrated fans in the second half, the team looked determined and hellbent on saving this match. 

The responding goal from Dortmund didn't come before too long, when Neven Subotic knocked in a powerful header from a Marcel Schmelzer cross on the 48th minute, only for Reus to dance round the 'keeper and put his side in the lead six minutes later thanks to a cheeky pass from Kevin Kampl. 

The team that couldn't score suddenly had two, and for the first time this season, Klopp's kids were in front after initially going a goal down.

Mainz would offer their own form of resistance only minutes later, when Yunus Malli took advantage of some signature poor defending to even up the score. But by then, the momentum had shifted, and the Carnival club were notably fighting against a rising tide.

Of course, it wasn't just Reus who shone in such a defining match for Dortmund. Both Ilkay Gundogan and Shinji Kagawa—two players who have only just returned to full fitness—looked like their old selves and paved the way for each and every Dortmund attack. 

Gundogan, in particular, was a shining example of the Klopp sides of old, with ferocity and technique in equal measure across the pitch. It comes as no surprise, looking at his stats at Transfermarkt, that Dortmund's goals-per-game ratio jumps from one goal to 1.27 whenever he's in the side. 

The crowning moment for Dortmund and their man of the match came in the 70th minute when Reus received the ball on the left wing and played in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with a curving 50-yard pass with the outside of his foot. 

Aubameyang finished with the finesse that sometimes frequents the striker and often reminds us that a quality player lay not too far off, but the moment truly belonged to his German colleague and assister of the goal.

With one beautiful moment of magic, Reus had carved Mainz wide open and pulled his team back into the lead.

The forward looked like a man at ease in the yellow of Dortmund, dancing through the opposition and leading his side like Thierry Henry once did at Arsenal and Lionel Messi does now at Barcelona. A player of immense skill, Reus knits this entire team together and is quite simply fundamental to every success they achieve.

The game would ultimately be concluded before the final whistle when Nuri Sahin tapped in a rebounded free-kick on the 77th minute, but the real cheers rang out five minutes later when Borussia Dortmund substituted Reus off for Adrian Ramos.

The football cathedral that is the Westfalenstadion erupted and took to its feet to cheer off Reus, their former youth player, current hero and undoubtedly the bright future of this club. 

Fellow strugglers Stuttgart await next weekend with the possibility of another three points putting the club just nine from a potential Champions League spot.

Hope springs eternal, as they say, and thanks to some wonderful football from Reus, fans of this famous club can begin smiling and looking forward to their football once again.

@Sbienkowski