Borussia Dortmund's Star Names Make Flying Start to 2016 in Gladbach Win

Away at Borussia Monchengladbach is one of the toughest games the schedule has to offer for every Bundesliga team. After all, the Foals are the only team to beat Bayern Munich in the league this season so far.

Borussia Dortmund knew all about how difficult a trip to the lower Rhine can be: They had won once in their last 10 visits to Borussia-Park.

The supporters may have to thank the schedule-makers, however. As the club noted on their official website, "Dortmund went unbeaten in the first match of a calendar year for the 12th time in a row, and have won eight and drawn four in this period. The last defeat at the start of a year came in January 2004."

Still, one can call the Black and Yellows' 3-1 victory on Saturday evening a statement win. It wasn't perfect, but to expect perfection in the first game following a five-week hiatus called winter break would be audacious. 

Dortmund fans will be excited about the win and the performance of four star performers in particular: Mats Hummels was a rock in defence, Ilkay Gundogan stole the show in midfield, assisting a goal and opening his own Bundesliga account, while Marco Reus and Henrikh Mkhitaryan both scored and assisted a goal themselves.

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Those four players were the main reasons Dortmund won the match, but that shouldn't discount the impressive work from others.

Goalkeeper Roman Burki made an important save to keep his side in the lead against Ibrahima Traore in the second half; centre-back Sokratis Papastathopoulos earned a rare pre-assist with a bombing run deep into enemy territory before the 3-1; and Lukasz Piszczek decisively won his matchup on the right side of defence against USA international Fabian Johnson.

The story of the game, however, was the impressive form shown by the star names. ESPN FC's Stefan Buczko rated Hummels, Gundogan and Mkhitaryan a perfect 10/10, while Reus received an 8/10.

Oft-criticised centre-half Hummels put in perhaps his best performance of the season, which earned the Black and Yellows captain rave reviews from his head coach Thomas Tuchel, as noted by Deutsche Welle on Twitter:

Gundogan deserved his first league goal since April 2015—coincidentally scored at Gladbach as well—because of his majestic performance that included a brilliant through ball to assist the opening goal.

Reus, whom the club's Twitter account dubbed "Mr. 1-0," scored that opener, which was the 20th time he's done that since joining the Ruhr side from Monchengladbach, per journalist Thomas Nowag on Twitter (link in German).

Mkhitaryan finally scored his seventh of the Bundesliga campaign off a Reus assist and crossed the ball to Gundogan for the 3-1 dagger. With his 17th assist across competitions, he's now provided more goals this season than players such as Mesut Ozil and Neymar, per Opta (h/t sport magazine Kicker, in German).

Dortmund's second goal showed why these four players set themselves apart on the day.

Hummels won the ball with a brilliant tackle against Traore, and Gundogan had the presence of mind and vision to play the ball into the path of Reus, who took the pace out of the counter-attack to allow his team-mates to get into the open spaces, which Mkhitaryan did, as he found himself all alone inside the penalty box.

An easy pass from Reus and a smart finish from Mkhitaryan later, Dortmund were well on their way to win the game.

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It must be a scary thought for future opponents that perhaps Dortmund's biggest star of the season so far had a rare off day: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was surprisingly wasteful with a number of chances, as he alone could've made the scoreline much more comfortable for his side. 

If anyone can be excused for a one-off, it's the Gabonese, but he was disappointed with himself after the game, per Deutsche Welle's Alex Chaffer:

Going forward, Dortmund supporters can be excited about the early form shown by their key players.

And, who knows, perhaps Jerome Boateng's injury—Sport Bild's Tobias Altschaffl reported on Saturday that Bayern will miss him for at least 12 weeks (link in German)—opens up the title race at least a little bit.

With a 12-point advantage over fourth place before Sunday's Bundesliga matches and eight points behind Bayern at the top of the table, Dortmund are in a comfortable position.

If Aubameyang joins the other star players in their excellent forms from this game, the Black and Yellows' second half of the season might even rival the already-impressive first six months under Tuchel.

Lars Pollmann is a Featured Columnist writing on Borussia Dortmund. He also writes for Yellowwallpod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.