Borussia Dortmund Are Limping into Cup Final After Disappointing Dress Rehearsal

Borussia Dortmund head coach Thomas Tuchel wasn't happy on Saturday. During the 2-2 draw against Cologne in the last Bundesliga game of his first season in charge at the Westfalenstadion, he worked his coaching zone like a madman for a good portion of the 90 minutes. 

Almost every player got his fair share of Tuchel's wrath on the sideline.

After the match that saw them finish the season a whopping 10 points behind champions Bayern Munich, the 42-year-old expressed his disappointment loud and clear, per Matthias Dersch of local paper Ruhr Nachrichten (via the club's official website):

"

The season was as well as decided last week, this week it was decided. But still: we freed ourselves from the constellation for 32 match days, be this in the Bundesliga, or the Europa League or the DFB-Cup. We played to our limit on every match day, but we stopped doing that 10 days ago. That is not good. That is not what we are about. That does not give us a good feeling. That is why I find it hard today to accept compliments about our season. We were lucky to get a point against Cologne.

"

It could well have been the first time the head coach criticised his team's lack of focus and character this harshly, simply because he never had to in what was a very impressive campaign for 32 league matches. The numbers still look good, obviously.

Finishing with 78 points, they set a new record for the runners-up spot in the German top flight, and Marco Reus' free-kick goal—Dortmund's first in over two years—set a record as well:

Going a whole season without a defeat at home, the Black and Yellows could be forgiven for a somewhat lacklustre performance against a very solid Cologne side, but with the DFB-Pokal final against Bayern right around the corner on May 21, it raised red flags.

Even though he didn't want to consider the match a dress rehearsal for the cup final in his press conference on Friday, as relayed by Dortmund-based writer Stefan Buczko on Twitter, Tuchel summarised after the match: "We can only win in Berlin if we are in top form. We are further away from our top form than we have maybe ever been this season. There is a lot to do."

One thing working in Dortmund's favour in the Olympiastadion is, oddly enough, the opponent. Bayern will try to dominate the game in Pep Guardiola's final match at the helm of the Bavarian giants, which should allow the Black and Yellows to sit a bit deeper and rely on the team's speed in the transition game.

Both Cologne and their opponents on the previous matchday, Eintracht Frankfurt, dropped deep with five men at the back in most situations, which congested the centre of the pitch and made it almost impossible for Dortmund to penetrate into the danger area on a consistent basis.

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xG map for BVB - Koln. Dortmund have appeared less than motivated the last few weeks. pic.twitter.com/lexQXuUTlh

— Michael Caley (@MC_of_A) May 14, 2016"

Per sport magazine Kicker, the Ruhr side had 83 per cent possession against Cologne and 84 against Frankfurt (links in German), but all they had to show for it were two goals from distance on Saturday. According to the club's website, Julian Weigl set a new record with 214 touches in only 85 minutes against the Billy Goats, but aside from a lovely ball towards Marcel Schmelzer before the opening goal from Gonzalo Castro, he could hardly make them count.

Dortmund badly missed the creativity of Ilkay Gundogan, who'll miss the cup final with his knee injury, and the ingenuity of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who was suspended against Cologne, but that can hardly be an excuse against a mid-table side that had nothing to play for.

On their current form, the Black and Yellows don't stand a chance against Bayern. Tuchel said: "We have to grow beyond ourselves and make sure we get that little bit of luck in the match. It will be a long way until we are ready for that."

Time will tell if seven days are enough to get back on track.

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