Christian Pulisic Saves Shambolic Borussia Dortmund a Point vs. Ingolstadt

One can say many things about Borussia Dortmund at this stage of the 2016/17 campaign.

The Black and Yellows are incredibly inconsistent, for starters. They are capable of beating anyone when they hit their stride, just as they are capable of dropping points and looking awkward against many teams. 

The Ruhr side look a long way off their form from Thomas Tuchel's maiden campaign at the Westfalenstadion, in which they controlled games and suffocated opponents with their pressure. In most games, a goal for them was only a matter of time.

This season, the goals come and go, with Dortmund hitting 17 in three games in September but also staying goalless in two away defeats in the Bundesliga already.

One thing that no one can say about the Black and Yellows, however, is that they are quitters. There is, in fact, a lot of mental resiliency in the squad. If a big 2-1 win in the UEFA Champions League against Sporting CP in midweek was not enough already, Saturday's 3-3 draw on Matchday 8 of the Bundesliga proved it once and for all.

It was the second straight draw for Dortmund, the second time they had to come back from being behind late in the game. Of course, in a few months, people will focus on the four points the team dropped against Hertha BSC and Ingolstadt.

With the Bavarians' being dead-last in the table and having lost six in a row, most expected smooth sailing for Dortmund. Going by the lackadaisical first-half performance, some of the men in black and yellow may well have thought so themselves.

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There is no way around it, the Ruhr side were terrible in the first period—or, really, until the final 15 minutes of the match or so. Inaccuracies going forward, especially from Ousmane Dembele, who was arguably the worst player on the pitch before the half-time break, saw Dortmund create next to nothing.

Even worse, though, was Dortmund's defensive performance. Ingolstadt could conceivably have iced the game after 45 minutes, as the Schanzer had enough chances to score four or five goals.

They managed only two. Almog Cohen scored the opener after six minutes, and Dario Lezcano doubled the lead after 24. Incredibly, both goals were nearly identical. 

First, a lazy foul from a Dortmund player—Joo-Ho Park and Dembele were the culprits—gifted Ingolstadt a free-kick close to the touchline on BVB's left side of defence. Markus Suttner whipped good balls in and, inexplicably, the scorers found themselves without a marker less than 10 yards away from goal.

For Cohen's opener, Julian Weigl messed up an offside trap and then ducked under the cross. For the second goal, Marc Bartra seemed to lose track of his assignment.

It was diabolical defending that should have cost Dortmund the game for sheer stupidity. With Ingolstadt struggling for goals, as evidenced by their record of four in the first seven matches, conceding twice from the simplest of free-kick routines was inexcusable. 

It is not like Dortmund had much of an excuse in terms of their personnel. Tuchel received a welcome boost in that department and sent Adrian Ramos and Gonzalo Castro, recently recovered from injuries, straight into the starting XI.

The inclusion of the 30-year-old Colombian and the 29-year-old former Leverkusen man, as well as Park at left-back, turned the young team from the last few weeks into a rather experienced one, even discarding the fact that veteran goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller replaced the ill Roman Burki in goal.

The decisive moment for Dortmund came at intermission, with Christian Pulisic replacing Park. Tuchel opted for three at the back for a while, until Felix Passlack came on for the once again barely visible Shinji Kagawa.

Pulisic added a desperately needed sense of purpose and urgency to his side's play, providing a sorely lacked outlet on the right wing and attacking the opposition with force and directness. Not everything came off, of course, but he always tried to make things happen.

His inclusion changed Dortmund's approach to the game. They had more width and aggression going forward, and even though they still had little tangible output, the change of attitude saw them push Ingolstadt deeper and deeper.

When Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored to make it 1-2 in the 59th minute, many will have thought that his side would now go on to win the game and escape with a black eye. That hope lasted for all of half a minute, however, with Lezcano adding a second goal after a horrendous loss of possession from Dembele.

To his and Dortmund's credit, the 19-year-old Frenchman and his team dug in and kept going, with a brilliant run from Dembele creating Ramos' goal in the 69th minute. Pulisic will get the assist, even though he merely lost control of the ball and it fell into the Colombian's path.

The Black and Yellows tasted blood and threw everything at Ingolstadt, with Passlack and fellow substitute Mario Gotze forcing 'keeper Orjan Nyland into great saves—his first of the game. At one point, it felt as though all their pressure would be for naught, but Pulisic's instincts saved Dortmund a point in injury time.

Nyland dealt with Lukasz Piszczek's header, but the ball fell directly to the 18-year-old American, who could not miss. No one else deserved to score the late equaliser, as it was Pulisic who changed the game for his side. Dortmund had the appropriate message for their scorer on Twitter:

Aubameyang even had the chance to nick all three points for Dortmund at the death, but a win would have been far more than Tuchel's men deserved.

The 43-year-old will have to listen to some criticism after the match, with his lineup decisions backfiring—especially giving a first start to Park since January—and it seeming as though Dortmund did not take their opponent seriously until it was almost too late.

He told German broadcaster Sky after the match that one can not survive in the Bundesliga with the lack of sharpness and intensity his team showed in the first half. Tuchel needs to find answers to his team's myriad problems, and quickly.

Dortmund have now failed to win four of their last five away matches in the German top flight and have dropped to sixth in the table. Even with all their injuries in recent weeks, there is far too much quality in the team for them to be so up-and-down in their performances.

Pulisic may have saved them one point against Ingolstadt, but even Dortmund's wunderkind cannot solve the underlying problems with one strike of the football.

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