Inside Borussia Dortmund – Season 1 Episode 3 Recap & Review

Bitter Rivals

Inside Borussia Dortmund has been an entertaining but strangely ill-paced documentary series over the weeks. Beginning with a sporadically timed first episode and settling down during last week’s look at Borussia Dortmund’s string of losses, Amazon’s latest football documentary returns with a motivated Dortmund determined to put the seeds of doubt out of their mind and get back to winning ways.

Following the loss to Augsburg, we return to Borussia Dortmund determined to put these losses out of their mind. Unfortunately their next opponent they’ll need to overcome is Tottenham. Although they managed to hammer the English team in the first half, a Harry Kane strike essentially ended the game and sent Dortmund crashing out the Champions League. However, fan appreciation after the match at their attacking intent does help add some fuel to the fire going foreard.

After a look at Roman Burki, Dortmund’s goalkeeper, we move on to a crucial match in the Bundesliga; Matchday 25. Determined to right the wrongs of the past, rain hammers down as the team try desperately to find their way through a stubborn defence in their next game. It’s a match they have to win and somehow they squeeze out the result they need.

From here, we then jump back in time again for a history lesson into the intricate past dealings of the club before seeing Dortmund begin to build momentum after going 1-0 down in another game. An appreciative team reflect on Lucien Favre’s management style before the episode again jumps back in time, this time with another fellow manager, Jurgen Klopp. Injecting the team with pace and attacking intent, his influence, that’s currently igniting a fire in Liverpool that hasn’t been seen in a long time, helped push Dortmund to the pinnacle of German football. It’s an incredible achievement too, especially given how close Dortmund were to being financially ruined.

As we relive history, it’s here we see Dortmund winning the Bundesliga and their amazing matches in the Champions League, especially the return leg against Malaga. Unfortunately their dream came to an end at the hands of their arch-rivals Bayern Munich, and this ultimately acts as foreshadowing for the climactic end to this episode. As we reach this point, we see first-hand the devastating defeat to Bayern Munich where the team were battered 5-0 by their rivals.

With a better pacing and much more engagement from the players, these past few episodes have been far more consistent than the opening 90 minutes in this football documentary series. It’s a little frustrating too, as I can’t help but feel that those put off by the sporadic nature of the first episode will probably drop this and not pick it back up again, which would be a shame as this documentary has definitely grown as the episodes have gone by.

Seeing Klopp’s mentality at Dortmund and how this influenced his team is great to see, especially given how close Dortmund were to having serious financial issues. For the most part, the episode does well to keep things interesting, although as I said before the lack of match commentary and hearing the players narrate the outcome before the game begins does lose a bit of emotion and edge to this one. Despite all that, Inside Borussia Dortmund continues to impress with another very enjoyable episode.