Peter Green - January 29, 2019
Dynamo Dresden vs Arminia Bielefeld
Germany – 2. Bundesliga
Date: Wednesday, 30th January 2019
Kick-off at 19.30 UK/ 20.30 CET
Venue: Rudolf-Harbig-Stadion (Dresden).
After extensive preparation backstage, both teams return to the real world. The turn of the new year was a series of friendlies for either of the teams and to give credit when it’s due, the attitude to work hard and get themselves better is sure to be appreciated.
To pick a moral winner of the two for making the most of their unofficial matches, the recognition goes to Dynamo. There was a definite improvement for the team in their offensive as well as defensive sections. The team managed to address their misfirings in front of the goal, and by quite a mile reduced the number of goals they let past their defense. But the question remains, will they be able to replicate this form as their official season resumes.
For the Blues, the exercise might have been in vain, as they clearly failed to build on the opportunity they were presented with. In fact, they even struggled to stay unbeaten in the friendlies and lost two of them by quite a margin.
Disregarding the friendlies, and the obvious improvement by the team after that, the team from Saxony was unbeaten in ten of the 14 games before that. Three of those four losses were against top-seven teams in the table. At home, their performance was even better. They were unbeaten in four of their last six attempts and scored a total of ten goals. If anything, the team has just made themselves better by the six unofficial games they played in 2019.
Coming to Die Blauen, the team lost two of their five informal ties, was winless in three, and in one of those, where the group was on the road against Hertha, a loss of 1-4 was the result. Before this stretch, they were winless in 12 of their last 14 matches, and in seven of their nine away from home.
I expect the hosts to take the three points from this tie, but we will limit ourselves to a Draw No Bet, since it is their return to official games, after a short break. Anyhow, there’s really no reason to think that they will not be winning at least one half of the fixture.