Tag: Youssoufa Moukoko

Wonderteen Youssoufa Moukoko is in Germany’s World Cup squad, but Marco Reus isn’t

Moukoko has been on a tear with Dortmund, but his teammate Reus misses yet another big tournament

There were plenty of headlines as Germany released its 26-man World Cup squad on Thursday, some of them good (Mario Götze! Youssoufa Moukoko!) and others not-so-good (Marco Reus nooooooo).

Let’s start with the positive. Moukoko has been on an absolute tear with Borussia Dortmund and the 17-year-old’s first senior Germany call is for the World Cup. Talk about timing.

There was also a storybook return for 2014 hero Götze, who is somehow still only 30 and has started the season well with Eintracht Frankfurt.

Götze has not been called up since 2017, but he’s set to partake in his second World Cup.

“I can only say that Mario is totally happy to be there, and we are looking forward to seeing him,” Germany coach Hansi Flick said at a press conference.

“We all know that Mario is a brilliant footballer, who has flashes of brilliance. You can see it in every game: he is top fit, he can play 90 minutes even three times a week.”

For Reus though, the news was not so great.

The Dortmund star has not recovered in time from an ankle injury, continuing a horrendous run of luck that has now seen him miss out on four major tournaments through injuries.

“He tried everything to catch this train. It hurts us because we could have used his quality,” Flick said.

Germany’s World Cup squad

Goalkeepers: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona), Kevin Trapp (Eintracht Frankfurt)

Defenders: Matthias Ginter (Freiburg), Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid), Niklas Sule (Borussia Dortmund), Nico Schlotterbeck (Borussia Dortmund), Thilo Kehrer (West Ham United), David Raum (RB Leipzig), Lukas Klostermann (RB Leipzig), Armel Bella-Kotchap (Southampton), Christian Gunter (Freiburg)

Midfielders: Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City), Jonas Hofmann (Borussia Monchengladbach), Leon Goretzka, Serge Gnabry, Leroy Sane, Jamal Musiala, Joshua Kimmich, Thomas Muller (all Bayern Munich), Julian Brandt (Borussia Dortmund), Mario Gotze (Eintracht Frankfurt)

Strikers: Kai Havertz (Chelsea), Youssoufa Moukoko (Borussia Dortmund), Niklas Fullkrug (Werder Bremen), Karim Adeyemi (Borussia Dortmund)

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Dortmund produce stunning comeback in Der Klassiker draw vs. Bayern

Scenes at Signal Iduna Park!

The latest edition of Der Klassiker produced some classic late drama.

Borussia Dortmund — with Gio Reyna not in uniform, and trailing 2-0 in the 73rd minute — came back to snatch a point, with Anthony Modeste nodding home an equalizer in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

Bayern had taken the lead in the 33rd minute, with Leon Goretzka’s 24-yard shot sneaking through traffic before getting under Alexander Meyer’s dive. Early in the second half, Leroy Sané doubled the lead, overpowering Meyer with another long-range rocket.

Dortmund, in truth, didn’t look likely to get back into the game, with Bayern coasting to what looked like an eighth straight win in Der Klassiker across all competitions.

However, the home side caught Bayern flat-footed in the 74th minute, with Modeste slashing in behind the defense before squaring to 17-year-old Youssoufa Moukoko, who finished the chance to give Dortmund some hope. In scoring, Moukoko become the youngest-ever player to score a Der Klassiker goal.

Dortmund were pushing to get level, but even Kingsley Coman being sent off in the 90th minute for picking up a second yellow card seemed irrelevant. Modeste had a glorious 83rd minute chance, but somehow contrived to never make clean contact with the ball from six yards out, turning a sitter into arguably nothing more than Manuel Neuer calmly picking up a cross.

With just eight seconds left in the four minutes of stoppage time given, Karim Adeyimi — the Dortmund player furthest from the Bayern goal, as Meyer had come forward for a set piece moments earlier — lobbed a desperate ball into the area, but it ran long. Bayern were surely walking out with a win.

However, Nico Schlotterbeck didn’t accept that outcome, and just barely managed to keep the ball in bounds, falling over in the process. With no one able to close him, Schlotterbeck scrambled to his feet and tried to clip the ball to the back post. Josip Stanišić arrived to attempt a block, but the ball appeared to glance off of his thigh and into a perfect spot for the charging Modeste, who headed the ball down to set off wild celebrations at Signal Iduna Park.

The comeback, per ESPN, was the first time Dortmund had gotten even a point against Bayern after trailing 2-0 since 1989. It also came with additional bad news for Die Roten, who saw Alphonso Davies leave the match at halftime after taking a high boot to the face.

Watch all the goals from Dortmund vs. Bayern

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