League leaders without conceding a goal and mind games against boredom! Borussia Dortmund women develop brutal dominance with Alexandra Popp

Borussia Dortmund’s women have won 117 of their 125 league matches so far, but last year they missed out on promotion to the second division through their own fault. So how are things going now at BVB with prominent support from Alexandra Popp?

21 wins from 26 matches, the best attack in the league with 114 goals and the best defence with 13 conceded, none of it was enough for Borussia Dortmund's women's team last year. They still had hope of the promotion they were targeting going into the final matchday, but 1. FC Köln's second team didn't slip up and protected their two-point lead with a win.

For the ambitious BVB, who set up their women's football department in 2020, started in the lowest division and reeled off promotions without pause, it was a bitter setback. "We set ourselves a sporting goal and largely failed to achieve it through our own fault. So of course we are all very disappointed," a frustrated managing director Carsten Cramer told Ruhr Nachrichten after the end of the season.

Two simple reasons explain why first place and the promotion play-offs slipped away. Dortmund failed to beat Köln in either meeting, and they also lost the three points off the pitch that would have guaranteed promotion in the end. Of all games, it came against SV Deutz 05, who finished second from bottom in the final standings.

BVB women throw away promotion to the 2. Bundesliga off the pitch

Back in September, BVB had cruised to a 3-0 win there, with Sara Ito scoring the final goal. The problem was that the Japanese player, who came on in the 77th minute, had permission to play but was not listed on the teamsheet. The association therefore awarded the match 2-0 against Dortmund.

Now the BVB women are stuck taking an unwanted extra lap. So far, though, they have started it in emphatic fashion: seven wins from seven matches and a goal difference of 31-0 leaves the Westphalians top of the Regionalliga West, ahead of Bayer Leverkusen's second team, who have won six from six.

That is no miracle, just planned normality. "We respect every opponent," 58-year-old Ralf Kellermann told kicker before the start of the season. "But the squad is so well equipped in terms of quality and depth that we have to become champions and win the promotion play-offs. Otherwise, something would have gone wrong."

BVB signed six players with more than 1,000 Bundesliga appearances of experience

To make that happen, BVB, who are investing around €15 million in a new training ground for their women's team right next to the men's side, made a series of high-profile additions. They brought in Kellermann as sporting director, a man who won 20 titles during his 18 years at Wolfsburg. Among them was the treble of league title, DFB Cup and Champions League in 2013, when Kellermann was still working as a coach.

Then came striker Alexandra Popp, one of the best-known and most successful German footballers. Like Kellermann, she signed until 2029, and BVB want to have reached the Bundesliga by then at the latest. Those two transfer coups were the latest proof of how serious Dortmund's club leadership are about women's football.

Alongside Popp, the club also signed five more players with a combined Bundesliga tally of more than 1,000 matches. Austria international goalkeeper Manuela Zinsberger arrived from Arsenal and is currently still sidelined with a cruciate ligament rupture.

How many goals has Alexandra Popp scored for BVB so far?

The project, sold credibly from the very beginning, has been embraced enthusiastically around the club. More than 1,700 season tickets have been sold for matches at the venerable Stadion Rote Erde, which has already sold out for the derby against Schalke 04 with 10,000 spectators and the cup tie against Bayern Munich with 15,755. After three home matches, the average attendance stands at 3,800, while second-placed MSV Duisburg are on 355.

On the pitch, captain Popp leads the side. She also tops the scoring chart with eight goals so far, plus one assist, in seven matches. Internally, Rita Schumacher, who scored 25 goals in 26 matches last season, follows with nine goal involvements already, five goals and four assists. New signing Ramona Maier, who joined from Bundesliga club SGS Essen and once scored 107 goals in 174 competitive matches in Ingolstadt, has four goals and two assists.

BVB women's competitive record: 125 league matches, 117 wins

Under coach Markus Högner, the team's dominance is currently leaving goalkeeper Laura van der Laan bored. Hardly anything comes her way, so she has to fall back on psychological tricks given to her by Dortmund's goalkeeping coach to avoid losing concentration. "It doesn't happen that often that you lose focus. And when it does happen, there is one technique or another for bringing yourself back into the game," she said, without wanting to reveal any more detail.

Whether things stay as straightforward as they have been so far will be fascinating to watch. Dortmund's women have won 117 of 125 league matches since league play began in 2021/22. Last year, though, the pressure of having to go up at all costs showed in some performances. The huge experience they have now added should make promotion a formality this time.

BVB: Borussia Dortmund women's season results