Subotic and Dortmund Down Bayern Munich 2-1

Borussia Dortmund's new head coach Juergen Klopp made a good impression with the BVB fans last night as his new-look team beat Bayern Munich 2-1 in the preseason T-Home Super Cup. Included in the starting 11 was young American defender Neven Subotic whom Klopp brought with him from FSV Mainz.

Subotic looked nervous during the early going but started to show his stuff in the 26th minute with a terrific 45-meter pass to Delron Buckley to set up a dangerous chance for BVB. From that point on, he looked more confident and won more than his share of one-on-one challenges with Bayern's attacking players. The 47,000 home fans on hand at Westfalen Stadium seemed pleased while Bayern's new coach Juergen Klinsmann was none to pleased to drop such a match just three weeks before the start of the Bundesliga season. The two teams will meet again in league play on August 23rd.

BVB's goals came in the first half from Jakub Blaszczykowski and Tamas Hajnal (on a great free kick) while Mehmet Ekeci saved Bayern's honor with a 73rd minute tally.

Subotic's starting place in central defense is not yet secure since it remains a tossup whether it will consist of Subotic and Mat Hummels (the combination used often in preseason) or whether veteran Robert Kovac, now back from Euro 2008 duty with Croatia, will bump one of the two youngsters. Klopp told Bild last night that " I have not yet made up my mind on that one yet. It doesn't matter to me whether a player is young or old, what counts for me is performance."

Subotic and his Dortmund teammates did not have long to celebrate given their next challenge on Saturday against Juventus.

Photo AP, July 23rd 2008.