That Lucien Favre would ride basically the same lineup with a similar tactical plan through the first three games and until it didn’t work was a given. That the Dortmund team would travel to Augsburg and be completely flat lacking that spark and energy that makes them special was also fairly predictable. There has been the occasional surprise performance on the road in the past few seasons, such as last season’s spring win over Leipzig. Predictably, though, Dortmund is usually completely flat in road games and either loses or sneaks out a point or a win with one great individual play late in the game.

Late game heroics from Marco Reus didn’t come this game as it did last year in trips such as on the road at Moenchengladbach. Instead, Augsburg simply beat them courtesy of a free kick and late break. It was sad, as this Augsburg team has assembled a cast of used parts from around the league that should not threaten a top 1/3 club in any way. In fact, late in the game, Andre Hahn could have had a break-away run at goal but ran out of gas 1/2 way there-not surprising for an assembled team of long-toothed veterans like Hahn.

As stated in the title this is just simply predictable, as Dortmund’s young squad so often seems to lack that spark in road games, and Lucien Favre seems to be surprised by it each and every time and does little to anticipate or gameplan for it. The gameplan they had probably looked great on paper as the penetration wide was available all day, but Menuier’s crossing was exceptionally piss poor and created absolutely nothing.

In hindsight, starting Reus or Brandt (or both) in midfield to get more experience in there recognizing Augsburg would crowd midfield and that Dortmund was likely going to have to grind out a win on a day they would be lifeless and flat was the better move, and they likely need to sort out how to replace Meniuer where he is solid on defense but useless to poor offensively . He was a free transfer, but has failed to impress at all and will likely be sat once Morey is healthy. In the end, it didn’t hurt as much as it should have, as Bayern struggled and lost against Hoffenheim, but it was a major opportunity lost in a season that could come down to a few points, and a major wake-up call for Favre that they energy and emotional issues that have plagued them the past few seasons in road games have not been resolved.