World-Cup-winning defender Mats Hummels helped create two of Borussia Dortmund's goals in their 4-0 victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach in the top fixture on Bundesliga matchday 1. First, he passed the ball to Shinji Kagawa who set up Marco Reus for the opener, while he later found Marcel Schmelzer who then supplied an inch-perfect cross for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to score the second goal. DFB.de listened in to the 26-year-old’s post-match comments.
Question: Mr. Hummels, before the game you said that Dortmund have made "certain, small improvements" over last season. After having seen the game, that sounds like a huge understatement.
Mats Hummels: I guess you could say that after the game today. But at the end of the day its only one game, nothing more. Obviously we know that we managed to get off to a great start and we are happy with the way we achieved it. But it's only three points and if we don't win our game in Ingolstadt next weekend, we would not be satisfied with our start to the season. We know that we played well today, but we also know that we have to keep going like this. We can't allow ourselves to sit back on this one good victory.
Question: Were you still impressed with how well your team was playing today?
Hummels: I think that we will see more performances this season like the one we had against Gladbach today, as long as we play to our potential. Our goal is to dominate as many games as possible and never leave any doubt that we will leave the pitch victorious. We don't want to rely on luck or bad luck. So far this season we've managed to do that quite well, although there were phases in our games with Wolfsberg and Chemnitz (in BVB’s Europa League qualification third round and the first round of the DFB Cup), where we lacked total control. Overall however we are happy with the way it's going.
Question: Dortmund's game going forward against Gladbach was very accurate, quick and much more dynamic than in the past season. What are reasons for this?
Hummels: We simply dominated Gladbach in all areas of the pitch. We were very focused when in possession and rarely lost the ball, which prevented Gladbach from finding a way into the game. In addition to our good performance, we also knew that Gladbach are still in a process of gelling as a team. I'm certain that they will show a completely different side to themselves a few weeks from now. But in this game they were missing four or five players who played a key role for them last season. We wanted to take advantage of that and were successful. But again: It's a great start for us, but no more and no less.
Question: How would you rate young Julian Weigl's Bundesliga debut?
Hummels: He is doing a great job and otherwise he wouldn’t be playing obviously. He is a fine football player who makes everything look very easy and elegant. He calmly fulfils his duties on the pitch and he has been a great asset to the team.
Question: Is the 4-0 victory against Gladbach a type of warning to the rest of the league?
Hummels: We'll have to follow up this performance with more good performances and confirm that we are back. Last season we also had six points after three games and everything was still in order, but then we threw away a game in Mainz which we shouldn’t have done and everything starting to go against us. Even if we play as well in the next three to four games as we did against Gladbach, it still wouldn’t mean anything. Our aim is to have 34 of these performances in the Bundesliga and play well in the DFB Cup and Europa League. We are on the right track at the moment, but we haven't reached our goal yet.
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World-Cup-winning defender Mats Hummels helped create two of Borussia Dortmund's goals in their 4-0 victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach in the top fixture on Bundesliga matchday 1. First, he passed the ball to Shinji Kagawa who set up Marco Reus for the opener, while he later found Marcel Schmelzer who then supplied an inch-perfect cross for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to score the second goal. DFB.de listened in to the 26-year-old’s post-match comments.
Question: Mr. Hummels, before the game you said that Dortmund have made "certain, small improvements" over last season. After having seen the game, that sounds like a huge understatement.
Mats Hummels: I guess you could say that after the game today. But at the end of the day its only one game, nothing more. Obviously we know that we managed to get off to a great start and we are happy with the way we achieved it. But it's only three points and if we don't win our game in Ingolstadt next weekend, we would not be satisfied with our start to the season. We know that we played well today, but we also know that we have to keep going like this. We can't allow ourselves to sit back on this one good victory.
Question: Were you still impressed with how well your team was playing today?
Hummels: I think that we will see more performances this season like the one we had against Gladbach today, as long as we play to our potential. Our goal is to dominate as many games as possible and never leave any doubt that we will leave the pitch victorious. We don't want to rely on luck or bad luck. So far this season we've managed to do that quite well, although there were phases in our games with Wolfsberg and Chemnitz (in BVB’s Europa League qualification third round and the first round of the DFB Cup), where we lacked total control. Overall however we are happy with the way it's going.
Question: Dortmund's game going forward against Gladbach was very accurate, quick and much more dynamic than in the past season. What are reasons for this?
Hummels: We simply dominated Gladbach in all areas of the pitch. We were very focused when in possession and rarely lost the ball, which prevented Gladbach from finding a way into the game. In addition to our good performance, we also knew that Gladbach are still in a process of gelling as a team. I'm certain that they will show a completely different side to themselves a few weeks from now. But in this game they were missing four or five players who played a key role for them last season. We wanted to take advantage of that and were successful. But again: It's a great start for us, but no more and no less.
Question: How would you rate young Julian Weigl's Bundesliga debut?
Hummels: He is doing a great job and otherwise he wouldn’t be playing obviously. He is a fine football player who makes everything look very easy and elegant. He calmly fulfils his duties on the pitch and he has been a great asset to the team.
Question: Is the 4-0 victory against Gladbach a type of warning to the rest of the league?
Hummels: We'll have to follow up this performance with more good performances and confirm that we are back. Last season we also had six points after three games and everything was still in order, but then we threw away a game in Mainz which we shouldn’t have done and everything starting to go against us. Even if we play as well in the next three to four games as we did against Gladbach, it still wouldn’t mean anything. Our aim is to have 34 of these performances in the Bundesliga and play well in the DFB Cup and Europa League. We are on the right track at the moment, but we haven't reached our goal yet.
