Marco Reus of Borussia Dortmund
The Telkom Cup is a German football competition which has been held since 2009. The competition features four teams of the Bundesliga, playing two semi-finals and a final. The 2013 edition will take place in Monchengladbach.
The rules are as follows. Matches are 60 minutes instead of 90 (two 30-minute halves) and managers can make as many changes as they like. If the teams are level after 60 minutes, the match immediately goes to penalties and the two winners meet in the final, the two first-day losers meet in the third-place play-off. The first semi-final sees the hosts Borussia Monchengladbach take on Borussia Dortmund in a derby match, whilst Hamburg face the Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich in the other semi-final.
Monchengladbach were decent at home last season. They finished eighth on the log and will be looking to improve on that this season. Monchengladbach have been busy this transfer window signing Raffael (FC Dynamo Kyiv), Christoph Kramer (Bayer 04 Leverkusen, loan), Max Kruse (SC Freiburg) and manager Lucien Favra will be looking to give these players a run in preparation for the league start which is in a few weeks time. Luuk de Jong will be their go to man. The young Dutchman was their leading scorer last term with six goals and he will be looking to build on that tally.
Dortmund did not put much effort into the league last term but still finished second on the log. They focused all of their attention on winning the Champions League. However, they eventually lost 2-1 in the final to rivals Bayern Munich. Dortmund fans will be happy to know Robert Lewandowski will stay at the club for one more season but the Polish star will leave for Bayern Munich next term to join up with former teammate Mario Gotze who signed for Bayern earlier this year. Lewandowski was the league’s second highest scorer last season with 24 goals. Only Stefan Kiessling (Bayer Leverkusen) scored one more than him to take the golden boot award.
Dortmund have failed to beat Monchengladbach on their turf in the last three visits. Monchengladbach are tipped to make home advantage count and salvage a draw.
