CINCINNATI (AP) — Borussia Dortmund was gifted an easy goal at the beginning of the match and held off a late response from the Mamelodi Sundowns on a fiercely warm day to win 4-3 in the Club World Cup group stage on Saturday.
Both teams and the crowd of 14,006 at TQL Stadium sweat through high temperatures that forced a heat advisory and cooling breaks, called at the referee’s discretion. Temperatures approached 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius).
The Sundowns opened the scoring early on an impressive break away that Lucas Ribeiro Costa finished in the 11th minute. Dortmund evened the score in the 16th minute when Sundowns goalie Ronwen Williams inadvertently passed to Dortmund’s Felix Nmecha right in front of the net. Nmecha easily footed it in.
Dortmund stole all momentum on the play and increased its lead to 3-1 at halftime. Serhou Guirassy scored in the 34th minute and Jobe Bellingham in the 45th.
Khuliso Mudau’s own goal on an attempt to deflect Daniel Svensson’s cross in front of the net made it 4-1 in the 59th before South African Mamelodi centered itself and began putting pressure on the German club. The Sundowns scored two straight goals — Iqraam Rayners’ double-header that first hit the post before his second effort scored in the 62nd and Lebo Mothiba’s shot in the 90th minute.
It wasn’t enough to overcome the mistakes.
American midfielder Gio Reyna, forced to be with Dortmund rather than with the U.S. national team at the CONCACAF Gold Cup, dressed but didn’t play for the second straight match.
Key moment
Nmecha’s equalizer that was made too easy for the Bundesliga club.
Takeaways
Dortmund rises to the top of Group H, bypassing the previously leading Sundowns, who approach a critical match against Fluminense on Wednesday. Dortmund will meet Ulsan on Wednesday.
What they said
“I think we did very well first of all, but we just lacked a bit of concentration in a few little bits. … But we did very well. I mean, we should be proud of ourselves. We gave them a hard time.” — Tashreeq Matthews, Sundowns forward.
“I think the conditions made it so difficult, especially for us, being a European team. They played a fantastic game, and I’m sure they’re used to that kind of weather, but we definitely aren’t. It’s something we are going to have to adapt to as the tournament goes on, and that’s just the demands of this competition. So yeah, it was really difficult, but in the game, you have to find little fixes and mechanisms to deal with it, to try and play fast.” — Jobe Bellingham, Dortmund midfielder.
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