Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund and what makes good soccer

This Saturday, Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund played in two separate matches, in two separate leagues, and played two very different versions of soccer.

Now, of course that statement makes no sense. Soccer is soccer. But what Chelsea did against Liverpool in their 1-1 draw late Saturday, and what Dortmund did in their 4-2 victory over Bayer Leverkusen at the same moment half a continent away, look very different.

An alien, or perhaps your average American football fan, who happened to find herself in the BayArena Saturday would come away with a distinct impression of what makes soccer good compared to a different alien who found himself attending Stamford Bridge.

In the former, our alien friend might tell you that soccer is about drama. It’s about number of goals scored, about improbable twists, about the unexpected happening before our eyes.

The latter, though, might come away with something else. Soccer is about two teams at the peak of their game, he might say, crashing against each other and producing a near-perfect stalemate. Goals, as the saying goes, are over-rated.

That both of these interpretations can be simultaneously true is what makes soccer the greatest sport on the planet.

Let’s get a bit more concrete about what we mean here though.

Dortmund suffered an awful start to their match against Leverkusen. Though they came into the match as the only unbeaten side left in the Bundesliga, they did not look the part. Leverkusen waltzed through Dortmund’s defense with ease, while the visitor’s own attack failed to find the rhythm of their 7-0 victory over Nürnberg just days before.

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After Leverkusen’s Kevin Volland hit the post early in the second half, it seemed like it might get worse for Dortmund. The introductions of former Barcelona winger Paco Alcácer and 18-year-old Jadon Sancho off the bench did not seem like they would shift the balance.

Only they did. Together, Alcácer and Sancho participated directly in three of the four goals Dortmund would score between the 65th and 93rd minutes. Leverkusen, cruising to victory for most of the match, stood bewildered at full-time.

Chelsea never found the game as open as Leverkusen did in their first half, or as Dortmund did in their second.

Liverpool, as expected, were profoundly stubborn opponents. The increasing maturity of Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold in defense, the incision of Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mané in atack, the reflexes of Alisson in goal; all were a near perfect balance with Chelsea’s own strengths.

Eden Hazard’s goal in the 25th minute felt overdue for a player that sparkled early and often in this contest. It’s a testament though to Liverpool’s ability that this shot was one of only two on goal for the Belgian star.

Liverpool’s own talisman, reigning Golden Boot winner Mohamed Salah, had an equal number of chances on Chelsea’s goal. His best opportunity came in the first half, but a savvy clearance near the goal-line from Chelsea centre-back Antonio Rüdiger just moments before Hazard’s goal gave the home side the lead kept the Egyptian off the score sheet.

Daniel Sturridge’s 89th minute wonder strike, courtesy of an assist from his fellow substitute Xherdan Shaqiri, earned Liverpool a much-merited point from this contest. Were the England international’s shot not to have made it through, the average neutral might have felt cheated. A match with this much quality, this much star power, this many individual and collective moments of brilliance, didn’t deserve to have a clear winner and a clear loser.

One might argue that the kind of soccer so effectively played by Chelsea and Liverpool on Saturday will serve them much better in the long-term than the uneven performance that earned Dortmund three points, even if the German side find themselves top of the table currently.

That might very well be true, but there were few better ways to spend 180 minutes of your Saturday than experiencing these two contrasting versions of quality soccer.