Peter Bosz has said there is no excuse for Borussia Dortmund's 3-2 defeat at RW Essen in their first match of preseason.
Having started preseason with a fitness test last Friday, Dortmund played their first warm-up match for the 2017-18 campaign -- and their first match under former Ajax coach Bosz -- at fourth-tier club RW Essen.
Trailing 2-1 at half-time, Dortmund were unable to bounce back and ultimately lost 3-2 to Essen, with U.S. international Christian Pulisic missing an open goal with around 10 minutes remaining.
"BVB always have to beat a fourth-tier club and the fact that they've been in training longer than us does not change a thing," Bosz said after the match. "That was just bad."
Dortmund, who scored through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Ousmane Dembele, improved during the second half as Bosz substituted all XI players in his 4-3-3 formation.
"I don't want to look for excuses," Bosz said. "We were too slow and not aggressive enough in the first half, and we then had a few chances in the second, but overall that just was not good enough from us, including me."
�� Die Highlights des Testspiels #rwebvb (2:3) pic.twitter.com/V24KkuoHSD
- Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) July 12, 2017
While players including Marco Reus, Julian Weigl and Mario Gotze did not play at Essen, Germany winger Andre Schurrle was part of the first-half XI.
Coming out of a difficult first season at Dortmund, the club's record signing has admitted in Sport Bild that his first year at Westfalenstadion was "unfortunate."
Citing his injury problems in the first half of the season, Schurrle said he could not understand that, after another good start to the second half of the campaign, he was benched once again.
"I have no explanation for it until today, and to be honest I never got one [from former coach Thomas Tuchel], but sometimes it's like that in top teams," he said.
With the World Cup to follow at the end of the season, Schurrle not only faces competition at club level but also in the national team, where Germany won the 2017 Confederations Cup without him and where the likes of Julian Draxler, Leroy Sane, Serge Gnabry and Reus will all be competing for a squad place.
"I want to try to remain injury-free and just go full throttle," Schurrle said. "If I have my rhythm, I am a top player who can help every team. But only then."