Club World Cup 2025: Borussia Dortmund advances with a 1-0 win over Ulsan

Daniel Svensson scored in the 36th minute to lead Borussia Dortmund over Ulsan 1-0 and into the second round of the Club World Cup.

After a giveaway by Ulsan on a poor pass near its own goal, Jobe Bellingham centered to Svensson, who took a touch and beat goalkeeper Jo Hyeon-woo from about 10 yards on Wednesday.

Dortmund won Group F with seven points, two more than Fluminese, which finished second following a 0-0 draw with Mamelodi Sundowns. Uslan was last, going 0-3.

The match on a 93-degree (33 Celsius) day with a heat advisory drew 8,239 at 26,000-capacity TQL Stadium, where the crowd included U.S. Vice President JD Vance.

Dortmund outshot Ulsan 28-3.

American midfielder Gio Reyna made his first appearance of the tournament, entering for Dortmund in the 78th minute. FIFA gave player priority to the Club World Cup, preventing Reyna from being with the U.S. at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Key moment

Svensson, a 23-year-old midfielder loaned to Dortmund by Denmark’s Nordsjælland last winter, scored his second goal for the German club after scoring in a 3-2 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach on April 20.

Takeaways

Dortmund plays on July 1 at Atlanta against Monterrey. Ulsan was eliminated with a 4-2 loss to Fluminense.

What they said

“I’m sorry for the fans to not meet their expectations. … The climate like this is too harsh. It is not for playing soccer, but it is what it is. So most teams, I mean, not just only us, we don’t feel this kind of weather usually. It is a change of environment.” — Hyeonwoo Jo, Ulsan goalkeeper.

“The only thing we could have done a little bit better is maybe scoring a bit more goals, because we created a lot of chances today. … Football is emotional, so yeah, very nice scoring the goal that turned out to be an important one, also. So, yeah, very nice feeling.” – Daniel Svensson, Borussia Dortmund defender.