Dortmund’s Langerak aiming for lucky 11th

BERLIN. Australian goalkeeper Mitch Langerak is hoping to maintain his 10-match winning streak when Borussia Dortmund kick off their Bundesliga season on Saturday at Augsburg.The 24-year-old reserve ‘keeper will be making his 11th appearance for Borussia, last season’s German league runners-up, when he steps in for Dortmund’s suspended goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller at Bavaria’s Augsburg.Having made six league and four cup appearances for Dortmund since joining from A-League side Melbourne Victory in June 2010, Langerak has yet to lose in a Borussia shirt – something coach Jurgen Klopp is obviously happy about.“You think you are getting a beach boy from Australia, but what you actually get is an unbelievable hard worker,” said Klopp. “Mitch is a very competitive character: goalkeeper is one position which we can react without problems when there are any injuries.”While Langerak will be between the posts in Augsburg, Dortmund will be missing new signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan, after the Armenian midfielder twisted his ankle in pre-season, while Gabon forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Greek defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos are expected to start on the bench.Of his 10 wins, Langerak’s stand-out performance was in the 2012 German Cup final when Weidenfeller was injured after half an hour and Langerak came on to help Borussia to a 5-2 win over Bayern Munich.Having won the German title with Dortmund in both the 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons, Langerak has faced top sides such as Bayern, Hamburg and Leverkusen on his rare Bundesliga appearances.SurveyAlmost a third of fans responding to a survey by Kicker magazine said they believed the Bavarian side will win the 51st Bundesliga title. Kicker said that only a quarter of the 27 700 respondents favoured Dortmund, who as runner-up finished a record 25 points behind Bayern last season.Schalke were seen as the third most likely candidate, with a mere 3.6 per cent of the vote.Dortmund, who defeated Bayern 4-2 in the season-opening Super Cup, open their league campaign at Augsburg on Saturday.“We have 16 opponents in the Bundesliga that we need to worry about more than just one from Munich,” Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp said after beating Bayern two weeks ago.Dortmund, who won the title in 2011 and 2012, will start the season without offseason signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who injured his ankle in a friendly, while Ilkay Gundogan is doubtful to play Saturday with back problems.Bayer Leverkusen, who finished third last season, open their campaign at home on Saturday against Freiburg, who finished fifth despite modest resources.