This is an account of my trip along with my friend to Dortmund for a Bundesliga game. A football crazy city and an atmosphere matched by none thanks to the yellow wall. The pictures appear with no relation to the text around them. I had initially published this on my company blog. Moving here for a wider audience.
Let's get started with a couple of pictures of the maginificient yellow wall đđ» -
I have lived in Finland for a year now and had always wanted to watch the "Beautiful game" in a stadium. Well, not just for the sake of it - I have been following European Football for over a decade now and when you get deputed to the Eurozone (given its Schengen advantages) one would think there is no need of a second invitation. But it did not turn out that way exactly. Finland is a fantastic country and the Fins are great at Ice Hockey but their greatest achievement in World Football has been a 1-1 draw against the then World Champions Spain in WC qualifiers (HJK, the club from Helsinki couldâve qualified to the Champions League this season opening up my chances but APOEL emphatically burst the bubble) and the Veikkausliiga hasnât really got me interested (although they have an FC Inter here!).
So, the Schengen advantage had to be used and the time hadnât come right. But one fine day, we realized (me and my friend, Jibin) that the time was never going to be right and a move had to be made, quickly. We made a very quick decision: Germany, the Weltmeisters! The next one was not so quick: Bayern or Dortmund? Iâm going to be very honest here: I am not a great Bayern fan (in fact, I despise them!) although they are very good. I do like Dortmund a lot â fast, direct, no nonsense (very German), not many stars and amazing, amazing fan support. But thatâs not the reason we ruled out Bayern. The reason was very straightforward and very Indian: the ticket prices :-) Tickets were not available for both teams and we had to get them from some online sites, and trust me: even the Dortmund tickets we got were very highly priced than their actual selling price.Below is a picture of Myself (extreme right), Jibin (the other Indian), Jens (the other Black shirt guy) and his friends outside the stadium
This is me coming out of the BVB Store.
A 2.5 hour flight to Frankfurt (the time zone concept makes it 1.5!) and a 3 hour train (or bahn) to Dortmund (Iâm not going to get started saying about the train because I canât really say enough about the train; Iâm planning for a blog on the train ;-)) meant that the travel part was complete (reached Dortmund at about 2 am on Saturday, Oct 4th). The next part was to wait till sunrise, and I made some observations during the waiting period and the fact that the night was Friday night for most people didnât really help. Germans love beer and have it all the time (more than we have water)! It was very difficult to find one without a beer bottle. The night being a Friday night and the Oktoberfest period on going only assisted the beer cause!
October 4th was match day in Dortmund: Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e.V. Dortmund v Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V at 3.30 pm CEST. It didnât take long for the mood to build up. The yellow shirts started showing up very early. Even the Hamburg fans made it quite early and you could find them drinking beer outside the train station. We walked into the BVB store nearby and got the yellow jersey (Reus at the back. The shirt did help later đŹ).
After some consultation with other Dortmund fans (we found that it was difficult to get help from HSV fans with the yellow jersey on), we decided that the Subway was the best option to get us to our destination: Signal Iduna Park (I have always liked the original name: The Westfalenstadion. Well, obviously because the new name bears the sponsorâs name. The same goes to Allianz Arena, the Emirates (although it wasnât a renaming) and Ettihad (Maine Road wasnât much better!). Signal Iduna is a financial company based in Dortmund and Hamburg, coincidentally. So, this fixture might be of special interest for them!). We were trying to get the right ticket from the vending machine and thatâs when we were told by a bunch of local fans that if we have a match ticket, the ride is free to the station via the Subway. One of the guys, Jens, realizing that we were quite new to this match thing offered to accompany us to the stadium. Apparently, they were quite excited to know that people from as far as India have come to watch to see their local club and the yellow jersey does really help :-D So, we had made some German friends for the occasion. These guys had amazing beer capacity and one of them looked like Goetze! It did not help him in any way. Iâm sure he was a hero about 2 years ago. There was a joke about him that I resist from sharing đ
We boarded the most crowded Subway train in Europe to reach the Signal Iduna Park. The security check was a pretty quick affair and again the volunteers were pretty happy to see some unfamiliar visitors. The stadium took a while to get filled in. There was a very small section away fans which was filled to its capacity very early. The HSV players came out very early while the home players took some time before they were called upon individually. There were a number of songs played and some pitch side interviews (a la IPL) during the build-up shown on the big screen (the one that caught my eye was the Norton anti-virus ad by Weidenfeller and the fellow keepers. No prizes for guessing why đ).
The famous South Tribune (Sudtribune, also called the Yellow Wall. We were at the West Tribune near the South.) took the longest to fill and once it did, they conquered the atmosphere. Once the game started, the fans just wouldnât stop chanting and that too with such great sync (the abstract orchestration really captures the imagination) and would start jumping in sync at times. The noises increased once HSV took the lead with Lasoggaâs goal. This was definitely not one of those places where the home crowd goes silent after their team concedes. After all this is the team known for their fans. There were a few cries of concern â the aahs and the oos â when Weidenfeller had to make some saves. Otherwise, you could only hear the singing. Once the game was over, the players went to appreciate the South Tribune. For about 10 minutes, the fans went on singing praises for them as the players applauded (while HSV celebrated at the other end with their fans). As I mentioned before, nobody could guess that Dortmund had actually lost. The fan experience made it up for Dortmundâs loss as far as I was concerned.
The above pictures taken inside the stadium. Sorry, forgot to click during the game but can't really blame myself!
Finally, letâs talk about the game. I have to admit that mine was not the best seat in the house and I did not see the game more clearly than anybody watching at home. In addition, I am not very enthusiastic about the Bundesliga although have been following Dortmund from a distance. But, the stadium experience makes a lot of difference. I would say that it was a very average game from the BVB perspective. Immobile did not start which was a disappointment. Aubameyang (who has been good recently despite BVBâs poor form), Ramos, Sven Bender and especially Erik Durm were disappointing. I thought that Piszczek shouldâve started and have no idea as to why technically poor Durm is being preferred by Klopp. Kagawa was fantastic and I am actually very happy about him finding himself again. The Japanese playmaker hardly put a foot wrong. HSV created a number of chances with the Dortmund defence lead by Hummels really struggling (Hummels himself gave the ball away when they conceded. He doesnât seem like such a big miss for United now!). Although BVB kept most of the ball, HSV had a number of clear cut chances until Lasogga found the empty net. I really donât know who assisted, but it was good work from the away team. After that, Weidenfeller made a couple of saves to keep the home team in it. Dortmund couldnât really get their game going and half time whistle was a relief with more face palm moments than hands in the air moments. Jojic came on for Bender in the second half and then Durm was finally removed in the last half an hour. With Immobile also coming on towards the end, the game was set for a grand stand finish! The last 20 minutes of the game was played at scintillating pace and nobody could take their eyes off. Immobile got the best chance of the game after some neat give and go just after coming on, and couldâve been an instant hero. But, the Italian put it wide of the post. For the amount of possession that Dortmund have, they did not create enough chances. On the other hand, they were exposed horribly at the back by HSV who must have scored at least two more. The game did finish 0-1 in favour of the travelling team much to the disappointment of the home contingent but not that they complained. The only complaint on the part of HSV was their time wasting tactics which the referee took very long to identify. The absence of Reus and Mkhitaryan seems to be hurting Dortmund a lot. The return of the duo along with Gundogan and Sahin should improve the situation. There is a lot of scope for improvement in the defence as well. Even United defence is doing better. I would love to see BVB do well.
Mandatory solo pictures of my friend and I follow đž
The home fans were disappointed but that did not seem to affect their plans â drinking more beer (there is no plan B). You could see the HSV fans bragging (they did earn the rights) about it during the rest of the evening. It was not an ideal finish (I wouldâve loved to see the stadium erupt had BVB scored) but the satisfaction of witnessing the greatest fan experience in football was mine! I wouldnât miss another chance to visit the place and I hope that Dortmund donât miss the target should that happen đ