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Dortmund’s yellow wall of sound
There are places where football is primarily business and then there are places where football is fun as well as business, with the former taking precedence. Dortmund is such a place.
When Borussia play in the massive 81,000-seater Westfalenstadion then the whole city lights up. Families, friends and couples pour into this strictly-for-football-only stadium, dressed in bright yellow to enjoy an afternoon of excitement. With the second highest average attendance in Europe behind Barcelona last season, Borussia is a club that caters primarily for fans. There could not be stronger proof of that than the South Tribune, nicknamed the Yellow Wall, a 25-thousand capacity standing-only tribune, the biggest of its kind in Europe.
The cheapest ticket price for this extraordinary place? 11 euros.
I was in the stadium last week for an interview with German league officials, who seemed very excited about showing me the Yellow Wall as Borussia took on VfL Wolfsburg.
“It’s time,” they said before the game started, as we comfortably sat in the stands with the fans around us smoking and drinking beer and the stadium slowly filling up. “Time for what?” I asked. “To see the wall up close and take pictures,” they said as they rushed me down the stands, and yes, on to the perfectly trimmed pitch with Wolfsburg coach Steve McClaren giving his players final instructions as they warmed up.
But we did not stay on the sidelines. Oh no, we walked straight on to the pitch as Diego, Edin Dzeko and other top players warmed up. And there it was. This massive tribune, rising steeply, draped in yellow, huge flags and banners swirling in the afternoon breeze. It was indeed spectacular, even awe-inspiring, to see it up close and personal.
Football mourns loss of a great talent and a modest man
Robert Enke had none of the extrovert qualities associated with the great goalkeepers in German football folklore, larger than life figures such as Sepp Maier and Oliver Kahn.
He didn’t quite reach the same levels of achievement on the field either but this modest man will certainly be remembered as a great talent.
Enke, who has committed suicide at the age of 32, was the best of an outstanding crop of German keepers and would likely have been chosen to keep goal at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Maybe there he would have fulfilled his exceptional potential.
That he had even made it into the Germany squad was testament to his character and professionalism.
Enke had to struggle to get his career back on track after a disappointing spell at Barcelona in the 1990s. Barca snapped him up on a free transfer after an excellent three years at Benfica but he was never able to make an impact at the Nou Camp, with his time there effectively cut short by a single poor performance in a Cup game.
He moved on loan to Fenerbahce and dropped down to the Spanish second division with Tenerife before he fought his way back into the top flight in 2004, back in Germany with Hanover. He eventually won the first of his eight German caps in 2007, eight years after being called up to the squad for the first time. It was a promotion that was long overdue in the eyes of most fans and players.
Very, very sad news 
I hope his wife and daughter find strength and comfort in such a difficult time.
What now for wondrous Wolfsburg?
Wolfsburg are only 90 minutes away from winning their first German championship and they have equalled or broken several records in achieving that.
No other team have ever had two strikers score 20 goals or more in a Bundesliga season. Grafite has 26, Edin Dzeko 25.
Wolfsburg equalled the longest winning streak in one season in the Bundesliga with 10 consecutive victories after the winter break. They have a near perfect home record, dropping only two points in 16 matches this term.
What can they improve on after such a season?
Coach Felix Magath will not be there next term, having signed with Schalke 04. Grafite has said he will stay on but Dzeko looks unlikely to partner him up front next season with big European clubs including Arsenal rumoured to be eyeing the Bosnian and team mates.
But don’t expect Volkswagen-backed Wolfsburg to be a one-off thing.
I think anyone outside Bavaria would agree with the last post.
Klinsmann silences doubters … for now
Juergen Klinsmann, who has turned German soccer upside down the last four years with a dynamic and modern approach to the game, has once again managed to silence the domestic naysayers, at least for the time being.
Bayern’s 5-0 thrashing of Sporting Lisbon put an abrupt halt to the media speculation that Klinsmann’s job was on the line after Bayern lost three of their first four Bundesliga matches since the start of the second half of the season in January.
Never mind that Bayern opened 2009 with an awesome performance in destroying VfB Stuttgart 5-1 in a German Cup match, those losses (in which Bayern played well) combined with one truly dreadful effort last week, a 2-1 defeat at home against Cologne, suddenly had the poets in the press box writing Klinsmann’s obituary. (more…)
And now he has been linked to the job at Manchester City. Both club and Juergen Klinsmann himself had distanced themselves from the rumours.
Bayern Munich are playing away at Werder Bremen tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how it will be played out considering Werder sent AC Milan out of the UEFA Cup on Thursday. No one will need reminders that the last time these two met in the league, it was 5-2 to Werder. The beginning of a ‘crisis’ at Bayern.
But then again, I only hope for the best for Klinsmann at Bayern. Even if he is not well-liked for his ideas all the time. In fact if not for him at the 2006 World Cup when he was the Germany coach, I will not be watching and following the Bundesliga since. The man indirectly had a hand in it. 
I am from Germany and I’m a huge soccer fan myself. My favorite team is Borussia Dortmund, so I can totally understand what you’re talking about in this article. The Westfalenstadion in Dortmund and its atmosphere is unbelievable. I’ve been there several times and even though I stayed outside the “Yellow Wall” I experienced a feeling that isn’t comparable to other stadiums, neither in Germany nor in any other country.
In Dortmund, or in Ruhr Valley in general, soccer is more a religion than a sport. The stadium is the place where people meet their friends, where they experience either complete disappointment or breathless anticipation and where they go to support their team.
As you said there’s no Ronaldo or Messi in the Borussian team but I think the fans of BVB make them feel as if they were both Messi and Ronaldo, all in one.
Whoever gets the chance to go to a stadium like Westfalenstadion in Dortmund should grab it. Even if you’re not a huge soccer fan you’ll get a once in a lifetime experience.