Everything is blacknyellow these days.

It has been a spectacular weekend. All starting off with our second team destroying Schlacke II 4-2 in the last few minutes to take the lead in their campaign to promote to the third league - and the first pro league in German football these days. And finishing off the next with a solid 2-0 away win at ruhr-rivals VFL Bochum.

Some 10.000 fans travelled the B1 highway to Bochum's Ruhrstadion neatly located on Castroper Straße. The Ruhrstadion being one of the older grounds in Germany with a capacity of 31.000. The west stands where completely taken by the black'n'yellow army. They sang their songs before the game and would never stop until way after the match, documenting the fantastic support this season. Just having a look at the last away games makes you blush. 13.000 in Hannover, 15.000 in Berlin, 10.000 in Bochum. Is there a better following in Europe right now? Quite frankly: No!

For the third time in a row manager Jürgen Klopp was able to field the same starting 11. Bochum had to do without a few players, most remarkable Epalle was missing with face injury. They moved Slovakian wonderboy Stanislav Sestak back to the right side and fielded former Borussia player Diego Klimovicz as the sole striker upfront Both teams entered the ground with a lot of self-confidence after last weeks wins.

During the first half a spectacular derby unfolded in front of the capacity crowd. Diego Klimovicz had the first big chance after 6 minutes with his header landing on top of Weidenfeller's net. But from then on Borussia took command of the game. After Sestak saved a Hajnal lop on the goal line with a bicycle kick it was Owomoyela who headed home a Frei corner after 11 minutes. The combination that resulted in the corner kick had taken the ball from the far right flank all the way to Sahin. His shot was saved by Bochum keeper Fernandes , who again did not have the best day. For most of the first half the game went up and down. Some good Bochum chances, too. But they ain't no attacking side. Dabrowski ‘s header from inside the 5m-box just made it past the touch- and not the sideline. Skipper Sebastian Kehl and Sahin sequenced Borussia's match just fine. It resulted in a close offside goal by Alex Frei and a few more big ones. "One of the best combinations I've seen this season", said Jürgen Klopp of the Hajnal miss after 36min. Valdez had put the ball through into the box to Kehl who stopped the ball for Tamas Hajnal. He only had to finish from 7 meters but his shot went wide.

A few minutes after half time a long Subotic cross reached Sahin who headed to Nelson Valdez. The oftentimes unlucky but always hard-working South-American stopped the ball and hit it just right from 20m. It flew past flabbergasted Marcel Maltritz, who'd later say "I never thought Valdez can score from outside the box", and over goalie Fernandes right into the top right corner of Bochum's goal. If it wasn't for Grafite's magic moment against Bayern this one would most definitely be the goal of the month. Still it added up Valdez's total to six goals and six assists this season and might have been the last argument for sport manager Michael Zorc to extend his contract for two more years on Monday. Valdez will be with Borussia up until June 2012. The spectacular goal also caused a riot amongst the Borussia supporters, resulting into dreams of Europe and more. You could even hear them singing "Deutscher Meister Wird Nur Der BVB", an ironic hint to times long. It was for Bochum to try and get one back now, some sloppy defense by Dede and some dangerous mistakes by the likes of Kehl and Subotic where never enough to put Weidenfeller under real pressure. A handful of counter-attacks on our side also never resulted into any real chances and so with the stands outsinging the Bochum fans the game ended 2-0, making Borussia the Revierchampions for this season. Three draws and one win are enough to take the crown this season. First title in the bag. It will remain the only one.

Borussia now faces Hamburg in their late bid for the European ranks. We need to finish fifth and still trail six points with six matches to go. It is a tough but solvable task. After Hamburg Borussia travels to Frankfurt. With two more wins we should still be in the race when it comes push to shovel in May.

steph, 23.04.2009