Celebration weekend

Normally, on schwatzgelb.com you find an article about a match of Borussia Dortmund pretty soon after the match. This time, it is different, since today is Monday and the match already was on Saturday. But there are pretty good reasons for it. This article won't be about the match against Eintracht Frankfurt (but this will be a part of it), but about the whole weekend. Because just let's be honest: this weekend was not about the match, but about celebration. And what a hell of a weekend it was! I will try my very best to put all that in words, dividing the weekend into sub-categories. But one thing has to be said first even though I will run in danger of repeating it several times again: This weekend was one of the best weekends of my 22-year-old life!

Friday

On the night before the match on Saturday, schwatzgelb editor steph also known as DJ Suicide organised a party in the Hafenschänke. Not only a good number of editors from our German and English section were part of it, but also several international supporters of the worldwide-beloved Ballspielverein. Hungarians, Englishmen (who were proud of having beaten some 11-year-olds in the park before the party) and Germans had a great night with some good music about Borussia including famous Klaus Neuhaus and the rappers who created the "Dauerkarte". Before the music, our editors presented some texts about Borussia and for example underlined the big importance of winning the championship this year after being afraid of the total destruction in the years before. All in all, it was an amazing evening and time was running fast which was the reason why several guests arrived at their home in the early morning.

Saturday – Before the match

The big day. The presentation of the Schale. My alarm clock bells at 9am, I had slept for approximately 3 hours now. Friends arrive at my place, breakfast, beer, Borussia! When we arrive at the stadium pretty early, it is hard to not notice that it is a special day. Many people are on their feet, everyone wants to be there early and is afraid to miss anything. The hardest part before the match is the goodbye to Nuri Sahin and Leonardo Dede. I was fighting against tears for the whole time but I could not hold them back. And it is nothing to be ashamed of. Both players did so much for our team, Dede went the whole way to dark and golden times, Nuri was a big part of our championship team and member of Borussia for 11 years. Thanks for everything, guys! I am proud of my tears and I am not the only one in the Westfalenstadion who was fighting a desperate fight against these emotions. When the teams went into the stadium, a big choreo was presented by the fans on the Südtribüne. Standing under the Schale, I could not describe how it looked like live, but seeing the pictures on Sunday, I would say that it was an amazing choreo and the perfect underline for a great season, for a great team, for a great championship! When we now turn our heads to the match, it needs to be said that Frankfurt was fighting relegation and desperately needed a win against the Deutscher Meister to stay in the Bundesliga while Wolfsburg played in Hoffenheim and Mönchengladbach was away in Hamburg. In our team, Subotic was replaced by Tele Santana and Götze took Bender's place in the defensive midfield. However, it really didn't matter anyway.

Saturday – The match

I could now write an exact analysis of our match, talk about all important scenes, about every constellation of the ranking concerning relegation, but I would like to put it simple by just naming what needs to be named. Goals, penalties and only the most important scenes. It started pretty early when Kuba was taken down in the penalty area in a co-operation of Frankfurts goalie Fährmann and Köhler, penalty for Borussia, the fourth one of the season. Nuri Sahin was injured and replaced as the taker of penalties anyway, so Lucas Barrios placed the ball on the point and what should I say? It was not a badly-taken penalty, but Fährmann – an ex-player of Blue-White by the way – saved it. The fourth penalty of the championship season was given away. In the following rest of the first half, Borussia had some opportunities but did not end up in scoring – 0-0 for the break.
The beginning of the second half was brimming with highlights. Due to Pyro techniques on the Südtribüne, the match continued with a little delay and as the clouds were drifting away, Frankfurt scored: cross from the left side by Altintop, Gekas with the header in direction of Rode and he shoots the ball over the line for the lead. Pyro techniques came up again, this time in the stands of Frankfurt and the supporters presented a banner calling Frankfurt the "Riot Champion 2011" – a good counter to the pyros of the Südtribüne, but a "title" Fans of Eintracht should not be too proud about. However, the match went on and at some point, Felix Magath and his VfL Wolfsburg would have been relegated if the final whistles were blown in the stadiums of Germany. This led to many fans not being too frustrated about the 0-1, but our team was not satisfied with that. They wanted the season to end like it went over most time and maybe they also wanted revenge for the defeat in the first half of the season against Frankfurt. So they fought back into the match and scored twice with lots of luck when shots by Barrios and Lewandowski somehow found their way into the net of Frankfurt in minutes 68 and 72. From that point on, Frankfurt was beaten and Borussia could do anything with them. This meant a lot of fun from that moment on, the next highlight was coming just one minute after the 2-1. Dede was brought in for the last time of this season, the Westfalenstadion nearly exploded and celebrated this great guy – fully deserved. When Schmelzer was fouled in the penalty area by the first action of Frankfurt's Titsch-Rivero in minute 81, the stadium was blowing off again. Everyone demanded Dede to shoot, who at first had problems with taking this opportunity and looked in the direction of Jürgen Klopp several times, but the coach of course allowed the number 17 to take this one. It is hard to imagine what would have happened if Dede took this opportunity, but Fährmann was against that again. Fifth penalty of the season, fifth miss. Only Nuri scored from the point against Hoffenheim, but had to shoot again in the first half of the season. Never before had a team given away all the penalties they had – new record by Borussia again! However, after Kagawa Shinji celebrated his comeback in the last minutes of the match, Barrios doubled the lead in the final seconds with a brilliant header after a nice cross. 3-1 in the end, another victory, 75 points, Borussia Deutscher Meister!

Saturday – After the match

Unfortunately, the celebrations did not go as they could, because fans stormed the pitch directly after the Schale was presented to Roman Weidenfeller by president Rauball. The team was leaving the pitch and celebrated in the cabins and even on the press conference where coach Klopp, Aki Watzke and Josef Schneck were floated with loads of beer. Celebrations continued with lots of fans on the pitch and ended up in lots of fans being in the city, sending Borussia directly to becoming a madhouse. It is hard to estimate how many supporters were in the city, at Borsigplatz or in the pubs, but it should have been many one hundred thousands. Bengals could be seen at the old market later that night, everyone was celebrating until the morning light again. What a night, for the second time. While the fans celebrated, the team of course did as well. They were celebrating in the Dortmunder "U" and you can find some videos in the internet where Nuri Sahin shows that he is able to celebrate impressively. I'm pretty sure that the YouTube Channel of Neven Subotic will be filled with videos as well over the next few days. For some of the players, the outcomes of these celebrations could be seen the next day again.

Sunday

500.000 people went nuts in Dortmund again and the team once again proved that they could celebrate like they are playing. Jürgen Klopp lost his voice and – to keep it in harmless words – was not sober anymore, Kevin Großkreutz was lead to the toilet by two securities. The whole squad celebrated the whole team, drove through the city with a big truck and finally ended up at a big stage on the B1. Throughout the day, supporters celebrated the championship there with music acts (were Guildo Horn was awarded with the showing of lots of middle fingers and booings) and could see the celebrations on the truck on big screens. Another highlight, another great day. When the team arrived on the stage, the most emotional moment of my weekend began – again involving Nuri Sahin and Leonardo Dede. First, Nuri was thanking everyone and underlined that he will be Borusse for always and then gave the mic to – and I quote Nuri – "a living legend". Leonardo Dede was celebrated and tears were running down his cheeks for around the 100th time over the last few weeks. I once again could not fight mine and when Dede was speaking and pausing every few seconds to catch his breath, it was so obvious that he will be missing all of us. He thanked every supporter for the last 13 years and said that he loves to hear "Allez Dede". Once again, Nuri and Dede, thanks for everything. Both of you will be remembered for always.

What a weekend. What a season. What a celebration. Thank you Borussia, thank you Dortmund! Thank you, Roman!
Thank you, Mitch!
Thank you, Johannes!
Thank you, Neven!
Thank you, Mats!
Thank you, Patrick!
Thank you, Lukasz!
Thank you, Tele!
Thank you, Schmelle!
Thank you, Lasse!
Thank you, Marc!
Thank you, Sebastian!
Thank you, Florian!
Thank you, Nuri!
Thank you, Markus!
Thank you, Kuba!
Thank you, Manni!
Thank you, Mario!
Thank you, Toni!
Thank you, Robert!
Thank you, Mo!
Thank you, Damien!
Thank you, Lucas!
Thank you, Kevin!
Thank you, Shinji!
Thank you, Daniel!
Thank you, Marco!
Thank you, Kloppo!

Thank you all! This season will never be forgotten!

Stats

Deutscher Meister 2011: Weidenfeller - Piszczek, Hummels, Santana, Schmelzer - Götze, da Silva - Kuba, Lewandowski, Großkreutz – Barrios
Subs: Dede for Großkreutz (73rd), Feulner and Kagawa for Götze and Buba (88th)

Eintracht Frankfurt: Fährmann - Jung, Vasoski, Russ, Köhler - Rode, Schwegler - Ochs, Caio, Fenin – Gekas
Subs: Altintop for Köhler (20th), Titsch-Rivero for Rode (79th), Heller for Schwegler (85th)

Goals: 0-1 Rode (46th), 1-1 Barrios (68th), 2-1 Russ (72nd), 3-1 Barrios (90th)

Attendance: 80.720 (sold out-Westfalenstadion for the 13th time this season)

Vanni, 16.05.2011

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