Today’s game saw a 12 minute silent protest by fans, who then en masse hurled chocolate coins onto the pitch, forcing play to be halted for several minutes while they were picked up.
This was a protest against the DFL decision to sell off the media rights (or more accurately, a share of them) to outside investors for a reputed 1 billion euros. German football fans are consistently great on issues like this.
Anyways. Here I am at the Borussia Park stadium today to watch a team whose name resonates from my youth – ‘Borussia Mönchengladbach’ is just one of those brilliant German names that feel really satisfying to nurdle around in the mouth, like a spicy crouton or a particularly sticky peanut butter sandwich.
More specifically I remember the name from the period in the 1970s, when they won the Bundesliga title five times, reached the final of the European Cup, and enjoyed a fierce rivalry with the brilliant Bayern München team of Beckenbauer and Müller. Not that I could watch any German club games in those days – everything was seem through the prism of the national team, or, more specifically, the World Cup. The name I remember most is that of Günter Netzer (another perfectly formed crouton of a name).
Mainly because he had the coolest name, but also because he was a great player, and also, he looked like this:
Not to mention this:
There is a statue of him in Mönchengladbach, along with teammates Berti Vogts and Hacki Wimmer, which struggles to do him justice:
The club mascot, Jünter, is also named after him:
Jünter is of course, a foal. The BMG nickname ‘die Fohlen’ originates from the youthful, exciting team who won promotion to the Bundesliga in 1965, and for some reason it stuck.
Anyways. Today’s game sees a clash between two mid-table sides, which is probably pretty much in line with pre-season expectations. A win for Augsburg would enable them to leapfrog their opponents and go into the top half of the table.
