Heaven and hell

Football is cruel. One of the best and worst parts of it is that you never know what you will get in advance – except if you are fan of Bayern. The season has not been a good one so far and the expectations of many was that we would lose big time against Bayern. We didn’t. But how we lost almost made it worse.

With a more defensive approach, we manage to play a perfect first half. Even if we got lucky in some situations, our pressing and our defence was almost perfect and we managed to create some good chances. The best one being the best action of Aubameyang since he came to Dortmund last year. He deflected a long ball with his heel and got the ball in one of his unbelievable sprints. Then he made a perfect cross to the middle where Reus made a perfectly timed header into the net. What a goal! What a relief! What a celebration! The BVB-fans were making fun of themselves, singing “German Champions is only going to be BVB”. For a short moment we could forget about all the losses and the bad games in the past weeks. We were in heaven. And for a longer time than we thought, we could defend that lead and that feeling.
It got more difficult in the second half, after Hummels had to leave the pitch with yet another injury. But even if we couldn’t create any chances anymore and Bayern had the ball almost all the time, we still were stable and looked good. The feeling grew that we might, just might be at the end of the tunnel and that there finally was some light visible. That it was in a game against Bayern only made it better.
Then in minute 73, Weidenfeller made a stupid mistake. Subotic didn’t manage to get the ball out far enough to save him and nobody knows better than we do what Lewandowski can do with a ball. And so he did. After the equalizer we were in no way able to get back on track. It’s in the heads, the confidence completely disappeared, the believe, the faith. And of course, this wasn’t the end of it. In minute 85 Subotic made a badly timed tackle against Ribery in the box. It wasn’t necessary, it was a bit stupid, but mainly it was human. Robben converted the penalty. Two stupid mistakes – only two of them – both punished. We went from heaven to hell in a few minutes. And after that, one could hear that there were actually Bayern fans in the round, not only red puppets. And they were enjoying themselves so much, that I got the feeling the defeats from the past years were still nagging, even after what felt like the 100th revenge.
(PS: If you want to know how our second team did in Stuttgart today, you just have to re-read the text above.)
And yes, it hurts. No one can deny that. To be at the bottom of the table, 17 points behind Bayern, 7 points behind Sch***e, having the feeling that we are not going to get out that easily anymore, despite the first half being the best half of any Bundesliga game this season. But we know better than anyone that there are worse things than that.
Maybe it’s not the right time for that kind of thoughts, but walking back through the city of Munich yesterday evening, hearing the arrogant comments of some Bayern-fans, made me think. Why didn’t it bother me at all what they were saying? Calling us a relegation candidate, singing about us going down? Bragging about having won the Champions League 2013 and all the Bundesliga titles in the past years? I deeply and honestly checked my feelings, but I really didn’t feel jealous at all. I felt pity for them. Pity that they have no idea what it really feels to win a title, despite all the trophies they have in their vitrines. They will never know how it feels to celebrate. We do.
To explain the reason why, I have to go far afield. There are only a few Bundesliga clubs that have had the same rollercoaster of feelings between fighting relegation and celebrating championships, between heaven and hell, that we had the past years. Gladbach, Kaiserslautern, Cologne, Hamburg and Bremen, maybe some more. Only Bremen (in reverse order) and Kaiserslautern have had the same short period of time between the absolute low and the absolute high. But not even their highs and lows have been as extreme as ours.
We have been called a relegation candidate before, by Bielefeld-fans in 2007. Not in early November, but in late February. (Bielefeld went down that season, not us. And they have not been back ever since.) But far worse than that day in Bielefeld was the one two years earlier when we didn’t know if our club would still exist the coming day. Not only in the first or second Bundesliga – at all.
And only 7 years later we have destroyed Bayern in the cup final to win the double and one year later we destroyed Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals, going all the way to the Champions League final.
In the same year, our second team was welcoming Arminia Bielefeld in the 3rd division. For me, this was not only the ultimate revenge, but also a sign. On that day, I learned that arrogance is being punished sooner or later. Of course, Bayern will not go down, but in one way or another, this will come back on them. And it will hurt.
In the meantime, I’m just thankful that we are not them. That we are not like them at all. Thankful, that we know both heaven and hell. In Berlin 2012 there has been a party bigger than any that was ever celebrated, it even went on on the 600km between Berlin and Dortmund, on the highway, while in London 2013 and in Berlin 2014 there has been no party, only happy black and yellow and sad red faces. Because if your lowest low is a lost Champions League final (even if lost in the last second), every title will be just another title.
For us, a lost Champions League or cup final still is a huge success, because only getting there is a remarkable effort every time. And we know that there are low points so far further down. Far further down than a 17th place in the Bundesliga in November. And with that in mind, a defeat against Bayern becomes just another defeat.

Or to say it with the words of a famous German punk rock band who wrote a song called "away game" that fits my thoughts about Bayern so perfectly:

You can beat us as many times and as high as you want,
it will never happen
that only a single one of us wants to be in your shoes,
because you are not like us.

Even if we are last and lose all the time,
it will never happen
that only a single one of us wants to be in your shoes,
because you are not like us.

We don’t care if we lose the game,
because that is not what it is about
and whether anyone else here understands that or not
is not interesting for us.

Stats

FCB: Neuer – Benatia, Boateng, Alaba – Alonso – Robben, Lahm, Götze, Bernat – Müller, Lewandowski
Substitutions: Ribery for Götze (70th), Pizarro for Müller (81st), Rode for Lewandowski (88th)

BV Borussia 1909: Weidenfeller – Piszczek, Sokratis, Hummels, Durm – Kehl – Bender, Mkhitaryan – Aubameyang, Kagawa, Reus
Substitutions: Subotic for Hummels (46th), Großkreutz for Kagawa (71th) Ramos for Aubameyang (81st)

Goals 0:1 Reus (31st), 1:1 Lewandowski (72nd), 2:1 Robben (85th)
Yellow cards: Alonso, Piszczek, Subotic
Shots: 25:10
Shots on target: 14:4
Corners: 9:2
Ballpossession: 64%:36%
Tackles won: 47%:53%
Completed passes: 83%: 69%
Fouls committed: 13:5

Nadja, 02.11.2014