Borussia Mönchengladbach

Ground: Borussia-Park

Visits: 1

Date: 6th November 2010

Match: Borussia Mönchengladbach - Bayern München 3-3 (Bundesliga)

Attendance: 54 057

My third match on this tour was to be a Bundesliga game on Saturday afternoon. The problem was only Freiburg (vs Mainz) and Borussia Mönchengladbach (vs Bayern München) of the clubs/grounds I hadn´t previously visited played at home. Since I didn´t fancy going to Freiburg I was left with only option, Borussia Mönchengladbach vs Bayern München. That game was sold-out in a day though but I entered the (internet) black market for the first time and bought a ticket for more than double the original price. I knew Borussia-Park would be full and made the decision it was money well spent. For people in Sweden Mönchengladbach is best known for being the club where Patrik Andersson, Martin Dahlin and Jörgen Pettersson played in the mid 90s. As I was staying in Düsseldorf the trip to Mönchengladbach was a short one, it is only 25 minutes or so by train. I didn´t travel to Mönchengladbach Hbf though. Norbert, one of the German groundhoppers I met in Finland, is a season ticket holder at Borussia-Park. I met up with him outside Rheydt Hbf and from there we went by shuttle bus to Borussia-Park. Until 2004 Borussia Mönchengladbach played their matches at Bökelberg Stadion. Since that stadium was outdated the club wanted a new home and in November 2002 building works finally started on their stadium. Borussia-Park was opened in August 2004 and has a capacity of 54 000 for domestic matches. When all the terracing is converted to seats the stadium has a capacity of 46 000.

As we arrived at the ground 90 minutes before kick-off the area around Borussia-Park was buzzing. Playing Bayern München is for most clubs the biggest (or second biggest) match of the season. Once inside the ground I could notice plenty of Bayern fans in the home sections. It was actually a bit funny to see a fence, supposed to separate home and away fans, with Bayern fans on both sides of it. Segregation, German style. Norbert has his season ticket in the Nordkurve and with my seat in Ost Oberang we temporarily said good bye to each other. Being bottom of the table Borussia Mönchengladbach were hardly favourites against Bayern München. After 5 minutes it was 1-0 to the home team though, a fluke goal but still a goal. Bayern then started to play bettter and better and after 40 minutes they were 2-1 up. A penalty for Bayern in the last minute of the first half could have killed them game. It was hit off the post though meaning it was "only" 2-1 to Bayern at half-time.The home players were suddenly a new team and managed to get a 3-2 lead in the second half. The atmosphere inside Borussia-Park was brilliant by now. Bayern equalised to 3-3 with less than 10 minutes to go and a very exciting game ended with a point each. If I ever doubted if this was money well spent I had no doubts after this thrilling match. I then briefly met up with Norbert again before trying to board a shuttle bus to Mönchengladbach Hbf. After 45 minutes (what happened to German organisation?) I finally managed to board a bus. I had a train from Düsseldorf to Utrecht at 19.40. With 20 minutes to spare I made this train, thankfully. Only one match left on this trip now, Utrecht vs PSV Eindhoven. It will also mean a chance to meet up with some old (and new) faces. Something to look forward to.

borussia-park