Card drama, but no beer shortage
BVB relies on the key and a sweater
May 25, 2023, 6:11 p.m
In Dortmund everything is one and everything is BVB. The region around the Dortmund-Ems Canal is dressing up for the championship celebrations next weekend. But they must not slip against Mainz. That would be a debacle. Coach Terzić has a secret trick, BVB boss Watzke has a sweater.
The beer barrels are stacked up to the pub ceiling, the huge championship party on Borsigplatz is planned down to the last detail, the fans can hardly sleep. Dortmund is ready to really freak out – and Hans-Joachim Watzke suddenly has a lot of old “friends” before the golden match point.
It goes like this: “We had religion lessons together in the third grade. And oh, I absolutely need two tickets for Saturday,” reported the BVB boss with a laugh before the grand finale of a crazy Bundesliga season. The last hotel rooms on the four-kilometre-long Meistertruck route for Sunday cost upwards of 600 euros, and more than 250,000 people are expected. The only problem is: Borussia Dortmund is not yet German champion.
90 minutes and a win against FSV Mainz 05 (3.30 p.m. / Sky) separate the starving BVB from snatching the bowl from the tottering giants FC Bayern Munich after a torturous ten years. Without any wild motivational rites. “The field is the same size as last week, the ball is just as round,” said coach Edin Terzić, who would be one of the heroes of the ninth championship title as the “man from the curve”.
Everything should be as normal as possible. “The key is not to do anything special in a special week,” emphasized Terzic. “It’s not about extraordinary things, it’s about hiding where you are and when the game is. We want to crown the common path.”
The mayor is waiting with the golden book
The Bavarians are also dutifully planning celebrations on the town hall balcony, especially since the women will probably win the title at the weekend. There is still a residual hope that BVB will stumble and let the Munich team, who are playing at 1. FC Köln, drop the bowl in their laps. I take it that way, says Thomas Müller: “I wouldn’t care at all.”
Either way, there will be an internal end-of-season celebration with sponsors and dignitaries in the “Motorworld” in Munich-Freimann. But there can be no question of euphoria before the final, instead it is discussed whether CEO Oliver Kahn’s time has already expired – and how big the upheaval in the luxury squad will be.
Completely different at BVB. Borussia could have sold 300,000 tickets, and 800 journalists asked for accreditation. The share has skyrocketed by 30 percent, and Mayor Thomas Westphal’s Golden Book of the City has practically already been opened.
Hans-Joachim Watzke like Udo Lattek once did
The biggest celebration in the city’s recent history, so it can come. “I can imagine it being unbelievable to experience a championship party with the bowl on Borsigplatz,” said Sébastien Haller, who wrote the fairy tale of the season with his comeback from cancer.
His return to old strength is one of the many little stories to be told ahead of Saturday. But there is also Terzić, there is Marco Reus, who has been waiting longingly for the championship title for so long. Jude Bellingham, the leader who will probably be gone by summer. Mats Hummels, counted to the scrap heap, but then entrusted with most league games of all Dortmund central defenders.
And: a warm, white turtleneck sweater. Much too cuddly for 20 degrees and sunshine, but Watzke would never wear another: It’s his lucky jumper. “It was tough in Augsburg, but I wore it and I will on Saturday,” he said: “It doesn’t matter how warm it is.”