Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce...

Championship winner of the season 10/11: Borussia Dortmund 09!!! I don't really think anyone is interested in what I have to say about the game, but hey- let me take the chance anyway. I promise I'll make it a quick go-through and come to the important stuff very soon.

So much has been said throughout this season, especially the past weeks were on an absolute rollercoaster ride, at least if you believed in what the media had to say. But also in the disussion boards people were nervous. From 13 points to 5 points to 8 points to 5 points again. Always ahead of Leverkusen of course. But the dream to actually win the Championship this year seemed so unbelievable that we probably needed some bits of tension to keep our feet on the ground and not go completely mental. After all the little downer against Gladbach last week can be seen as stumbling shortly before the finish line. We had basically pushed towards it with such great speed that it is natural to trip every now and then. No big deal. So on the 30. of April the game should be called Borussia Dortmund against the very strong playing team from Nürnberg. Meanwhile there was also another game taking place. The people involved would proably call it a Derby, but we all know what the mother of all derbies is, so we simply call the game Cologne against Leverkusen. For now, that, however, did not really concern us. First of all we had our homework to do.

There were little worries about Großkreutz and Barrios during the week, fortunately they were able to play though. Jürgen Klopp changed the formation from last week on only one position. He took Kuba out and kept Lewandowski in. Barrios took over his usual position of the striker up front again, while Lewandowski went back to playing on the position of the tenner.

First half

The game is actually quickly told. It wasn't the most exciting game we have ever witnessed, but then again, it doesn't have to be fame and glory all the time. Nürnberg presented themselves pretty much the way we had expected it. They stood tight on their positions but did not fear to come upfront and try to attack. However, nothing really happened. Whilst Nürnberg appeared to have the upper hand of the game, they did not manage to create any big chances or danger in front of our goal. Dortmund on the other hand started out a bit nervous again. They lost the ball too easily and did not find their way into the game just yet. The first minor chances could be seen in Großkreutz (12.) who was stopped bei Nürnbergs Schäfer, as well as in Nürnbergs Wolf who shot the ball over our goal after a cornerkick in the 14th minute of the game. The game went on and nothing really happened. Nürnberg played very disciplined and didn't give Dortmund any room to unfold their game. On the other hand they showed quite some danger after freekicks and cornerkicks. However, nothing serious came out of it. We had to wait 32 minutes until we were finally able to celebrate for the first time on that day. It was not supposed to be the last time- that I can promise you. It was not the most glamorous goal we have ever shot, but who cares. Not us. Götze tried Nürnbergs keeper Schäfer with a shot from around 20 meters distance, which he was not able to save properly. The ball jumped in front of Barrios feet- Lucas said thank you and pushed the ball into Nürnbergs goal. Wonderful. 1:0 for us. The stadium exploded and everyone was happy.

What was Cologne doing against Leverkusen? Of course everyone was interested. Many people listened to their mobile radios- but in Cologne nothing was happening. Yet. Back to our game. The second goal was actually not achieved by Barrios again (37th), since his header did not reach the goal, but by our Robert Lewandowski. After a long ball by Hummels, Robert enforced the ball over Pinola and lifted it above Nürnbergs keeper Schäfer. Well done Robert! 2:0 for us. And time for a break. Things were looking great and everybody felt a lot more in ease now. Who cares about what the others do if we keep winning our games? That was the motto we all followed, but of course, no one had anything against a save Championship in our own stadium with a little bit of help from our almost neighbours from Cologne.

Second half

Well, there wasn't a lot to tell from the first half already, there is even less to tell from the second half. About ten minutes were played until Nürnbergs Eigler tried our Weidenfeller with a shot from around five meters distance. He failed because of Weidenfellers foot. The game basically rippled away and despite a nice header from Subotic (60.) the excitement was rather gone. Don't get me wrong. It was not a bad game, it was simply a controlled one. By now our Borussia had taken over the upper hand of the game and Nürnberg proved themselves to be rather harmless. Let's fast forward to minute 67. Suddenly there was a lot of noise going on. People celebrated and started to shout from joy. What had happened? Our Norbert Dickel redeemed us. Cologne had scored. Suddenly everything happened so quickly. Cologne had scored. That actually meant that Leverkusen would have to score at least 2 goals in order to win and they only had 20 minutes left. Our game was not interesting anymore at all, nothing happened anyway. Our victory appeared to be safe already, our focus lay on Cologne now. Would we actually make our biggest dream come true today? Still, there were 20 more minutes to play. Why the game appeared to be a game between friends now, Barrios still thought it would be nice to score another goal (80.). But he didn't. Never mind. Then, shortly after Barrios chance- again, laughter and joy on the stands. What had happened. Well, first of all, Dede came into the game. But also: I guess we all know the story. Cologne had actually scored again. 2:0 in Cologne, 2:0 in Dortmund. This thing was through. The whistle rang, we did it- now there was no holding back anymore. We are the Championship winners of the season!

After the game

How can you actually describe the minutes and hours that would follow. First of all, tears. Everywhere I looked, tears. Of joy. Six years after it had almost been over, we achieved the unbelievable. With passion, ambition, lust, joy, a lot of hard work, faith and friendship our Borussia Dortmund did it. After 32 games of utter commitment they got the well deserved price. I can not say it often enough. Championship winner of the season. A team of every day lads. No super hero who was superior to the other, no, these boys, they all stick together, they work as a team. Our Borussia brought back what people call football romanticism and the acknowledgment comes from all sides.

For us fans, this has probably been one of the best days of our lives. But then again, the whole season has been a season of joy. Those 3-4 games that were not necessarily the greatest, who cares about them? Every one deserves to have a bad day, but what our team achieved thoughout the season is amazing.
The celebrations on the pitch found no end. Beer was poured over heads and bodies, tears of joy, laughter whereever you looked, Championship t-shirts on every one, our Keving Großkreutz close to a break down. It seemed like he didn't know where to go now. So he simply grabbed the mic and started chanting BVB songs. A wonderful picture. Nuri Sahin was hunting the sky-reporter, of course he needed a beer shower as well, and somewhere between those celebrations of that young team there were Rauball, Watzke, Zorc and of course our coach Jürgen Klopp. The kind of work this quartet puts into the team deserves a special thank you.

I am still too overwhelmed to find the right words. I have written so many game reports throughout the season, and I remember saying that I was running out of superlatives when it comes to this team. This hasn't changed. And the feeling from yesterday's happenings has not vanished yet either. I could actually smile and cry the whole day. All because of joy of course.
So, special thanks to my current home town Cologne for making it happen that we could celebrate at home on the 30. of April. But enough of me now: let's see what our team and others had to say.

A little bit of what our Dortmunder Jungs had to say:

Toni da Silva: "Of course this is an amazing feeling, beyond words. The boys deserved it, we all deserved it due to the great season we have played. This title is also a huge thank you to those awesome fans here in Dortmund."

Nuri Sahin: "This feeling is indescribable. I am having goose bumps. When it comes to sports, this is the best day of my life. We, the whole team, are simply proud. I can hardly express my feelings with words. Even though I haven't drunk anything yet, I feel a bit drunk."

Michael Zorc: "This Championship is the biggest achievement of any team from Borussia Dortmunds history. "

Mats Hummels: "For five weeks I have been dreaming to win the German Championship. Today we finally did it. It was an amazing moment When Norbert Dickel announced the score in Cologne. I had goose bumps."

Neven Subotic: "I can only say thank you to the players of Cologne for making it possible to win the Championship in our own stadium."

Lucas Barrios: "This is the greatest day in my football-life. The atmosphere here is greater than the one in South America. I can only say thank you to Borussia for bringing me here."

Kevin Großkreutz: "Tonight we will show that the greatest parties take place here in Dortmund. It is a superior feeling to win the Championship with my team, from the town I was born in."

Marcel Schmelzer: "Before the season we had said that it was time to win something for Dortmund again. But I was actually more thinking about the Cup and not the Championship already."

Mario Götze: "We are a team that always sticks together. We are a family."

Dede: "I was so excited to win this title with my team. I have to say thank you to Cologne. They are our partners nowl."

Reinhard Rauball: "This is close to a fairy tale."

Aki Watzke: "I can hardly believe all of this. This feeling is absolutely wonderful and I believe that the team deserves all of this."

And some others as well:

Rudi Völler (Neverkusen): "We played a good season, but Dortmund played an even better one. They deserve to win the Championship."

Theo Zwanziger (DFB president): "The team has played an impressive season and is the deserved Championship winner."

Jogi Löw (Coach of the German National Team): "Dortmund deserves the title. Throughout the whole season BVB was the most constant team, which played great football but always stayed disciplined. A special compliment to Jürgen Klopp."

Franz Beckenbauer: "Congratulations. Borussia Dortmund were dominant from the second game on and deserve the title."

By the way, just in case we all forgot already. There are still two games to be played. Next week we will be guest in Bremen and the week after that we will host the game against Frankfurt. Then, finally, we will get the "Schale".

Still, thank you already dear Borussia from Dortmund, for some of the most beautiful and greatest moments of our lives.

Stats

Championship Winners: Weidenfeller - Piszczek , Subotic , Hummels , Schmelzer - S. Bender , da Silva (83. Santana) - M. Götze , Lewandowski (78. Kuba) , Großkreutz (89. Dede) - Barrios

Nürnberg: R. Schäfer - Judt , Wollscheid , Wolf , Pinola (71. Plattenhardt) - Simons , Cohen - Eigler , Ekici , Mak (46. Gündogan) - Schieber (71. Hegeler)

Goals: 1:0 Barrios (Götze), 2:0 Lewandowski (Hummels)

Referee: Markus Schmidt (Stuttgart)

Westfalenstadion: 80720 (sold out)

Ida, 01.05.2011

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