Love is in the air

I don’t know if you’ve noticed or suspected or known for a long time: we football fans are a strange species. In spring when birds fly and the flowers bloom, we are getting itchy and nervous, slightly more and more depressed until finally, in the summer, we see everything in grey. The world stops turning and we have the feeling that this big black hole that surrounds us is finally going to eat us up.

The black whole is filled with all this talk that pretends to be about football, but actually is not:

“Some sponsors have invested quite a lot of money in Borussia Dortmund and we are finally going to be debt-free again.” – “Great.”
“The Westfalenstadion will probably never get its real name back.” – “Truly sad.”
“Suarez is going to Barcelona and James Rodriguez to Real Madrid.” – “Ok, let’s hope Suarez is not going to bite anyone again.”
“Immobile is never going to be able to replace Lewandowski!” – “Who knows?”
“The new fan world has opened where you can buy everything you want and most of the things you don’t want!” – “Who cares?”
“What system are we going to play?” – “We’ll see.”
“Is Bayern going to be unstoppable again?” – “We’ll see.”

It sometimes feels like talking to avoid a moment of awkward silence, but then printed in newspapers and broadcasted on TV.

Luckily, at some point the summer is ending and the little arrows are in the air again. You know, the ones that Leapy Lee sang about. The ones that are in your clothing and in your hair, the ones that will hit you once and hit you once again. You know it when they hit you ‘cause they hurt a little bit. The time of the arrows has come, finally!
Now that the weather is getting worse and the rest of the world is developing the first signs of a winter depression, the football fans are singing and dancing again: Season has started!

John Paul Young has found the right words to describe how I’m feeling right now, so I leave it up to him:

Love is in the air
Everywhere I look around
Love is in the air
Every sight and every sound

And I don't know if I'm being foolish
Don't know if I'm being wise
But it's something that I must believe in
And it's there when I look at you, guys

Love is in the air
In the whisper of the trees
Love is in the air
In the thunder of the sea

And I don't know if I'm just dreaming
Don't know if I feel sane
But it's something that I must believe in
And it's there when I call out your name

Love is in the air
In the rising of the sun
Love is in the air
When the day is nearly done

And I don't know if you're an illusion
Don't know if I see it true
But you're something that I must believe in
And I’m there when you need me to

Love is in the air
Everywhere I look around
Love is in the air
Every sight and every sound

And I don't know if I'm being foolish
Don't know if I'm being wise
But it's something that I must believe in
And it's there when I look at you, guys

Possible line-ups

Borussia Dortmund: Langerak - Piszczek, Sokratis, Ginter, Durm - S. Bender - Jojic, H. Mkhitaryan - Reus - Spidermeyang, Immobile

Bayer Leverkusen: Leno - Jedvaj, Toprak, Spahic, Boenisch - Castro, Rolfes - Bellarabi, Son - Calhanoglu – Kießling

Venue: Westfalenstadion (sold-out)

Referee: Deniz Aytekin (Oberasbach)

Nadja, 22.08.2014