Germany in Soccer Fever

The Americans have their Superbowl, the French their Tour de France. The world has the Olympics, and Germany has its Bundesliga championship. Every year it’s a race for the top position among the nation’s leading soccer teams. For the fans its "Fußball" pure. In the days leading up to the final match, soccer addicts – and that’s a good portion of German society -- immerse themselves in the statistics, compare the chances of the leading teams, and place their bets.

Who will be the winner? Will Bayern-München take the cup again, or does Bayer-Leverkusen finally have a chance? What about Borussia-Dortmund?

The suspense was high on Saturday. For the first time in 10 years, three teams were still in the running for the "Meister" title before going into the final round of matches. But only Dortmund, who entered the championship one point ahead of Leverkusen and two points ahead of Bayern had destiny in their own hands.

If Dortmund’s team lost their round against Werder-Bremen, Leverkusen would have a chance of coming out the ultimate victor, but only if they beat Hertha-Berlin. And if neither of the teams from North Rhine Westphalia won their matches, than the Bavarian boys from Munich could take the championship title by default.

High stakes game

The stakes were high. Munich was on a four-straight winning spree including last year’s European Cup. The team’s fans were steadfast behind them, but the rest of Germany was eager to see a new Meister. And as for Leverkusen, the much-favored team and lead contender in the European Champions League, was in danger of becoming national runner-up again for the fourth time in six seasons. Their reputation and the patience of their fans were on the line.

Dortmund was on the ball, finally. The team from Germany’s industrial heartland had been through lean times since last taking the European Cup in 1997. They had suffered through several humiliating defeats, but now they were headed for stardom. Over 68,000 fans in yellow and black turned out to cheer their team on, and they didn’t want to be disappointed.

In the end all three teams won. Dortmund beat Bremen 2-1. Leverkusen hammered Berlin 2-1, and Munich came out one point ahead of Hansa-Rostock with 3-2. But since it all comes down to points, there can only be one victor, and that was Borussia-Dortmund. Leverkusen again had to be content with the silver cup, and Munich went off empty-handed for the first time since 1995.

Fan fever

Dortmund’s downtown was awash in yellow and black Saturday evening after their team’s fate was finally sealed. Thousands of fans poured out of the stadium and into the city’s pubs where they partied until the morning hours. Young and old joined together, singing and chanting at the tops of their lungs:"The soccer god is a Borussia fan"

"Dortmund dances", screamed a journalist reporting from the city center, and on Sunday, the nation’s newspapers were emblazoned in yellow headlines. "Borussi—jaaa!" in three-inch letters graced the national Sunday tabloid ‘Bild am Sonntag’. The Dortmund victory was Saturday’s top news story, garnering first position in the nightly news run-down.

Across the nation, Borussia fans embraced one another. Their tough path to victory was over. The last time Borussia-Dortmund won a Bundesliga championship was in 1996, before that they had victories in 1995, 1963, 1957 and 1956.

Still not all German soccer fans were jubilant. Many favored Leverkusen, and they wanted to see the routine second-placer finally come out on top. The team had played good strong soccer all season long and they had won national respect for their Champions League performance.

"Naturally Germany wanted Leverkusen to make it to the top, but only the facts count", said Munich’s commercial manager Uli Hoeness. "There’s no place for sentimentality in this game. You have to recognize Dortmund’s achievement."

Those might be easy words for a manager to say, but the fans are still disappointed. Of course in the fast-paced world of German soccer, there’s always something new coming along to wipe away the frustration and get the fan-fever roaring again. On May 15 the Leverkusen team will represent Germany in the European Champions League performance against Real Madrid. And in four weeks, the whole country will rally behind their national team as it heads to the ultimate soccer show-down -- the World Cup in South Korea.