In my opinion, the German city of Dortmund doesn’t really have anything in significance to go visit other than maybe the German Football Museum. Again, World War II really put a dent on the city landscape destroying a lot of buildings that so many famous/old architectural sights were blasted to smithereens and never re-built which allowed modernization to set in with wider streets and trains since cars started overtaking the horse and buggy. However, Dortmund’s big claim to fame which put its signal beacon on the sports map, making it a must go see is the football team, Borussia Dortmund and its famed Westfalenstadion (also known as Signal Iduna Park) with its well-known South Bank (or better known as the Yellow Wall) where thousands of spectators line up as rabid, intense fans making it look like a yellow wall.
People lining up to get into the stadium to go watch the Black and Yellow play. People have asked what does Borussia mean? It means Prussia, but in Latin.
Here’s the stadium from the inside.
The football team is one of the most successful and most popular teams not only in Germany but also in Europe as they are seen as the challengers to expectant annual trophy winners, Bayern Munich, since they are one of 3 teams that won the Champions League (the other being Hamburger SV). That’s why people like to watch the big rivalry game when these two teams go head-to-head. Schalke, who play in the city of Gelsenkirchen which is next door, is also another big rival as well. People are big on Dortmund and come wide and far to watch this team play. The fans live and die with the team like if they were out there themselves.
Setting up the field for play. Just look at all those fans!
With play about to start, the fans start getting rowdy and sing together…. they even sing an English song! Not a German song…. but an English one! “You’ll never walk alone.” What’s funny is that other clubs like FC Liverpool used to play and sing it as well. And don’t talk crap about the team either – the fans get pretty heated up. As I was watching the game, one of the opposing team players kicked a ball from midfield catching Borussia Dortmund’s goalie off-guard (he was playing further up-field than usual) and ended up scoring a goal. Man, were the Dortmund fans pissed off.
Game is underway with the referee’s whistle blow and the beginning kickoff. Fans were still part of the collaborative loud noise machine maker.
I recommend going to a Borussia Dortmund game because the “Black and Yellow” are well-known in Europe as they have that brand recognition and some great players have come out of that team or have played for the team. The only problem is that the games sell out almost every game as the team has one of the largest memberships in Germany and a huge portion of their members live in the UK because many of them like the team, German football, German culture, and the fact that it’s cheaper than trying to go to a local Premier League game where you have to take out a loan! Some of the Brits even make it a weekend trip for themselves to cross the English Channel either by air, ferry, or train to watch Borussia Dortmund.
One thing to note about the fans is that while I was watching the game, Borussia was down 1-2 in the closing minutes as the opposing fans were cheering and celebrating an eventual win in their own section. Instead, Borussia came back to equalize in the last minute sending all the Borussia Dortmund fans into a hive-like frenzy that at least they will get 1 point instead of 0 points in the standings. I remember watching the opposing team fans and they were just in shock… if the Dortmund fans weren’t there, then you could have heard crickets! One of the opposing fans even threw a beer at one of the Borussia Dortmund players but it fell, well short of the target.
This is one of the teams that should be watched at least once in their stadium. But of course, tickets are difficult to obtain.
