h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is what Borussia Moenchengladbach fans have been singing since around May this year. (23rd May, to be precise, the last game of the season and the day our team fixed their 3rd place in the league and automatic Champions League participation)

Yesterday the groups were drawn, and our team (yes, Ich Bin Borusse) released their (lovely) champions league shirt. I was out with my team from work, one of whom goes to matches regularly (sometimes with and me).

We both said: wow, we have to try to get tickets. haha no chance by the time the season ticket holders have had their first pick, and the sponsors get theirs.

But he's in a fan club, and they have a quota set aside. And this morning he told me he can get us all tickets for all 3 home games. So we've booked and paid and so it looks as though I'll be seeing Manchester City, Seville and Juventus in the Borussia Park. All before the end of November.

Woo hoo

here's the shirt
http://www.borussia-eshop.de/shop/de_DE/Herren/Trikots/CL-Trikot%25202015%252F16-151710.html?utm_campaign=CL-Trikot&utm_medium=Vorschalter&utm_source=borussia.de

I'll be rooting for Gladbach and Sevilla then

Easy choice given Gladbach's history with Allan Simonsen, Henning Jensen and Ulrik le Fevre - and Krohn-Dehli playing for Sevilla

That's a bit of a grudge match for us, after they put us out of the Europa Cup last year.

I'm really looking forward to the Man City match - I so rarely get to see English teams these days (most recently Sheffield FC against some kind of Dortmund fan team, Dortmund ended up with about 20 players on the pitch for the last 5 minutes after a 6-0 pasting)

But the one I really really really must see is the Juve match. Their goalie (Buffon) is a total legend. Plus he likes BMG because he says "you have to like a team whose name you can't even pronounce". Added to which our (lovely) goalie Yann Sommer cites Buffon as the goalie he'd most like to emulate.

Have I mentioned how utterly gorgeous our goalie is?

I have special relations to Juve as well: Danish national Carl Aage Præst is the foreigner who to this very day has played most games for Juve, with which he won two championships.
And it was my father who taught him to play football!

(Nah, not really. They went to the same boarding school and my father may have been playing with him, but my father wasn't any good, although most likely better than I ever was )

But it's a nice story to tell if I ever get to Torino. I may not have to pay for any of my meals or drinks if I can tell them this story with a straight face

I cannot really imagine I would enjoy watching a game in a stadium. More so if I actually cared for one of the teams playing. I guess it would be too intense for me. (During one of the World Cup games, I actually left the party for half an hour just so that I would not have to witness a possible defeat...). But in a stadium, you get all the thrill AND the noise and the pyros and the hools. Fun?

Great story,

Y, not much in the way of hools and pyros at the Borussia park - Gladbach were voted the most family friendly team/stadium in the bundesliga (again) last season.

Except when those idiots from Köln turn up. (but then who on earth schedules a lower Rhine derby over Karneval weekend)

Juve are my Italian team of choice - since the days of Roberto Baggio and i discovered that their strip is based on the Newcastle United strip (that tickles my fancy for some reason)

It is very stressful being in the stadium when it's "your" team. I've supported Gladbach since about 1978 so I've seen them through the last off the really good and the very bad (nearly going into the 3rd division 4 years ago was awful). But your team is your team and being in the stadium is part of it all. Wearing the shirt, singing the song, waving your scarf around.

Last weekend (we lost against Mainz 05) we took some English friends (over from the uk on holiday) a mate of with his dad and his son. And all 3 agreed that the atmosphere in the stadium here was so much better than in the uk. They particularly noted how each time we went behind, the Nordkurve got really really loud, trying to lift up the team. The atmosphere is electric.

When i want to relax I go to the Esprit arena to watch Fortuna Düsseldorf against pretty much anyone. I just don't care if they win or lose, and it is a lovely stadium (probably my favourite) and I can really enjoy that. Although it#s usually less than half full and not very jolly.

Go Go Gladbach !

there's the small matter of needing a win tomorrow. Currently bottom of the league with 6 goals against and no wins out of 2 games

but still... oh, have you all seen the Gladbach song that we sing when they come on the pitch?

the picture quality isn't good, but the atmosphere is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRu6n3MQEL8

Oh, after how Stuttgart fared today, your guys would really have to work hard to defend the no.18 spot

Fan Song - yay for good old Fußballschlager.

Re. Yann Sommer. As chance would have it, "Yann Sommer" is a moniker I sometimes adopt for music-related things, cf: https://soundcloud.com/yannsommer/trigger-yann-sommer-remix

(Yes, shameless plug is shameless!)

Y.

oh well, we all lose sometime.
Middlesborough beat Sheffield Wednesday today so is rubbing it in.

Is that music you made, Y?

Yes and no...
It was a remix contest. The original artist, Sirma, provided a recording of her voice and nothing else. So the lyrics and the vocal melody are Sirma's. Other than that, she only provided two items of information: key (g minor) and time signature (4/4 beat at 92 bpm).

So I wrote and recorded the instrument parts and did the arrangement.

Look around at soundcloud for other remixes of "Trigger" by Sirma. The variety of styles is amazing...

Speaking of music, I've been wondering: what tune do they sing "auf auf auf in die Champions League" to? Usually I can guess from the words!

no idea, can you hear it from this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yORrhcxpTOk

(I was there, it was amazing)

Congrats on advancing to #17 without lifting a finger - er, toe...

And for tonight. Looks doable, but may turn into a h*ll of a fight

oh don't - we're all nervous here. Watching the Dortmund match and betting on how many they'll score. (I think 3)

We beat Bremen in this fixture last year, but that means nothing.

oh dear. it will be "ab ab ab in die Zweite Liga" if we're not careful



but still, our goalie is totes which makes up for it a bit

Oh dear oh dear oh dear

In otter news it seems like Tuchel was exactly what Dortmund needed

I always thought that what Dortmund needed was for Kloppo to calm down a bit, and for someone to slap a bit of sense into the hoopla around Marco Reus.

They are on fire and I hope they give Bayern a run for their money (even though I love to watch Bayern, I get a bit sick of them winning nearly everything)

Gladbach. Oh dear. Really. I can't help but feel all the adulation and excitement has gone to their heads. They had the premiere of their film last week and that has turned their heads, I'm sure. although since it was filmed over more than 4 years, being bottom of the league and about to vanish into obscurity when the film started it should more have served as a timely reminder.

By the way, have I mentioned how gorgeous their (our) goalie is?

I used to be a bit tired of Bayern winning all the times myself, but one has to give them credit for staying on top, when everything but a comfortable victory is a disaster

Me, I would probably soon develop post traumatic stress disorder

(Of course one may argue that with money and players like that they have an obligation to win every time, but isn't that easy)

It's like with music. After a while, you just stop listening to charts oriented radio if you care for music. If you just need music as a background noise, chart radio is fine. If music actually matters to you, you find your niches. Same with football. If you are just in for light entertainment (as a spectator) or for the money (as a player), Bayern et.al. will satisfy your need. If you actually care about the sport, you will look at the other teams. (Dortmund was in the same category before they visited the lower realms of the league and actually had to *work* to make it out of there again.)