Can Borussia Dortmund Clinch Their Lost Henkelpotts? — Real Madrid vs Borussia Dortmund UCL Final 2024
Can Borussia Dortmund go the distance? & Can they clinch the lost Henkelpotts?
(This is an old post about Borussia Dortmund edited & reposted for the #UCLFinal 2024)
It’s 7:51 pm here in Mumbai & it’s nearly four hours away from kickoff at Wembley where Real Madrid will lineup against Borussia Dortmund as both teams battle it out to win this year’s Champions League trophy. As I sit here impatiently awaiting kickoff, as a neutral, yes, but slightly hoping Dortmund can do the unthinkable.
As I spent my time in the middle of some music production today being a weekend, I thought I’d repost an old article of mine considering the grand occasion. The good old Blues have been shambolic & this season has been one to forget for me supporting my boyhood club Chelsea. Ranting about my club Chelsea is for another post, but tonight Borussia Dortmund will aim to clinch their ‘lost Henkelpotts’.
Read on….
Folklore, legend & the mysterious elements behind the stories that make up football transcend logical reasoning and are uninfected by the notions of reason. A side down 2–0 with 10 minutes left on the clock can comeback to win 3–2. Such is the nature of the game, anything can happen within the span of a few minutes. Titles and crunch games are won and lost within the span of a few minutes defying all notions of reason and the fans are at the heart of the comeback.
The stories that contrive to go down as legend are of course predominantly derived from what happens on the pitch, but also rather cohesively, the interaction of the emotions of the adulating fans present in the stadium and those watching at home. They share an interdependent coexistence that are intertwined with each other and co-dependent on each other in the most intimate way. Without fans, football doesn’t have everlasting moments and stories that become legend.
The tragic nature of the 2020 and 2021 COVID19 crisis showed the world that football isn’t the same without fans and the atmosphere they create inside the stadium to cheer their teams on. It’s just not the same.
A proverbial example of the pervasive role of the crowd inside the stadium making an impact and rallying their players on was substantially evident when Borussia Dortmund played Malaga in the 2012–13 Champions League quarter-finals.
For the German city of Dortmund, football is more than just a way of life. Amidst the myriad low-lying skyline & urban backdrop, the black and gold colours of the BVB football team are imprinted into the heart of the city. Everything from clothes, to banners, signboards, and even garbage cans are painted black and yellow.
The football club Borussia Dortmund was founded in 1909 & the club, for the city which was a hub for the steel and coal industry in its infancy, gave the masses of workers something to look forward to after putting in their daily shift.
Just ask BVB fan Fabian Lienig who was introduced to Borussia Dortmund as a 2-year-old because of his father’s love of the club. Several years ago, Fabian ate a bratwurst with mustard before a match and BVB won. So now he eats a bratwurst with mustard before kickoff every week, with no exceptions.
Just like Fabian, BVB is ingrained into the very fabric of every inhabitant of the German city & the club is in the blood of every Dortmund local whether child or adult.
So when Dortmund drew 0–0 to Malaga in the 2013 Champions League quarter-final first leg, the fans inside Dortmund’s stadium, the Westfalenstadion, decided to intimidate their Spanish opponents by putting together an elaborate Tifo(In-stadium fan imagery) to scare the Malaga players and inspire their own.
The result was an eerie rendition of an unmistakably unnerving character looking through binoculars with the words “Auf den Spuren des verlorenen Henkelpotts” (On the hunt of the lost Henkelpotts) displayed below the character’s sharp-toothed smile.
The analogy of calling the Champions League Trophy “the lost Henkelpotts” was a term coined by Dortmund fans chosen especially for the UEFA Champions League — a trophy that has eluded the club for decades.
Dortmund won their only maiden Champions League in 1997 & the tifo shows the character depicted to be peering through binoculars hot on the heels in the hunt for the UCL trophy.
BVB beat Malaga 3–2 that night in Dortmund after coming back from being 2–1 down until 90 minutes with late goals from Marco Reus(90+1') and Felipe Santana(90+3') in extra time to progress to the semi-finals.
The comeback was complete and the tifo of the binocular man had done its job.
Dortmund eventually went all the way to the UCL final that season but lost to Bayern Munich with a goal from Arjen Robben late on at Wembley.
That night in the Westfalenstadion against Malaga was an unrivaled example of how the crowd got behind their players to rally and spur them on to victory, while the elaborate tifo of the ‘lost Henkelpotts’ displayed that night to spur the players on and inspire them to victory, remains one that will go down in Dortmund folklore and legend.
Casting a glance back to 1997 & goals from Karl-Heinz Riedle— a brace, one from inside the six yard box & a header & a goal from Lars Ricken gave Dortmund the UCL title after a solitary goal from Alessandro Del Piero. Dortmund won 3–1 & it remains the club’s greatest ever achievement on the grand European stage.
It’s been an average season for Edin Terzic’s Black & Yellow unit; they’ve disappointed domestically finishing 5th in the Bundesliga & getting knocked out of the Pokal in the round of 16. In truth, the Dortmund squad for tonight comprises several misfits like Sabitzer, Sancho, Maatsen & Marco Reus; players who have been deemed surplus to requirements at their previous clubs & for Reus the national side, but adored by the Dortmund fans; it’s certain that they’re out for retribution tonight.
Tonight it’s Wembley again, as Dortmund’s tryst with the London stadium & the Champions League final gets yet another reboot; it’s uncannily & eerily happening again. This film of Dortmund getting another shot at the UCL trophy has got its sequel.
That night in 2013 at the iconic English stadium, that has seen many a drama unfold, it was their well known rivals Bayern Munich who clinched the title but tonight it’s the Los Blancos, docking in at London as the Madridistas will bid goodbye to Toni Kroos — a grand occasion & a signing off for Kroos in his last game for the Spanish club.
Real are the clear favourites tonight. Most fans world wide do reckon that this final has a Real win written all over it. But football is a strange game, & stacked against the odds, tonight could be the greatest night Dortmund’s history.
The newer generation of Dortmund fans have only heard tales about their heroes from that 1997 triump against Juventus. A night in the modest 90s at the Allianz Arena(then called the Olympiastadion), their rivalen Bayern Munich’s backyard but tonight for Fabian & the rest of the BVB fans, it’s time to ‘Hunt for the lost Henkelpotts’ again….
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