Was the rescheduling of Borussia Dortmund vs AS Monaco less than 24 hours after the explosion near the German team bus in the Höchstem district, which left one player injured, an act of injustice, or as leading German newspaper Die Welt succinctly wrote, “sportingly and humanly unacceptable?” A livid Thomas Tuchel, trimmed faced and pinched eyes, blasted Uefa in his post-match press conference.
Indeed, “how could BVB possibly play football?” Tuchel was neither dissatisfied nor aggrieved. He was seething. The coach wasn’t recounting an out-of-body experience or a tunnel vision of light, but the shattered window screens, the injury to Marc Bartra and the physiological ramifications of the explosions left a lasting mark on his squad.
This was Tuchel’s argument: Uefa hadn’t consulted his team or him to set a new date for the match. Had Europe’s governing body, blinded by the riches and fortunes offered from TV rights, subtly pressured Dortmund into playing over calendar considerations or under the guise that terror must not be given into? A morbid consideration, but Uefa’s reaction in moving the game to Wednesday from Tuesday was scarcely considerate. You’re alive? OK, now go out and play.
How did Dortmund react? They rallied – perhaps around the very notion of club motto “Echte Liebe”, true love, perhaps around a profound love for the game, perhaps around no noble ideal at all. Tuchel, his team and the yellow wall were in unison, a trident of spiritual harmony. A legion clad in yellow and black, depicting the BVB logo, in the Sudtribune backed Borussia.
Enhanced security
It was the culmination of a strange day in Nordrhein-Westfalen. In the morning a dozen police officers were guarding the entrance of Monaco’s hotel. It wasn’t an impenetrable fort but still a contrast from Tuesday when fans were sipping beers in the bar of the hotel and Prince Albert II of Monaco came to greet the AS delegation.
On the ramp in front of the hotel, Daniel Denning, a Dortmund fan, was hunting for autographs. He wanted the signature of both João Moutinho and Radamel Falcao, the others were already in his collection book. But perhaps it wasn’t the right day to collect autographs. “Given the circumstances, there is little chance the players will leave the hotel,” said Denning.
At the stadium, at walking distance from Monaco’s hotel, vehicles were checked and moved, but there was no sizeable deployment of police officers or any visible signs of enhanced security. “You ask why and who ?” said an Austrian BVB fan, walking with his son in the vicinity of the Westfalenstadion. “That the attack was against a football team was surprising.”
Downtown, in Dortmund’s small centre, shoppers went about their business, relaxed. They sauntered about in the Westenhellenhof, a narrow street lined with international brand outlets. At a trade union protest, a band played Keep Rockin’ in the Free World, perverting the song to a shriek melody.
Fans hadn’t panicked inside the ground and seemed to accept and even be resigned to the fact that explosions are simply a part the world we live in today. “Terrorism came to my mind,” said Cedric, a middle-aged ultra from Monaco. “Today, we live with terrorism in Europe, in France, Germany, Belgium. But it shouldn’t stop our way of life.”
And so, it was, as evening fell, that lines at the Grillschinken food stand swelled again and kitschy bar Strobels’s business flourished again with a big police contingent, heavily armed, looking on. Backpacks and rug sacks were not allowed into the stadium. Security was tight, but not, overly, draconian. This was still a football game, not a G20 summit.
Disastrous first half
As the melodramatic Georg Friedrich Händel-inspired Champions League hymn rang out in Dortmund, guttural chants of “BVB” descended from the Sudtribune – beautiful and beguiling in its raw monstrosity, a sprawling basin of yellow madness. The man-made wall was hypnotising, a bicoloured sea forever trying to absorb and usurp Monaco’s attacking waves. They sang and sang. A positive aura, a bravado swept through the imposing arena.
On the touchline Tuchel responded, running around in his technical area, hurrying back and forth in his flashy green sneakers. His players, however, didn’t respond. They were disjointed and incongruous in a disastrous 45 minutes that all but knocked Dortmund out of the European Cup.
The Monegask team exploited Dortmund’s mindset and their diffused game. They were fast in transition and launched their pacey forward players. Boy-wonder Kylian Mbappe starred with two goals, including a killer strike after the break. Tuchel had introduced Nuri Sahin and the potent Christian Pulisic at half-time. The young American proved to be influential again, instrumental during a 20-minute spell of thorough Dortmund dominance.
Die Schwarzgelben never recovered from an underwhelming first half. Did the circumstances offer an excuse? “Everyone has their own way of reacting to events,” said Tuchel. “The players had the choice not to play, but no-one chose this option.”
Tuchel was not so forgiving of Uefa. Had the players and him been part of the decision-making process to move the game to Wednesday? “We weren’t asked at all at any time,” he said. “We were told by text message that Uefa was making this decision. It didn’t feel right. We had the feeling that we were being treated as if a beer can had hit our bus. We had wanted a few more days. It’s also about our dream, our semi-final dream.”