1st - I'm probably moving back to Connecticut, if all goes well in the next few weeks with a couple of deals that need to happen. 2nd - Before I made my trip to Gladbach and Germany in 2007, I emailed a guy in Hartford about the club from the team's international fan site. We exchanged a couple of emails. 3rd - he reached out to me because my new job puts me in a rather public position, to do some work for our business. I emailed him, we met, hit it off over Borussia and have become quick friends. We went to his house to watch the last game of the season, the Pokal Cup final, and dinner tomorrow with his wife. Great guy! Next... So I play subbuteo. Look it up on youtube if you don't know what it is. We have a bit of a league here in CT, and I usually play with a purple team - Anderlecht if you will. Well I went to Philly for a tournament and got crushed in game 1, losing 3-0 to a guy who never beat me before. Game 2- got pants 6-0 to a regular club mate, Massimo, who usually beats 2 or 3 to 0. He's a champion level player, but I have played him hundreds of times. Our teams looked similar, and I struggled to pick out my players. I then played one of former national champions, our teams were similar again. AHA! I switched to my old Borussia team - black bases, green inserts, black and green uniforms. I lost 1-0, but had chances to score and played much better. Move it to last Saturday. First game I played a guy who normally beats me- I was back to Anderlecht, tied 0-0, but I was in control. Played Massimo again, brought out Gladbach... 5 minutes in, I score the greatest goal of my life.. imagine Korb taking a throw in about 35 yards out, and Hermann running on to it, and one-timing a volley past the stunned keeper - well my goal was better than that. I decided to keep attacking, hit a cross bar, hit a post... but with 2 minutes left (15 minute game) he ties the match. "WOW! You were on fire, I was lucky to be in the game." I ended the night with 2 wins, 2 ties.. best night in a long, long time. Now I need to get a few more Borussia shirts, can't play in my lone Lime green shirt, need something a bit more loose... I need to get on the bike and ride some pounds away this summer too. Anyway, Borussia Mönchengladbach subbuteo rules!!
Sweet! I played a cricket version of that ...maybe 12 years ago. Never actually knew what it was called at the time *drowns in nostalgia* My Borussia Story: probably strange thing, but my first weekend in Germany I had the option of either watching Schalke play Wolfsburg (they won that, 3-1 ..which was a massive upset at the time) in Gelsenkirchen, or watch Gladbach play ...and I chose the latter - knowing I had another month or so around NRW, and a handful of schalke games to go to after it wasn't really a sacrifice I guess. I wanted to visit Borussia Park, although it's pretty new it reminds me of a lot of the older grounds that I like (Fritz-Walter-Stadion in Kaiserslautern, Anfield, St James' Park, Stade Vélodrome and San Siro), rather than the fancy arenas with roofs or whatever, these for me a the best and most beautiful football grounds....each to their own. So anyway, I went there and watched you guys get done in by Frankfurt LOL!!!! (3-1 in later Nov 2014)...guess you had the last laugh though. Loved it, great ground, great atmosphere, kinda weird how it's out in the middle of nowhere (about 25 mins by bus from train station) though I'm 95% sure I can come back either in early December, or later January. I'll be sure to visit Gladbach again and troll you guys if a game is on
It's on the grounds of the old British military base--when the Brits left, it opened up a lot of area for development.