My greatest day as a sports fan? Let's see...
Since I was a child I have been a fan of Union Berlin, one of the numerous football teams in Germany's capital, but if you dig a bit deeper into their history you can clearly see why they are one of the most exciting and popular clubs in Berlin, even though for most of the time they surely didn't belong to the most successful teams.
During East German times they were always behind the state-sponsored "champions" Dynamo Berlin, and after both parts of the city united they found their place behind their Western Berlin counterparts Hertha Berlin, who are a constant member of the German Bundesliga.
Union Berlin went through hard times, nearly avoided bankruptcies and somehow survived the harsh years in the lower leagues when only a couple of hundred fans came to their homes games. But at the beginning of this millennium they eventually managed to win the third German league to finally get to play in professional football, in the 2nd German Bundesliga.
It is the season 2000-2001 and aside the first relegation into the 2nd Bundesliga, me and my friends were able to witness some other, maybe even more spectacular event.
We are talking about February the 6th of the year 2001, it was still winter in the city and Union Berlin was hosting Borussia Mönchengladbach in the German cup's semi-finale. The third league amateur team Union versus the big favorite Mönchengladbach, who was playing in the highest German league, the Bundesliga. David against Goliath, but damn we didn't care at all.
It was a Monday evening, actually not the best weekday to celebrate a football fiesta, but we were there, in the "Stadion an der alten Försterei", many years before it become the pretty looking neat stadium it is today.
Cold winds were swaying through the stands but both teams did their best to entertain their fans, who within the regular 90 minutes and the following extra time could already watch 2 goals for each team. Quite an exciting football match and now we got into the penalty shoot-out. Union was still on fire, and were were cheering like if there was no tomorrow.
And then our heroes at that time, I just name forward Ronny Nikol and keeper Sven Beukert managed the impossible, to kick Mönchengladbach out of the stadium and Union into the finals.
Finale...ohoho...Finale...ohoho!!!
I don't remember exactly what happened after the last and relieving penalty kick, but I know that I somehow ended up on the middle of the pitch, hugging everyone who came near my reach. But that wasn't the end of our party, several bars and beers later somehow we all decided that this Monday now officially became a Saturday and no one of us would go out to work tomorrow.
Not sure how and when I got home but I got up in time the next morning to my company and my rough and husky voice told them that I wanted to take a day off. Fortunately nobody objected and I could now start reviewing the last evening, which saw the so-far biggest triumph of my favorite team, the 1.FC Union Berlin.
It was a great night and even though we lost the final against Schalke 04, Union had left another deep and impressive footstep in the world of football. And now in this season, they are playing in the first Bundesliga, for the first time ever, and are continuing their great ride.
Good luck and don't forget to enjoy this trip to the max!!
This is my next entry to @Mikey's free writing contest, thanks to host this nice competition to stimulate us to write a little bit outside of the box.
Again it took me a little more than 10 minutes to write this article, but I just couldn't stop so I kept on for a little longer. Anyways, I am glad to got this stimulation to write again and I am looking forward to your contributions as well!
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