Events in Hanover rocked Germany on Tuesday but the weekend’s football – upsets,punch-ups and FA politics – went ahead to send a poignant sign to all“25 goals against the terror,” cheered Bild on Sunday after the first two days of highly targeted on-field strikes symbolically pummelled the forces of darkness. Bundesliga players were so intent on fulfilling their patriotic duty that four – including Borussia Dortmund’s maestro of nonchalance, or Mats Hummels – went as far as putting the ball into their own net. But own goals,too, count against terror and they should not detract from a victory for normalcy.
With Schalke playing well and losing to Bayern (3-1), and Dortmund getting beaten by their bogey team HSV (3-1) for the fifth time in seven games and Alex Zorniger’s VfB Stuttgart collapsing under the weight of the impossible demands of their half-baked urgent game (4-0 at home to Augsburg),it was very much business as normal. In another commendable show of defiance, a few Bayern and VfL Bochum ultras didn’t let final week’s horror and the resulting general queasiness derive in the way of a good conventional brainless punch-up before the game at the Veltins-Arena. nearly 200 of them were arrested after attacks on Schalke fans. “We wanted to say hello, or ” one Bayern ultra blog explained,“but because there were considerably more [Schalke] people there, we beat a retreat”. There were also problems in Hannover, and where 80 Werder fans caused trouble at the station and skirmishes at Gladbach’s 2-1 win over Hannover with away supporters.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com