Around 20,000 fans came through the gates at BORUSSIA-PARK on Saturday evening, and were rewarded with a spectacular 15-goal game between the first team and the Borussia Legends team.
The first of many special moments during the “Die Legenden des Parks” event came around 20 minutes before kick-off, as the legends of the club’s 18 years at BORUSSIA-PARK were welcomed onto the pitch with a light and smoke show. Stadium announcer Thorsten “Knippi” Knippertz was enthusiastically supported by Martin Stranzl in calling out the team news.
The 20,000 or so present at the stadium welcomed their former idols with frenetic applause and some of their old chants. Over 30 former VfL players made the journey to Mönchengladbach for the game, some travelling further than others, among them such names as Juan Arango, Raffael, Mike Hanke, Roel Brouwers, Filip Daems, Marko Marin, Marcell Jansen, Peer Kluge, Roman Neustädter, Federico Insua, Igor Demo and Ivo Ulich. Every touch of the ball by Brouwers was met with loud shouts of “Rooooooeeel”. As soon as Juan Arango found himself on the ball with even the faintest sniff of a shot, the cries of “shoot!” from the terraces were loud and clear. The biggest cheer of the night came just before half time, as Igor de Camargo headed home Marcel Ndjeng’s wonderful cross to score the Legends’ first goal of the night.
The final whistle blew with the current Foals first team on the winning side. A hat-trick from Conor Noß and a brace from Semir Telalovic, as well as goals from Manu Koné, Nathan Ngoumou, Tony Jantschke, Julian Weigl, Patrick Herrmann, Hannes Wolf and Torben Müsel saw the match end 12-3 – Oliver Neuville and Fabian Bäcker scored the second and third goals for the Legends side. The result, however, was irrelevant on the night. Just after full-time, a choir joined the singing fans in creating a real Christmassy atmosphere inside the stadium, capping off what was a wonderful evening for all.
The Borussia Legends: Heimeroth, Bailly, Löhe – Korzynietz, Kirch, Brouwers, Neustädter, Ze Antonio, Strasser, Daems, Jansen, Dorda – Ndjeng, Alberman, Demo, Polanski, Kluge, Marx, Marin, Insua, Kirch – Arango, Delura, Hazard, Hanke, De Camargo, Sverkos, van Hout, Kahe, Raffael, Bäcker, Neuville
