Borussia Mönchengladbach’s Great Last Minute Escape

By: Jan | May 14th, 2009

When it all comes down to it, it doesn’t matter how they did it.

There wasn’t all that much football on display in Borussia Mönchengladbach’s last two matches against Schalke and Cottbus, which of course wasn’t Gladbach’s fault alone. Schalke can control a game and dominate possession, but they can’t really score goals or come up with a minimum of creativity and incentive. Cottbus are very much like Schalke without the bit about controlling games and possession. Add a healthy dose of negative psychological dynamics, which come free with potentially imminent relegation, and you’ve got games living entirely off the uncertainty of the result – and that’s stretching it a bit. The games were actually meant to be typical 0-0 draws helping neither side.

Then again, you shouldn’t bring meaning into football, because in the 90th minute of each match Borussia Mönchengladbach scored the only and winning goal, moving them out of the drop zone into safety with a three point cushion and a favorable goal difference stat ahead of the final two matchdays. Their competitors Bielefeld and Cottbus now have to travel to Dortmund and Stuttgart respectively, so there is a good chance that Gladbach won’t have to fear the direct drop anymore. To avoid a nerve wrecking relegation play-off, one more point from the two remaining matches could be enough.

It would be great to see the club securing another season of Bundesliga football, as it has the potential to take the next step and become more than just an eternal jojo team. Although, the last time Gladbach wanted to take the next step and target the UEFA Cup spots, they hired Jupp Heynckes, spent big to sign the allegedly next big South American sensation and eventually got relegated…

For an epic Lord of the Rings-esque account of Gladbach’s latest adventures head over to our Borussia Mönchengladbach Offside.