A yellow tide made up of thousands and thousands advances through the streets of Dortmund. It’s touching. They are happy and expectant, but without noise, perhaps out of prudence. They create more than just a buzz. From the air, it looks like a gigantic, long and robust yellow worm making its way through Germany’s eighth largest city. The always numerous and loyal fans of Borussia move towards the stadium, Westfalenstadion, ceremonially opened for the World Cup in 1974; now, due to sponsorship reasons, renamed to Signal Iduna Park. Which has been filled with 81,365 fans for decades at every game. That’s why Borussia is famous. Today more than ever because that day has come. Finally, today the champions will shout again, the German champions…!

Eleven years of waiting have passed since the last consecration. And ten consecutive titles for Bayern Munich, the master of the Bundesliga, the supreme dictator. But today everything will be behind them and they will show that they are the only ones capable of putting their beaks down on the Bavarians. Surely all non-Bayern German fans will go to see Dortmund win, as they are all a bit fed up with following Gerd Müller and Franz Beckenbauer’s club. This does not benefit Teutonic football either: it does not develop when the same team always wins.

It’s the last time of the tournament. Yes or yes there will be a coronation. To Dortmund or to Cologne, where Bayern plays. Borussia is with 70 points and +39 goal difference, Bayern 68 and +53. Borussia must win in order not to depend on anyone. Bayern the same, but they also need Borussia to lose or at least draw. With an equal number of points, Bayern will celebrate on goal difference.

Emotion flirts at two ends. Borussia host Mainz, ninth in the table. They should have no problem winning, even if it’s 1-0. Bellingham, his star, uneasily goes to the bank. Bayern visits Köln, tenth. If Cologne gets even a draw, Dortmund will become Olympic. But the yellow ones leave the field listless, without luster, as if they were lazy. That’s not a good sign. The news coming from Cologne is not reassuring either: Bayern’s goal after just 8 minutes: Kingsley Coman, the man with the decisive goals who was pampered by PSG and then given as a gift, as is traditional at PSG.

At 15, an unexpected blow at the Westfalenstadion: Mainz goal, Norwegian defender Hanche-Olsen. Who is Hanche-Olsen…? Where did he come from…? What a curious Norwegian…! The yellow audience loses its euphoria and becomes serious. This should be an afternoon of glory, not drama.

But four minutes later, a clumsy free kick by Kohr towards the Portuguese Raphael Guerreiro followed and a penalty for Dortmund. Everything will go well. It will be performed by the Dutchman Sebastien Haller, a man who overcame testicular cancer and returned to the game. We all want you to reach out. But Haller finishes with incredible indifference, as if he is playing with his five-year-old son in the back of his house, who is kicking lightly, covered by the young goalkeeper Finn Dahmen. It was the penalty of the century for Dortmund… and a poorly taken penalty is a wasted penalty. He will be mourned for years. The worst omens are already beginning to fly over the sky of prosperous Dortmund. cooling fan Borusser He’s over it, he suffered too much against Bayern and he fears the worst.

Five minutes after a penalty that no one will remember and that no one will ever forget, a meteorite falls on the Borussia stadium: Mainz’s second goal, Karim Onisiwo. Now, 2-0 and drama is definitely in the air. It’s like a blow from behind, in the neck. Eighty-two thousand people dressed in yellow – and thousands more outside the stadium, with no entrance – were frozen. The images on TV are bleak: women comforting their boyfriends and husbands with their heads bowed. It will be difficult to lift it, score three goals when Dortmund’s top scorer is Julian Brandt and he has 9 goals. He is 20th on the gunner’s table. There is no goal in that part of Germany. And you have to do three in 65 minutes. Will it be possible…? The fans don’t believe it. His players’ legs are shaking. Nobody wants to think about losing this title. Emotionally, it will be very difficult, memes and loser labels will be coming for a long time. Borussia are the best talent spotters in the world, but they don’t win titles and that’s what their people want. The camera zooms in on the stands in the 60th minute and shows the fans starting to get up and leave. Bitterness broke their faith.

Dortmund’s coach Edin Terzić sees that his army is struggling and makes two substitutions in the 62nd minute: Giovanni Reyna (American, 20 years old) and Julien Duranville (Belgian, 17). They change the face of the team, give it life, enthusiasm. And Dortmund doubles their attack. Guerreiro scores a discount after Reyna’s fantastic play. Hope Reborn: 1-2. Suddenly, 73 kilometers away, big news: a goal from Cologne with which Bayern drew 1:1, making Dortmund the champion, even a defeat. Euphoria returns to the yellow side. Flags are flying, life seems fair again. Those who went home are returning to their places.

78 minutes passed, 82, 83… no changes. In Cologne, Bayern drew 1-1, and in Dortmund they beat Mainz 2-1. So, Borussia is the champion. It is not ideal to be a champion and lose at home, but as it is, it will be celebrated just the same. However, Thomas Tuchel, DT Bayern, moves the card, the important card: the Moroccan Mazraoui, the winger, leaves, and Jamal Musiala enters, the best project in German football, 20 years old, talented, skilled, number 10. Only four minutes later, Musiala receives the irrelevant pass from Gnabry and he does what the greats do cracks: eludes Martel and decisively hits the goal, below, to the far post, where he braves the goalkeepers. The ball curves incredibly and goes in: 2 on 1 for Bayern and with that goal they are champions.

In Dortmund, the drama of the fans is total, they take their heads. What they suspected might happen was happening: the loss of the title they had served. That’s cruel. The players, without ideas and courage, disorganized, with hardly any enthusiasm, continue to break Mainz’s space, and defender Niklas Süle scores to make it 2-2 in the 96th minute. But it’s not enough, Bayern has already finished and won. There are only seconds left that the referee gives them when the time is already counted, and the final result, fatefully, 2 to 2. Dortmund finished the same as Bayern, with 71 points, but lost the crown on the difference. Once again, better than the ogre of Munich. Football players collapse on the pitch, some with their faces on the grass, others cover their faces with a T-shirt that has no sweat of glory: it is a terrible sweat of defeat and frustration. They don’t want to go away, they keep lying. And tomorrow we will have to go out into the street.

In Cologne, the antithesis: Bayern are celebrating a championship they thought was lost before it even started, since the previous Saturday, when they lost 3-1 at home to Leipzig. No one gave a penny for the Bavarian picture anymore. But this is football, and the most unusual things happen with Prussian accuracy. The boy from Musiala is congratulated by everyone, and the three great Bavarian captains, Thomas Müller, Manuel Neuer (in civilian clothes, injured) and Joshua Kimmich, lift the huge bowl of salad that the Bundesliga gives to the winner. Only football creates such emotions.

No club has ever won eleven consecutive titles in the five major leagues. Bayern did it. (D)