DORTMUND, Germany, May 29 - Famed for its steel, its beer breweries and
its soccer club, Dortmund is a grey German city that that has seen better days.
The financial woes that have hit Borussia Dortmund in recent years seemed to
have wiped out a last bastion of hope in the smoke stack-filled western city
that has seen its population shrink by five percent to 586,000 in the last eight
years.
The club's great triumphs, including the European Cup in 1997 and six league
championships, were an anaesthetic for Dortmund's pain over the demise of the
coal and steel industries that sent tens of thousands on to the unemployment
lines.
With Borussia Dortmund near the bottom of the Bundesliga table in recent
years after being forced to sell their best players, the Ruhr River Valley town
with its high unemployment rate and shrinking population now has little to cheer
about.
The biggest crowds in Germany, nevertheless, make their way to the stadium,
filling the Westfalenstadion with up to 82,900 for home matches. It also claims
to have Europe's biggest standing room area with space for 25,000.
For the World Cup, the stadium has seating capacity of 66,000 and it is no
coincidence that Germany's crucial match against Poland will be staged here on
June 14 as the hosts have never lost in Dortmund.
"Germany should schedule all their important matches in Dortmund," said Berti
Vogts, former coach of Germany, after his Scotland team lost a key Euro 2004
qualifier to Germany 2-1 in 2003.
"The crowd is sensational," said Vogts. "I don't see how Germany could ever
lose here."
UNBEATEN RECORD
Most recently, Germany thrashed the United States 4-1 in a friendly at the
Westfalenstadion in March that restored the confidence of the hosts just three
weeks after being crushed in Italy by the same score.
Germany have an impressive unbeaten mark in Dortmund dating back to their
first match in the city's old Rote Erde stadium in May 1935 -- a 3-1 win over
Ireland.
