Fans are significant to the sport we all love. Some call it soccer, mainly in the US, and others call it football in other parts of the world. The name of the sport could be anything, but our love for the beautiful game is the same. Many soccer players have established that they try to be at the top of their game mainly for the fans and the love that they show.
That was the case during a UEFA Champions League match back in 2013. However, what was interesting is that the pre-match display that the fans put up caught more attention than the match. That is often known by many as the “Coldest Moment In Football History.”
It was a match between Borussia Dortmund and Malaga in the Quarter-final stage of the UEFA Champions League. Dortmund finished their 1st in their group, just like Malaga. The German team beat Shakhtar Donetsk in the Round of 16 with a score of 5-2 on aggregate. On the other hand, Malaga had gotten past Porto 2-1 on aggregate. When they played the first leg, neither could break the deadlock.
The game ended 0-0 at the La Rosaleda Stadium. All eyes were on the second leg. It seems like Dortmund fans wanted to show their support for the club and wanted to intimidate the opposition that was coming to Signal Iduna Park. That was when they caught the attention of the whole world.
Coldest moment in football history crowd
The clip on YouTube has attracted more than 9 million views on the platform. One of the main reasons for that would be the way the channel has edited the clip to match the tifo with the beat of the song, which is Simon Says by Pharoahe Monch.
The Yellow Wall, which is what the Dortmund fans called, decided to perform a “tifo” in front of the Malaga players. A tifo is basically a sign or a banner that fans display during a match. It seems like it wasn’t that simple for the BVB fans. They decided to perform it in a unique way to intimidate their opponents.
The display’s purpose was to get into the minds of the Spanish club’s players weirdly and uniquely. Moreover, the tifo was placed on top of the phrase “Auf den Spuren des verlorenen Henkelpotts.” It translated to “On the hunt for the lost Henkelpotts.” BVB fans gave the name Henkelpotts to the UEFA UCL trophy after they failed to win it despite traveling to many finals.
It seems like the tifo worked in favor of the German team. In the match they played against Malaga that night, they performed a sensational comeback. Joaquín broke the deadlock for the away team in the 25th minute. However, right after that, Dortmund’s star man Robert Lewandowski equalized in the 40th minute.
The display from the Dortmund fans could not have worked out better in their favor. Although we can only speculate that the tifo got into the minds of the Malaga players, it did motivate the BVB players. That team made their way to the UCL final that year, but just fell short to their German rivals Bayern Munich and lost 1-0.
It seems like they haven’t found their “Henkelpotts” just yet. However, we can all expect Borussia Dortmund’s fans to always support their team with all their hearts from the sidelines.
