Reading the Game

The writers’ team – Autonoma for short – has created a written testament to their affinity and relationship with Borussia Dortmund. A different writer from the team was invited to each BVB home game in – as The Times describes it – the “best stadium in Europe”. Yet as the season began, no one could have predicted what was in store: memorable Champions League evenings, an inexplicable Götterdämmerung in the league, a bleak midwinter spent in the relegation zone, the shock against Augsburg, an exhilarating derby win, Jürgen Klopp’s resignation, the league comeback, the peculiar cup semi-final against Bayern Munich, and the dream of lifting the DFB-Cup and finishing off the season in style celebrating on Borsigplatz, the public space that is the team’s spiritual home. The Autonoma, who were crowned European champions in Dortmund in 2010 at the Rote Erde stadium, accompanied the black and yellows, die Schwarzgelben as German fans know them, on perhaps the oddest – certainly the most memorable – season in the club’s history: cheering them along, loving them, suffering with them, and in a sense playing every game with them as well. “Juve were playing imperiously this evening, the Dortmund team in contrast in the same way I imagine the Greek democracies in their final twilight: tired, indecisive, and far too conscious of their own deficiencies. The melancholy way Sokratis lost possession …” - Simon Roloff