That Kind of Rivalry ⋆ An Old International

That Kind of Rivalry

Last week the fans of Dynamo Dresden were the talk of the town called football culture with their huge banner that covered the whole ground. All credit went to them as a lot of work and time was dedicated to it.

It was an honour for FC Magdeburg, the visitors on that day that the banner was unfurled before the Derby. Subsequent discussions centered around whether or not this was a choreo, or if the slogan was appropriate. Without a dobt Dresden’s effort is the biggest stadium banner in Europe. Again, well done!

This week however, Magdeburg responded. Against second-placed SC Preußen Münster Magdeburg took a 2-0 lead into the dressing room for half-time. What happened after the re-start beggars belief. The North Stand began a chant and slowly the whole ground joined (except the away end of course) that way creating an antiphony of a huge scale.

An eye witness reports that for 20 minutes he was not able to watch the game as the singing occupied all attention not just of him but of all 16000 who were there supporting Magdeburg. Moreover, it did not stop with them all singing, no they clapped hands, they jumped and on top of that started a conga moving from one side to the other! The whole ground! The poor souls of Münster must have thought what kind of lion’s den they ended up.

Watch for yourself and please give your opinion about this mass and this sermon!

As a Magdeburg fan watching those scenes is very emotional and brings back memories from about 20 years ago when there were about 500 in a decrepit ground and Magdeburg was trying to come to terms with reality post-1990. Of rivalries and derbies we dreamt and listened to the elders talk about the past. This was a spontaneous action by large sections of the fans and thus deserves some more credit than Dresden’s action last week. It is this kind of rivalry that provide the talking points for years, if not decades.

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