“Welcome back to the Al-ta Fersterai”–The Announcer. It fucking begins again, eh?

Well, nice to start the season for us. For all the complaining, a draw is 1.) a record result for the first game and 2.) totally understandable against a team like Levekusen, which, last I checked, had an average player salary 4.5x that of Union.  

Did we play really well the second half, such that there was a chance to win? Sure. Did they play better in the first half, such that they could have scored as well? Sure. I’d say it’s an unremarkable game, but let’s take a moment to consider what it means that we are able to have unremarkable games against league heavyweights. Recent success may condition us to expect an upset every time, but the fact that we are expecting upsets implies that we’re still an underdog—even if we are moving away from that slowly. How do we have a larger payroll that Köln?!?!

Speaking of payroll, I’m sad to see Rob Andrich leave. I suspected as much when he wasn’t in the gameday lineup, and despite the rage I’ve seen online about him visiting a nightclub despite being “injured” for the game, it’s a perfectly reasonable and normal practice not to play someone about to transfer, especially against the team to which they are transferring. As for the accusations of him being a “mercenary”, I’d like to see how those people act when presented with a new and more lucrative job offer. I doubt they’d stand on principal if presented with more money and interesting side benefits (Europa League).

I’ve seen this attitude on a couple of occasions towards players leaving the club (Gikiewicz) and struggle to understand it.  It’s one thing to say that the player has made a mistake in evaluating which offer is best (Gikiewicz) but it’s another to accuse them of a sort of moral failing. Rob has a growing family and wants to provide for them as well as himself, same as the rest of us. If he thinks it’s a better offer, he’d be doing himself wrong not to accept it. It’s also worth noting that Leverkusen signed him to a longer contract, something we were unwilling to do. So if we’re that bothered about people leaving, Ruhnert is as much to blame. And Ruhnert is never to blame. If anything, the fact that Rob came up from the second league and within two years transformed himself into the kind of player that gets a payday from Leverkusen speaks to how effective we are. So I thank Rob for his service to the club, wish him the best, and look forward to embarrassing Leverkusen in the Rückrunde.

Besides that, it was nice to have fans back in the stadium. After a strong start to the Stimmung, it slackened noticeably after the Leverkusen goal. However, I have to say, in the second half, it was impressively strong, even more so given that the Ultras were not there to lead the chants.

They were, however, present in the form of a banner, which was the source of great outrage on twitter, which is to say it was on twitter. It was just an inkblot that people projected on for their own polemics, without addressing the content (reminds me of a certain SAP functionary/the entire DFB). The Ultras don’t have the space to communicate at length, so they are inevitably reduced to gameday slogans. No one bothers to ask more questions before taking a position.

They don’t, for example, ask under what conditions the Ultras are asking for “full stadiums”: what if they are OK with more stringent testing and vaccination requirements? What about away fans? If games can’t be played in completely full stadiums, would they advocate for ending the season, as some did when Corona started? Furthermore, no one contextualizes what it means for a group of people whose culture revolves around an experience denied them for well over a year. Against this, it is ridiculous to dismiss them out of hand as some kind of tin-foil-hatters. Their concerns deserve to be heard, and given vaccine trends in Germany as well as the low risk the Delta variant poses to vaccinated individuals, it’s unfair and unreasonable not to have a good-faith conversation. This isn’t to say that we should or shouldn’t have full stadiums, but that we ought to listen to people. Blanket answers justified by moral righteousness that shut down discussion will only lead to exhaustion, disillusionment, and distrust.

It did raise, however, another interesting point: what are the Ultras hoping to achieve with their boycott? They have been successful in convincing larger fan bases in the past—see Monday games—but it’s unclear how that will work in this case. Sure, they can add to the pressure on the government to open up, but people have become used to mostly empty stadiums, and making them more empty won’t change anything. If anything, a vocal Ultra presence, as much as possible under the conditions, would remind people of what we’re missing. Regrettably, the vast majority of the public, and especially the broadcasters, would just as soon do away with Ultras. I say it’s worth reminding them why Ultras are at the heart of the game. In any case, I could be totally wrong. I was skeptical the Monday boycotts would work, but they were effective. Much like Rob A., we’ve got to make the best decision given the information we’ve got, and hope it works out. They’re still our best and most committed fans and thus the choice must be respected.  

Also, yes, I know, we have a game tomorrow. Yes, I will be watching. Yes, I should preview it. No, I don’t have the time. So you’ll have to content yourself with the post-view.