Borussia Mönchengladbach

Borussia Mönchengladbach is one of the most famous and most supported German soccer clubs. Founded in 1900, it took 20 years to the club's first title: the West German Championship. In 1960 the first national title, the German Cup, was won. After entering the Bundesliga in 1965, coach Hennes Weisweiler led a young team into the club's most successful period, winning the national championship five times (1970-71, 1975-77), the one time German Cup, entering four times the UEFA Cup finals, winning the Cup two times (1975, 1979). In 1977, Borussia lost the final of the European Cup against Liverpool. Because of the very offensive philosophy and their powerful and successful play, the team won supporters all over Germany. Because of the small stadium and limited finances, they were perceived as the opposite to Bayern Munich, the other dominating club of this time.

The golden era ended with the beginning of the 1980s. The club had to sell the best players to be financially competitive, and without the extraordinary talent of coaches like Hennes Weisweiler and Udo Lattek it was not possible to stay this successful. Since these days, the only title, another German Cup, was won in 1995. The club has performed poorly since the mid-1990s, even with players such as Anton Polster and was forced to spend two years in the second league between 1999 and 2001 until returning to the Bundesliga. Starting with the 2004/2005 season, Borussia will play in an all-new state-of-the-art stadium, which is the 60,350 capacity Borussia-Park allowing for increased revenues through ticket sales and the hosting of international games. The team kit's home colors are green and white.

Some of the famous players, who started their career in Mönchengladbach are: Günter Netzer, Jupp Heynckes, Berti Vogts, Allan Simonsen, Lothar Matthäus, Stefan Effenberg.

As of 3rd November 2004, the new coach of the club is Dick Advocaat, who guided the Dutch national team to the semi-finals of the Euro 2004 tournament and was a successful manager at Rangers. However, after a string of indifferent performance as the new coach, Advocaat resigned on 16 April 2005. His last match in charge at the club was a 1–1 draw with Mainz 05. Former Mönchengladbach player and German international Horst Köppel was appointed caretaker for the remaining five fixtures of the season. Köppel has been the manager of the club's reserves since he agreed to turn his back on Borussia Dortmund, where he was working for a couple of years in various roles until June 2004.

2004/05 Squad

Honors

German Championships (5): 1970, 1971, 1975, 1976, 1977

German Cup titles (3): 1960, 1973, 1995

UEFA Cup titles (2): 1975, 1979

External links

• Official site (in German and English)
• Borussia-Park (new stadium) (in German only)