This past week here in Germany, those of us who like to live vicariously through romantic stories in football have enjoyed a grand old time thanks to a couple of outposts, Freiburg and Bielefeld, and the stories they've penned. It's unfair to label both cities as outposts, but in the modern world, there is a depressing tendency from media decision-makers to view everything through the prism of the big club, the global brand.
I understand why this happens. Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and now Bayer Leverkusen simply get better ratings than teams like SC Freiburg and Arminia Bielefeld. My counterargument is always: If we only pay attention to the biggest and the best and don't spend the time painting a broader picture, we're surely boxing ourselves into a very narrow corner of interest. Don't we desire higher ratings for other clubs, too?
So this is my latest attempt to redress that balance and reflect the German football mood music.
Freiburg is to me a somewhat magical place, situated in a delightful part of the Bundesrepublik with ample greenery surrounding it as well as the sheer, imposing beauty of the Schwarzwald (Black Forest). This encourages a culture that emphasises outdoor activities. You feel ensconced in the heart of the very best of Europe with France and Switzerland close by.
It would be fair to say as football clubs go, Freiburg have no natural enemies. Indeed, I've heard fans of multiple clubs in recent years wish die Breisgauer (Breisgau is the region Freiburg is situated in) nothing but the best.
A lot of that had to do with the presence -- for more than a decade -- of beloved coach Christian Streich, who embodied Freiburg in his manner of speech while serving as an important social conscience for the German football public with his humane, anti-discrimination views.
Julian Schuster, Streich's former captain, took the reins last summer and it was no surprise that he made a point of speaking up for democracy and impressing upon his players the importance of voting in Sunday's Bundestagswahl (parliamentary election). Incidentally, 82.5% of the population eligible to vote in Germany did so, a figure that compares favourably with the United States' 63.9% voter turnout, for example.
Commentating as I was on Freiburg's Friday night game under the lights against Werder Bremen, I had in my head that this was likely to be a low-scoring game. Freiburg, after three successive 1-0 wins, have mastered parsimony to get them into, almost astonishingly, a potential UEFA Champions League place.
My co-commentator Sebastian Kneissl suggested to me prior to kickoff that Freiburg would play their usual waiting game and allow Bremen, who had lost two in a row and gone decidedly off the boil, to have the ball. This is precisely what transpired and set pieces were to play a huge part.
For starters, a Fallrückzieher (bicycle kick goal) of quality from Kiliann Sildillia following a Vincenzo Grifo corner.
Then Grifo, who had missed three successive penalties, including a spectacular failed Panenka the week before against St. Pauli, stepped up to score with a fearsome and accurate free kick. Grifo, so often Freiburg's catalyst, was to net again to take his total for the season to eight before the talented Ritsu Doan matched that total with a double on the night of his own.
Oh, and in the middle of the storyline, Freiburg goalkeeper and local lad Noah Atubolu saved his fourth consecutive spot kick.
The ultimate margin of 5-0 represented Freiburg's joint-biggest home win in Bundesliga history, thus rubber-stamping their Champions League credentials.
They continue to know who they are, and on the face of it, not much has changed since Streich's departure last summer. Yes, Schuster favours a back four as opposed to Streich's preferred three, but the club still works as it has for years, bringing through players from the area and ably run on the sporting front by Jochen Saier and Klemens Hartenbach.
Freiburg have enjoyed seven seasons in European competition before, but never in the Champions League. Their next two games against direct rivals for the top four, Mainz and RB Leipzig, will have a big say in their quest to make history, ironically a year on from the legendary Streich's exit.
Bielefeld is a long way from Freiburg. You're talking 400 miles or around six hours north on the Autobahn to get to Ostwestfalen-Lippe.
The city features in a comedic conspiracy dating back to the 1970s that all Germans know: Bielefeld, it is said, doesn't actually exist. Anyone who has been to the thumping, pulsing, 26,500-capacity Bielefelder Alm (the Bielefeld pasture) knows this not to be true. The official name is the Schüco Arena but it will never not be die Alm.
Whereas Freiburg has the Schwarzwald, Bielefeld has the Teutoburger Wald, a thick forest now part of a substantial hiking trail.
Bielefeld remains synonymous with a battle waged in 9 A.D. when the chieftain Arminius and his army defeated the supposedly better-resourced and organised Roman army. Hence the name Arminia Bielefeld. Actual history could almost be a metaphor for what the 3. Liga side have achieved in the DFB-Pokal this season.
Ahead of Tuesday's quarterfinal against Werder Bremen (yes, they feature in this part of the narrative too!), Bielefeld have eliminated higher-division opposition in each round of the competition so far: Hannover from the 2. Bundesliga and then Union Berlin and Freiburg (!) in back-to-back-to-back rounds.
It evoked memories of 2014-2015 when die Arminia, also a third-division side at the time, reeled off Pokal coups against Bundesliga clubs Hertha Berlin, Bremen and Borussia Monchengladbach before losing to VfL Wolfsburg in the last four.
With apologies to Werder Bremen fans, Tuesday night was one of my favourite commentary experiences of the season. Die Alm rocked and swayed with vigour as the teams came out. The noise level simply never dipped as the home fans -- who watched their team suffer two straight demotions in 2022 and 2023 -- made themselves a character in the captivating drama.
A 30-year-old American was another prominent character. Bielefeld captain Mael Corboz -- born in Alabama, raised in New Jersey by French-born parents and now a resident in Germany for almost a decade -- has spent his career toiling away at the coal face of lower-league football, virtually unknown to the growing football fan base in the U.S.
Corboz tenaciously played the skipper's part perfectly and never shirked a challenge against technically superior opponents. Bielefeld knew they would have to outrun and outwork Bremen, and they succeeded.
When 20-year-old Marius Wörl opened the scoring with a long-range belter, the Bielefeld fans in the noisy Südtribüne (South Stand) began to dream again. When a typical Pokal-Kacktor (an ugly goal), in this case an own-goal by Bremen's Julian Malatini went in for 2-0, we all sensed this was happening.
Of course, being the Pokal -- for me, the outstanding domestic cup competition anywhere in the world for a combination of tension, atmosphere and not viewing it as secondary fare -- it wasn't quite finished. Substitutes Leonardo Bittencourt and Oliver Burke came on at the start of the second half for Bremen and almost immediately combined for the Anschlusstreffer (German, of course, has a word for a goal that gets you back within a goal).
Julian Malatini puts it into his own net in the German Cup as Werder Bremen fall 2-0 behind.
It remained 2-1 to Bielefeld when their former player Amos Pieper powerfully headed the ball off the crossbar in added time. We all thought Bielefeld has sealed it for sure when the aptly named Sam Schreck (the word "schreck" means "fright" or "scare" in German) found the net, only for the goal to be annulled due to a prior foul.
No matter, after more than eight minutes of added time, it was over and, die Alm had witnessed one of its greatest nights.
There's an old saying that der Pokal hat seine eigenen Gesetze (the Pokal has its own laws) and the genius in the format is that Bielefeld, as a 3. Liga side, are guaranteed another home draw in the semifinals. Here in Germany, there are no neutral-venue games outside of the final, no sending outmatched lower-tier clubs to be the away team.
Bielefeld will host either defending Pokalsieger Leverkusen, 2022 and 2023 winners Leipzig or three-time victors VfB Stuttgart. All will be revealed when the draw is made at the German Football Museum in Dortmund on Sunday.
Who wouldn't want to be at the Bielefelder Alm in early April? No matter who lifts the Pott on May 31 in Berlin, this will always go down as the season of Bielefeld in the Pokal.
Thanks to Freiburg and Bielefeld, we're reminded that Germany is a decentralised country where football means local community. The biggest clubs aren't always the story.