Ajax will take on Borussia Dortmund in the Signal Iduna Park on Wednesday evening. Characteristic of the stadium of the German top club is the impressive Gelbe Wall, the South Tribune behind the goal with 25,000 avid fans. As a player of Schalke 04, Youri Mulder regularly visited the rival in Dortmund and therefore knows what to expect from Erik ten Hag’s team. “Maybe it’s an idea that the Ajax players put in earplugs,” he jokes.
Schalke’s matches against Dortmund always had a special edge, as the Kohlenpottderby was a battle between two rivals. “I remember one time when I was standing near a post at a corner and our keeper Jens Lehmann was screaming. So I didn’t understand it at all,” Mulder says in conversation with the General Newspaper. “This is one of the most impressive stadiums I’ve played in. That’s also because, and I didn’t have that anywhere else, your ears hurt there the night after the game. Then you heard beeping, as you sometimes hear after concerts.”
According to Mulder, the Signal Iduna Park is a stadium ‘a must-see’. “I don’t think the danger is so much in the hostile environment, but in that as a player you get impressed by the noise and therefore pay too little attention to your football. After all, it really is an intimidating football temple that makes your mouth fall open,” Mulder says. According to the former footballer, the home crowd can also turn against Dortmund if the team of coach Marco Rose does not meet expectations.
“Sun Gelbe Wall also entails that Dortmund is expected to clap. Then they won’t accept it if the ball goes wide too often or the opponent keeps the ball in the team too long. Then there can also be chaos at Dortmund if players run forward like blind chickens. And there is always a free man. Ajax also has the team to always find it. That turned out to be the case in Amsterdam,” says Mulder. Two weeks ago, Ajax won 4-0 at home with an own goal from Marco Reus and goals from Daley Blind, Antony and Sébastien Haller.
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