If there is one thing to love about the Bundesliga, it is that the championship race always includes a team that comes seemingly out of nowhere to be in the running, even at this later stage of the season. Sure, Bayern is always a candidate, and usual suspects such as Borussia Dortmund and Schalke are bound to be in the conversation year in and year out, but surprise teams such as Hoffenheim (as a newly promoted team, no less), Hertha Berlin and Mainz in recent years have done so much to provide neutral fans with an underdog story to find interest in before they ultimately fell short of their lofty aspirations. The rise of Borussia Mönchengladbach, this year's Cinderella, is just about as unlikely as they come, however.
In rewinding to a year ago, one sees that this was a team that was extremely fortunate to even stay up, much less move on to challenging for honors a year later. Rooted to or near the foot of the table and leaking goals for the vast majority of the season, Mönchengladbach somehow, rather unexpectedly, parlayed a great last few weeks of the season into climbing ahead of relegation rivals Eintracht Frankfurt and St. Pauli. Despite this, Mönchengladbach's journey to survival wasn't completed just yet; they still had to playoff against second division side Bochum to ensure their own safety. By defeating Bochum 2-1 on aggregate over two legs, Mönchengladbach's attempts at self-preservation had only just succeeded.
One would probably think that Mönchengladbach's reversal of fortune this season could surely be attributed to a rash of new signings, but this was hardly the case at all. Instead, manager Lucien Favre, appointed in February of last year, offloaded underperformers such as Mohamadou Idrissou and Karim Matmour and instead opted to go with the youth who did so much to steer them to safety last term. Needless to say, youth has been served.
Marc-André ter Stegen, he of a mere 19 years of age, has been masterful in goal this season, and accordingly a goal that was breached 65 times last season has only been scored upon 14 times in the league this season. Dynamic striker Marco Reus, still only 22, has been the lynchpin of their attack, scoring 13 goals so far to establish a new career high total, has most certainly played him way into Joachim Löw's plans for Euro 2012, and young winger Patrick Hermann has been massive as well in chipping with with six goals and six assists of his own. Not to be forgotten, old boy Juan Arango has had his fair share of goals and assists as well this season in rounding out a team that is as stout at the back as it is threatening in going forward.
As of this very moment, Mönchengladbach find themselves third in the table five points behind leaders Borussia Dortmund and a solitary point behind Bayern Munich. Overhauling two teams of such pedigree will certainly be hard, but considering the mountains Mönchengladbach have had to climb to even be in the league at all this season, it would be unwise to completely rule them out just yet. There's a reason they play the games instead of merely penciling in the results when the schedules come out.
Whether Mönchengladbach's rise is to stand the test of time or be a single season anomaly remains to be seen. Lucian Favre is a manager whom Mönchengladbach can trust with maintaining some level of consistency in the coming years, but the loss of Marco Reus to Borussia Dortmund next season (he's already agreed to a deal with them) will do Favre no favors in duplicating this year's output. The safe money is on some of the bigger clubs coming in for Hermann and ter Stegen as well after this season. With Reus gone, holding on to those two emerging talents must be paramount for Favre and Mönchengladbach. Perhaps the lure of lucrative Champions League action next season can keep them around for a little while longer at least.
For now though, we can forget about the offseason departures, both confirmed and theoretical, and merely think about what might unfold in the coming months in the Bundesliga. Money and big clubs rule the world of modern soccer, but this season's edition of Borussia Mönchengladbach gives us all reason to believe that the plucky underdogs still stands a chance to make their mark.
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