How Borussia Dortmund gave the Bundesliga stomachaches at Fortress Signal Iduna Park
"We want to make this stadium a fortress," Thomas Tuchel said of SIGNAL IDUNA PARK on his appointment as Borussia Dortmund coach in summer 2015. "We want to give our opponents stomachaches." Undefeated at home in two years, one month and counting since, he has been good to his word.
Want that 'Yellow Wall' effect on your Official Bundesliga Fantasy team? Play here!
Since then, opposing teams have arrived with a nagging feeling of dread in their stomachs, pre-match butterflies flutterbying less than merrily. Most have left as sick as the proverbial parrot having been stung several times by Tuchel's busy and highly-talented yellow-and-black bees.
Cologne are the most recent team to return home without a win, drawing 0-0 on Matchday 31. The Billy Goats were the first team to even muster a draw in Dortmund since December.
In Dortmund's last 36 home matches in the Bundesliga, 29 other teams have been left licking their wounds with nothing more to show for their efforts than a hefty, sweaty bag of laundry for their kitman. Seven teams have emerged with a point, including four of 14 visitors this term, but no-one has managed to deprive the hosts, ungenerous to a fault, of all three.
Watch: BVB old boy Lewandowski hands Dortmund their last home defeat in April 2015:
Not since Robert Lewandowski, perhaps privy to some secret of BVB's inner sanctum as a former Dortmund disciple, scored a first-half header for Bayern Munich on Matchday 27 of the 2014/15 season have home fans left with their heads down. And the Dortmund coach that day was called Jürgen Klopp.
Tuchel has yet to taste defeat in the Dortmund dug-out in a Bundesliga game, and has seen his team outscore opponents 84 to 22 in that time. Anyone feeling sick yet?
The Dortmund fans certainly aren't. The only pangs for Europe's biggest average crowd at more than 81,000 have come from their constant, never-sated hunger for seeing opposing teams put to the sword in spectacular fashion every home game.
Watch: The phenomenon that is the 'The Yellow Wall'
Want more Bundesliga Action?
So vocal is the support, and not just from the imposing 'Yellow Wall', Tuchel not only has a 12th but even a 13th man in the stands, pushing the team to extend the club record run they are currently on.
Tuchel already broke new ground last season, winning seven of eight Hinrunde home games to set a new club-best and better the likes of Klopp, Ottmar Hitzfeld and Matthias Sammer.
"It would be great," he had replied before the 4-1 win over Frankfurt in mid-December 2015 that meant his side made BVB history. "We don't play for records, but when you do it, you can be proud." Well, you can puff out that chest, Herr Tuchel!