Chances are you weren't paying attention to an explosion that happened halfway around the world in Dortmund yesterday.
As explosions go, this one wasn't particularly noteworthy. It targeted the Borussia Dortmund bus making its way to the stadium, and barring one Dortmund defender being injured and a bus getting jacked up, there wasn't much to talk about. The first leg Champions League quarterfinal game pitting Dortmund and Monaco would go on a day late.
But it left Monaco fans in a pinch. As the match was rescheduled for today, many visiting ticket-holders were left in a bind. Go on home with worthless tickets or find empty hotel rooms, which probably went pretty quick and weren't in the budget for fans who had already bought tickets and flights to Germany.
Luckily, Dortmund's fans and social media teams stepped in to make something wonderful happen.
Dortmund fans opened their homes to traveling supporters to let them stay the night. Strangers with nothing in common save the love of the beautiful game shared their homes, tables and beers with foreign fans.
Go on twitter and search the #bedsforawayfans hashtag. There are countless Dortmund fans offering places to stay, showers, meals, everything. And there are Monaco fans taking them up, getting to see a game that would have been taken away from them under the cruelest of circumstances.
I can't tell you how many traveling fans took up the offers from their German hosts, but the ones who did would never have been able to attend the postponed game otherwise.
As I'm typing, the game has just ended, 3-2 to Monaco. This is just the first leg—meaning that Dortmund will travel to Monaco to resume the game at 3-2. Neither Monaco nor its fans will forget the extraordinary kindness Dortmund fans showed them in their moment of need.
Expect Monaco to repay their former hosts in a grand gesture next Wednesday.
