August 21, 2012 is perhaps a date that has been prominent in the minds of many of the staff and supporters of Borussia Monchengladbach in recent weeks. It was the night on which all Die Fohlen's (The Foals') sterling work of the 2011-12 campaign went up in smoke as they fell to a 3-1 defeat to Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League playoff first leg at their own Borussia Park.
Lucien Favre's team came close to overturning the deficit and pulling off a real shock in the return in Kiev, winning 2-1 but losing 4-3 on aggregate, but the climb was too steep. That Gladbach's marquee €15 million signing Luuk de Jong had effectively sealed the deal for the Ukrainians in the first game with an unfortunate headed own goal was a tough blow to take -- not only for the club but for the player too, who never really established himself at the club after failing to surmount this early setback.
So there was a considerable exhale in Gladbach circles on Saturday, after a 2-0 win at Werder Bremen sealed a top-three finish. Favre and company could even still be runners-up to Bayern Munich if they beat Augsburg and Wolfsburg come a cropper at Cologne on the final day.
There's now no uncertainty, no contingency planning, just the knowledge that come September, Gladbach's players will be lined up at a sold-out Borussia Park with the Champions League anthem ringing in their ears as their first-ever group stage campaign gets underway.
That level of preparation wasn't possible in 2012. Despite Gladbach going all in for De Jong, they were fighting a rearguard action, and not only because they had the playoff to contend with. The central trio of Favre's team -- Marco Reus, Dante and Roman Neustadter -- had all left, tempted by bigger teams and better contracts at Borussia Dortmund, Bayern and Schalke respectively. It was hard to reconstruct. The coach, and sporting director Max Eberl, have been working diligently for months to make sure that the same doesn't happen this time.
Even so, there will be some gaps to fill. Forward Max Kruse was lured to Wolfsburg for a big salary after the Lower Saxony club met his release clause of €12 million. Meanwhile, Germany World Cup winner Christoph Kramer, a bustling presence in midfield, is also going -- back to his parent club Bayer Leverkusen, for whom he has never played in the first team, after a two-year loan.
Yet there is not the same feeling of the house of cards tumbling down that there was in 2012. Crucially, Gladbach have succeeded in extending the contracts of their two best players this season, winger Patrick Hermann (to 2019) and Swiss midfield powerhouse Granit Xhaka (to 2020).
Hannover captain Lars Stindl has already been signed up to complement the pair in midfield, while Thorgan Hazard, mainly used as a pinch-hitter this season, has been another one to commit to 2020, with an eye on the team's continuing development. That his now-former club Chelsea have retained a buyback option on Hazard, a player that they loaned out for three successive seasons, underlines just how rich he is in potential.
That sense of squad ethic this season has spoken volumes for how much Favre's methods are getting through. Gladbach are more circumspect than a group replete with attacking options might be, but impressive performances and victories such as March's 2-0 win over Bayern at the Allianz Arena have shown knowhow as well as quality. That win in particular was perfectly judged; soaking up pressure with ease, then making the most of the opportunities (and luck) on the break.
The pace of Hermann, and even attacking left-back Oscar Wendt, are integral to their counter-attacking. While the Bundesliga's second-best defence (just 23 goals conceded), marshalled by outstanding goalkeeper Yann Sommer, has been a cornerstone, Gladbach's ability to break out has been just as vital.
Seeing them do that to Dortmund at Borussia Park last month, in a 3-1 victory, left the feeling of a power swing to Gladbach in the Nord-Rhine Westphalia region, and in the Bundesliga. It is backed up by Gladbach's consistency. They have not lost in the league since the defeat to Schalke in February.
Expecting Gladbach to be the new Dortmund is a bit too much, even if many believe that they -- rather than Wolfsburg -- are the best of the rest in the Bundesliga as things stand. History tempts us to believe that a new Bayern-Gladbach rivalry can develop to fill the vacuum left by BVB's recent struggles, recalling the glorious 1970s. In that decade, Bayern and Gladbach won four Bundesliga titles apiece as one Jupp Heynckes led Die Fohlen's attack in his second spell at the club.
European competition is part of the club's very fabric. That golden decade established Gladbach as a consistent contender on the continent, as they reached five European finals in an eight-year spell, spilling into the eighties. If the UEFA Cup wins of 1973 and 1980 represent the apex of those achievements, the loss to Liverpool in the 1977 European Cup final is perhaps the most synonymous with club legend, as Allan Simonsen scored in the final before going onto be crowned European Footballer of the Year.
Times have changed since then, and even since Dortmund won consecutive titles in 2011 and 2012. Jurgen Klopp's men were able to take advantage of the rapidly unravelling reign of Louis van Gaal at Bayern for the first one to get a foot in the door, whereas the champions are now a behemoth like never before.
The other caveat, of course, is that even at their best, Klopp's Dortmund were never able to simultaneously challenge at home and in Europe. The European campaigns of 2010-11 and 2011-12 both finished before Christmas, while the run to the 2013 Champions League final came at the expense of a Bundesliga challenge, with the incumbent champions finishing 25 points behind Bayern.
One feels that the maximum Gladbach could hope to achieve next season is reaching the last 16, perhaps, of the Champions League while simultaneously securing a return to the competition for 2016-17. As someone who believes in small victories eventually adding up to become big ones, Favre would surely be happy with that.