Tag Archives: Germany

Masticate

07 Sunday Oct 2012

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Sunday 30th September 2012 ko 14.00

3 Bundesliga

SpVgg UNTERHACHING 0

KICKERS OFFENBACH 3 (Fetsch 25 53 Rathberger 53)

Att 2,450

Entry (Haupttribune/Main Stand) €18

Programme €1

Badge €3

Bratwurst €3

Teamsheet FREE

The last game of our tour saw a 10km trip south of Munich to the municipality of Unterhaching, a location utterly dominated by it’s larger neighbour. The town is notable for being the German base for chewing gum manufacturer Wrigley, these days a divison of the Mars Corporation. The Wrigley factory is a few hundred yards from the Sportpark Unterhaching, in fact if we’d have watched Fortuna Unterhaching, we’d have been opposite! On a more ecological scale the municipality has become a centre for geothermal energy with two deep boreholes providing super-heated steam to drive turbines. To prove that we do live in small world Unterhaching is twinned with Witney, in Oxfordshire just a short drive from where I live in Oxford.

The Sportpark Unterhaching was built in 1992 to accomodate the club’s elevation to the 2 Bundesliga. Its been extended since then, and further expansion plans are afoot, but with the club’s demotion to the Dritte-Liga, the current 15,000 capacity is clearly sufficient. The club were second in the table at kick-off, so to draw as few as 2,450 spectators must have been highly disappointing for the club. Clearly the lure of 1860, and Bayern Munich is too much for a club this close to the big city.

There’s more to SpVgg Unterhaching than just football though. As the club badge betrays, the club has a highly successful Bobsleigh team. Multiple Olympic medalist and National coach Christoph Langen represented Unterhaching at his chosen sport. Graeme and I also discovered an active Curling club tucked behind the away end. Clearly there is no lack of sporting choice in this part of the world.

With the time so tight between games, I’d eaten nothing. The pizza stalls looked tempting, but there was the vexed question of nabbing a teamsheet from the press office. Eventually I found a 500ml glass of apfelsaft and a bratwurst and made to with that until we could stop somewhere between the ground and Frankfurt Airport.

The surroundings weren’t half as boring as a new-build ground can be. I liked the wooden roof on the main stand, and the quite bizarre hospitality area in one corner. The two sets of fans did their best to create an atmosphere but the empty spaces made that aim difficult.

What none of the 4 us expected was a massive away win. Unterhaching would have gone top with a win, but at no time did that look likely as Offenbach quickly took control with Mathias Fetsch looking a class apart from everyone else on the field. He scored two poacher’s goals which provided the intro and coda to Thomas Rathberger’s wonderful header for the second goal.

The Unterhaching manager Claus Schromm had no answers save for a rather contrived argument with referee Bibiana Steinhaus after the final whistle. The truth of the game was that Unterhaching hadn’t turned up, and Offenbach had taken full advantage. We made our way back to the car and followed the away fans more or less the entire 400km to Frankfurt. That bit, on the autobahn should have been straightforward but as befits our weekend, we got caught in several traffic jams and were glad of the live traffic feature on the hire car’s SatNav for reassurance. We handed back the car at the airport and dashed over to the terminal. We had 45 minutes to takeoff, enough, but not comfortable. That seemed somehow to be a metaphor for our weekend.

It remains only to thank my companions on this weekend, Lee, Martin, Graeme, and Andreas. Andreas in particular for his help explaining groundhopping to two border Polizei who weren’t minded to understand such subjects. The real star of the weekend was Lee, for planning this, finding the hotel, and for a positively mammoth driving stint. Many thanks mate, and when’s the next one?

Mannschaftsaufstellung

07 Sunday Oct 2012

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Sunday 30th September 2012 ko 11.00am

Kreisliga 2 Süd München

SpVgg THALKIRCHEN FREUNDSCHAFT 3 (Broch 24 43 Stoier 90)

SV ISTIKLAL MÜNCHEN 2 (Durmaz 47 77)

Att 47 (h/c)

Entry €4

Programme FREE

Badge €3

From Wackersbergstraße to the Bezirkssportanlage Thalkirchner Straße, is a mere one kilometre, so making kick-off shouldn’t have been a problem, except parking proved to be a real issue. You don’t expect the car park to be full for a Sunday morning Kreisliga (local league)  game, but when we worked out how to locate to the football pitch (use the entrance marked 207) we arrived a few seconds before kick-off. The fripperies of programmes and badges were easily obtained, but what required our immediate attention was the ground. With over 5000 grounds between us, none of the four of us had seen anything like it before.

It’s hard to know where to start with a description. The main entrance makes you immediately think of a Continue reading →

Morning Service

07 Sunday Oct 2012

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Sunday 30th September 2012 ko 9.00am

B Klasse München Gruppe 4

VIKTORIA MÜNCHEN II 2 (Rebel 5p 77)

FC BOSNIA I HERCEGOVINA II 3 (Kaltak 27 Nergic 41 Becirovic 73)

Att 10 (h/c)

Entry €3.50

No Programme

I honestly can’t remember attending an earlier kick-off, but with an 11.00am a few hundred yards away this was an opportunity not to missed! The alarm went off at 6.20 and Lee and I quietly regretted that final bottle of Wiessbier we’d quaffed the night before. With Andreas opting to make his way back to Stuttgart today, it was 4 Englishmen who left Regensburg at 7am and made our way 130 km south to München, or Munich if you’d prefer.

We passed the Allianz Arena, the iconic home of Bayern München and 1860 München, then the Olympic Stadium, long since rebuilt after the 1972 Olympiad where the likes of Mark Spitz and Olga Korbut shone, and the whole event was marred by Black September terrorists killing 11 members of the Israeli team and one German Policeman.

That seemed a million miles away as we headed into the southern suburbs, even the streets had cobbles, giving the place a homely, yet timeless feel. When you’re this early and nothing much is open, there’s little else to do than listen to the rustle of branches and contemplate the leaves just beginning to change to autumnal shades of gold. Or as an alternative, watch a game at the eleventh level of German football!

The Sportanlage Wackersbergestraße was the perfect place to spend a couple of hours of a Sunday morning. There was coffee in plentiful supply, and as the teams trotted out they were accompanied out by church bells calling the faithful to prayer. And yes, this was a game between 2 reserve sides, the first elevens following at, well eleven! And in case you’re wondering, yes there IS a C Klasse!

The standard was as poor as perhaps you’d expect, although the game always held your attention. Whilst the visitors named 5 subsitutes that seemed to be more in hope than expectation, and when Zahib Negic didn’t appear for the second half he wasn’t replaced. It didn’t seem to worry them unduly because while Viktoria played the better football, it was the Slavs who were the more clinical in front of goal.

As we watched, an elderly gentleman arrived, presumably as much for the first XI game as for ours. He found a chair from the picnic area and his favorite spot. From there, he took out his sandwich and bottle of beer from his plastic carrier bag, and quietly settled down for the morning. A Vikoria fan explained that he does this every week, his wife sleeps in on a Sunday, so he’s allowed out but must be home for lunchtime!

With the first elevens warming up behind one goal for the main event, we made our way to close to the exit in one corner, and when the final whistle echoed around the stirring neighbourhood we dashed back to the car. We had only a few minutes to get to the next installment.

Autobahn

01 Monday Oct 2012

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Friday 28th September 2012 ko 18.00

2 Bundesliga

SSV JAHN REGENSBURG 3 (Sembolo 24 55 Müller J-M 44)

FC ST PAULI 0

Att 12,181

£1=€1.21

Entry €18 (Stehplatz/ Terrace)

Programme €1

Wimple/Pennant €8

Pin/Badge €4

I sometimes think that organised groundhops ought to be graded in terms of how hard work they are. Grade 1 would be a gentle 3 games in a day on the coach, whereas the last Welsh hop (11 games in 3-and-a-bit days) would be, perhaps a Grade 8. This trip, 6 games in two countries in 3 days covering over 900 miles would definitely be a Grade 10!

The idea was Lee West’s, seeing that his team St Pauli had a Friday evening fixture at Regensburg. He then found cheap flights to and from Birmingham to Frankfurt, so he was joined by Graeme, Martin and I and so we found ourselves at a Car Hire station at the Frankfurt airport, with a beast of an itinerary! Continue reading →

The Deep Breath

12 Tuesday Jun 2012

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Sunday 3rd June 2012 ko 15.00

Nord-Rhine Westfalia Liga

SC WESTFALIA HERNE 0

SpVgg VELBERT 6 (Janas 4 9 Onucka 18 69 Kaya 54 59)

Att 200 (Official website)

Entry €7

Programme 50c

Badge €5

Coffee €1

From Essen it was just a couple of stops by train to Bochum, then a U-Bahn ride to Herne. It was clear that Lee had planned the weekend around a visit to Westfalia-Stadion Schloss Strünkede, and the further the train headed towards its terminus the more I found myself anticipating our final game of the tour. We walked across the public park that homes the ground, and glimpsed huge swathes of terracing but it wasn’t until we got through the turnstiles that I understood what I was seeing.

As a traveller I reckon you visit places in the hope of having a “Deep Breath” moment, where you just stop in awe, and, yes take a deep breath. The Kinkaju-Ji Temple in Kyoto provided me with one, as did Niagra Falls. I climbed to the top of the terrace here and had another. A huge 32,000 capacity bowl, with a large bench seated stand providing the only cover. Unbelievably this magnficent stadium, if it were in England could not stage FA Vase games as there are no floodlights.

We had a good walk around, and bought our souvenirs, before picking a seat in the stand as it was raining. Lee had let me know that the NRW-Liga is in fact equal in status to the Oberliga, so we were watching the 5th tier of German football. We would also be watching one of the last games in this league as its being abolished as the level 4 Regionaliga expands from 3 to 5 divisons. None of which was relevant to poor Herne, marooned at the bottom with a mere 12 points. However there was something riding on it for Velbert, a win would give them a playoff spot for promotion. It spoke volumes for how they viewed Herne’s threat that they named several U19 players in their line-up.

It was a ruse that worked perfectly, as Velbert raced into a 2 goal lead with Sebastian Janas being on both occasions the beneficiary. The first he simply walked through a static defence, the second a horrendous Tim Reimann backpass gave him the easiest of opportunities. Herne offered nothing by way of resistance so  it came as little surprise when Markus Kaya placed a delightful cross on to the head of former Herne player Marko Onucka to make it three.

The second half followed a similar pattern to the first. Kaya collected a neatly taken brace before putting through Onucka for the sixth. Kaya was then withdrawn, the job was done, and Velbert cruised through the last few minutes for a victory that if more goals had been needed, could have been far more savage.

We walked back to the station, caught a train back to Dormund to collect our bags then made for the airport. An amazing, and varied 4 game programme to celebrate Lee’s impending nuptials. Good luck Lee and Gilly, and thanks to Lee for both organising this, and inviting me along.

Reinventing the cliché

11 Monday Jun 2012

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Sunday 3rd June 2012 ko 11.00

Kriesliga A Essen Sud-Ost

SV PREUSSEN EIBERG 1 (Tüker 75)

SuS NIEDERBONSFELD 1 (Angerstein 42)

Att 67 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No Programme

Coffee €1

With it being Lee’s stag weekend, its fair to say we’d had more than a few beers on Saturday night. In fact, at breakfast one of our number had a receipt from the hotel bar with 2.20am on it. Yet for all of that, we weren’t stupidly hungover, just a little bleary-eyed; perhaps that’s due to Germany’s strict beer purity rules, no nasty chemicals here!

We took a train 35 km west to Essen, a city based on the Ruhr industries of coal and steel. I was a little surprised therefore that when we left the train at Essen-Eiberg station, the scene was one of leafy suburbia! Still not everywhere has to be a post-industrial hell-hole does it? It was a pleasant enough stroll to the Bezirkssportanlage Oststadt, or to be more accurate it would have been bad it not been hammering down with rain! Worse still Lee had looked up the ground on Google Maps and reported that there didn’t seem to be any cover. Brave faces were in evidence as we walked past the clay reserve pitch and into the main complex.

And from that point things looked up. There was a buzz about the place with beer being sold, and sausages were being grilled. For some reason I discovered that there was strong coffee being sold in the clubhouse! Better still, we discovered that there was cover in the form of two railway shelters, perched above a terrace with seats bolted on. We immediately made a bee-line for one and reserved our seats, rather reminiscent of the cliché about Germans and sun-loungers!

At pitchside there’s a shale running track between the terrace and the pitch. It seemed all rather municipal when compared to the club’s building efforts behind. But we had a decent vantage point, the game was on and we were dry!

It wasn’t the easiest game to watch. Maybe I was more hung over than I thought, but this was a game that for long periods failed to spark (maybe it was the rain!). Neiderbonsfeld were clearly that better side, but failed to capitalise on their possession, and will have been disappointed to have reached half time with only Jonas Angerstein’s effort to show for their efforts. They were made to pay when substitute Sebastian Tüker tucked away a well-taken equaliser, and in all honesty I thought that would be the final score at that point.

Of course I was right, but only after a fashion. I made the mistake of commenting how well referee Adam Schneider had done, when Niederbonsfeld forward Özay Gökesil went down in installments in the box, and to the crowd’s consternation Schneider gave a last-minute penalty. Up stepped Angerstein, and his shot went wide of the left post, to give justice for a poor decision, but not in terms of the visitors’ possession and general superiority.

Schmälkoch’s consolation

11 Monday Jun 2012

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Saturday 2nd June 2012 ko 16.00

Oberliga Neidersachsen

VfL BÜCKEBURG 2 (Buchwald 33 Schmälkoch 90)

VSK OSTERHOLZ-SCHARMBECK 3 (Ordenewitz 6 71 Manah 86)

Att 247 (h/c)

Entry FREE

Programme FREE

Badge €5

Pennant €6

From our base in Dortmund, we found a tiny bar on the way to the main station, for beer-for-breakfast before catching a commuter train to Minden. From there we caught a suburban service one stop to the pretty town of Bückeburg. Its situated in Lower Saxony, on the border with North Rhine Westphalia. It was once the capital of the tiny principality of Schaumburg-Lipp, and was the residence of the Princes of Schaumburg-Lippe. Although the Princely family surrendered political power in 1918, they still live there today. The palace, part of which is open to the public, is a major tourist attraction, and houses works of art and a library.

I can only assume that the residents were either at the football or the castle, because the town seemed deserted as we took the 5 minute walk from the railway station to the Jahnstadion. On arrival that was a bonus that it was free entry (normally €6) as part of the club’s centenary celebrations. It struck us all that as a marketing tool it worked well, as we all bought something; beer at €2, or a currywurst, or something from a well stocked club shop.

As a ground, it was notable that there was only one raised area, an uncovered terrace on one side, an end was closed off, and the other end provided a fairly impractical viewing piont due to a net. Most activity seemed to be taking place on the near side, with a cafe and beer seller doing brisk trade. I just wondered where people would have positioned themselves if it’d been raining.

The game, in the 5th tier of German football, saw two sides at the lower end of the table, but safe slug it out in a game where the result would see neither side relegated. And to be honest, while it was decent enough fayre, there was little to stir the passion for long periods. Marco Ordenewitz gave the visitors the lead early on, and for the majority of the game, Osterholz-Scharmbeck looked in control.

Nevertheless Bückeburg found it in themselves, through Tim Buchwald, but once Ordenewitz restored the visitors’ lead, it looked all over as a contest, particularly when Mahmoud Manah gave Osterholz-Scharmbecka 2 goal lead.  All that changed with introduction of the unfortunately named Bastian Schmälkoch with 2 minutes left. He scored one, missed another, and in stoppage time we were treated to home keeper Tim Engler coming up for a series of corners. His opposite number Ole Pasbrig made one tremendous save to keep another Schmälkoch effort out, and the game finished with even this cynical neutral wanting 5 minutes more!

German Beer is Chemical Free

06 Monday Feb 2012

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Saturday 4th February 2012

Bundesliga 2

TSV ALEMANNIA AACHEN 2 (Auer 13p Demai 15)

FC ST PAULI 1 (Boll 39)

Att 22,752

Entry €34

Programme FREE

Badge €4

Coffee €2

Glüwein €2.50 (mulled wine)

Frikadelle & Chips €4.50

With the temperature having warmed up to a positively balmy -11C, we did wonder whether this game would fall foul of the weather too. But there is undersoil heating at the Neuer (New) Tivoli, and this is Germany! So 20,000 plus people simply wrapped up warmly, and away we went.

The new Tivoli opened in August 2009, with its nearby predecessor being recently demolished. The adjacent ground is in fact for equestrian sports. There are nods to the old ground with the yellow roof, and the name, which the club has decided not to replace with a sponsor’s, choosing instead to levy a 1 euro supplement, the “Tivoli penny” making up in part, for the lost revenue.

The capacity is set at 32 960 seats, broken down as follows: 11,681 standing places, of which 10,584 are on the massive South Stand (Bitburger Wall), 19,345 seats, 1,348 business seats, 28 boxes, each containing twelve seats, 100 disabled spaces and 110 press seats. I did find the concourses slightly disappointing in that they’re not fully enclosed. On a warm day though, I might have taken a different view! One major pain was the Tivoli-Karte, via which is how all food and drink is purchased, no cash is allowed. You pay for the card, then charge it up with credit, and of course, you always have slightly too much or too little for what you want. That I suppose is the point!

Maybe it was the game, maybe it was the atmosphere, aided in no small part from the army of travelling St Pauli fans, from Hamburg, but I really enjoyed this game.  St Pauli of course are the famous “Cult” club. They’re known for  left-leaning politics, social activism and the event and party atmosphere of the club’s matches. Supporters adopted the skull and crossbones as their own unofficial emblem. St. Pauli became the first team in Germany to officially ban right-wing nationalist activities and displays in its stadium in an era when fascist-inspired football hooliganism threatened the game across Europe. In fact at one point banners were displayed from the away end telling the home fans to wake up to the extremists within the home terraces. You can see the banners in one of the pictures.

With fans like this, it was a shame that their team failed to live up to their following. Aachen won the game in 2 mad minutes. Firstly Zambrano hacked down Radu in the box, Auer’s penalty sending St Pauli fanatic and keeper Pliquett the wrong way. Then, a neat passing move round Demai 20 yards, and his curling shot easily beat Pliquett. St Pauli had the lion’s share of possession, but were creating too little with it. Finally all the possession led to a goal ,when a poor clearance fell to Boll, who tucked away the chance.

The second half continued in a similar vein. Substitute Saglik thought he’d scored but referee Willenborg ruled him to be offside, even the home supporters thought that was probably a wrong decision. Aachen just about deserved their win, even if for most of the half I thought St Pauli would snatch a point.

In the final analysis I was just pleased to have got a game to watch, and a good one at that!

Germany, but only just!

17 Monday Oct 2011

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Sunday 16th October 2011 ko 11.00am

Kreisliga A Aachen

SV 1927 KOHLSCHEID e.V. 4 (Savelsburg 30 Sendscheid 32 39 Ronneie 81)

SV RHENANIA 05 WÜRSELEN 1 (Böhnen 59)

Att 132 (h/c)

Entry €3

Programme FREE

Coffee €1

So, after leaving Belgium we managed to be in 3 countries within 2 hours. From Belgium to Holland, then a mere 5 miles into Germany, and the Casinostrasse, Hertzogenrath. In fact, I bought a cup of coffee in Holland, drank it in Germany, and disposed of the cup back in Belgium!

In German Kreis means circle, or less literally local, and this level of football is towards the bottom of the German pyramid, Kreisklasse does need to be seen to be believed!

Whilst I’m always up for a game, and especially in a new league,  I wasn’t expecting much at all. I was not so much surprised, more amazed, firstly at the well appointed ground, but the major surprise was the excellent programme!

We decamped to the clubhouse where the 2 English visitors caused a little disbelief! “You come all the way here to watch this?” As a hopper I live for comments like that!

It was easy enough to get the lineups, and I got talking to the announcer. It transpires that the visitors have a rich history, playing in the top flight of German football pre-Bundesliga. One of the trainers of the German national side started his career at Würselen.

Not much to call between the two sides in a good passing game whose skill level far exceeded my expectations. The main difference was Fabian Sendscheid who took his goals well, to put the game well beyond the visitors before half time. The seond half eased off a little, perhaps inevitably, but this was a mighty fine game, at a fine ground, a little off the beaten track.