Monday 28 August 2017

Sandhausen 1-2 Fortuna Dusseldorf, Sunday 27th August 2017

SV Sandhausen 1-2 Fortuna Dusseldorf (Bundesliga 2, att. 6,769)

Welcome to ...

Holed up in Heidelberg with the love of my life, the choice of footie was thus: train ride 9 minutes to Sandhausen for a Sunday lunchtime kick-off, or the Monday night televised game at the granddaddy of Bundesliga 2 stadia, Kaiserslautern, but an hour and a half journey and a late night.
  We went Sandhausen.  Besides, you can't go wrong with a shuttle service which meets you off the train and takes you direct to the ground.


Next up...

The Hardtwald is not one I'd advise you walk to, all dull (nice) suburbs and no pubs or any other businesses for that matter.  Still, there was a sparsity of home fans on that train.  Why can't Sandhausen, smallest team in Bundesliga 2, not tap in to the Heidelberg (pop. 200000+) market?

There were a number of Fortuna fans on the train from Heidelberg.  What perfect scheduling, an early away fixture allowing for a weekend in this picturesque enclave, beloved of Mark Twain.  I can't think of an equivalent in England.  Where's nice that’s 9 minutes from a team in our top 2 divisions?

Badger on the loose...

Sandhausen’s longevity in the upper levels (6 seasons and counting) has also resulted in stadium development which gives it a more than respectable 15,000 capacity. In fact, today's 6,800 felt more.  Fortuna bringing 2000+ must have helped, as was the small matter of the winners going top, albeit after four matches.

Away fans on left (seated) and right (standing).

Since I was last here (in 2013), the small main stand has been extended along the touchline, ostensibly to increase the VIP section.  Oddly, the roof is slightly higher, seemingly to give the VIP rooms greater height. However, the biggest change has seen two sides of the stadium completely rebuilt.  The small terrace opposite the main stand is now a stand with seats in the upper tier and a paddock in front, while behind the goal to its left, a small terrace has been extended and a roof added.  This being Sandhausen, all things must be on a budget and all the stands have propped roofs.

It does look a bit 'budget'.

Still, Sandhausen’s main support prefers to stand on a terrace adjacent to the main stand, even if the ultras have moved in behind the goal, where the terrace is perfectly split into between home and away. Some of the terracing in the home section was taped off, but given it's quite new I wondered if this was to huddle the rest of the fans together to help make an atmosphere.  (I’ve seen this on Saarbrucken’s giant home terrace.)

Sandhausen ultras

We sat behind the goal opposite.  Not the cheapest seating tickets (those were €17, lower tier of the main stand…wot used to be terracing…but these were directly in the sun, and boy was it hot.  I had asked for seats high up, so I was given Row 4, but no worries, we made our way up towards the back, beer and sausages in hand.  The first few rows also had those foldy up clapper things what Leicester City need to make an atmosphere.  We picked a couple up but gave them away to a couple of kids who'd come to the game with Mum.  It made the younger one’s day (mum was genuinely thankful too).

Looking towards the Main Stand.

The match went according to plan first half, with Sandhausen taking the lead midway through when an overlap lead to an easy header from the resultant cross.  Unfortunately, Fortuna learnt from that and scored in similar fashion themselves early in the second half, the pullback being sidefooted in.

Then that was it till the last minute of normal time.  I suspect the players were exhausted from running around in the heat (there were a fair few tackles too) but then heartbreak for Sandhausen as a ball over the top was lashed home on the half volley, high into the net.  A truly quality finish to end the match and take Fortuna to the top of the league.  Will they go up?  I can't say I was that impressed, but you never know.  (5/6/18: They did, winning the title on the last day of the season by coming back from two down at leaders Nurnberg to win 3-2 and take the title on goal difference.)

The teams come out.

All that remained was a little look around the club shop (some nice 2016 centenary mugs) before boarding one of the waiting buses to take us to the station, free.  I love Germany.  I love German football.

The Damage:
€20 ent
€3.50 beer (x2)
€3 wurst
€2.50 train
= €32.50

Hardtwald stadion panorama.
Sparkassen Tribune

Paddock of INWO Tribune.

Back of stand.

The view from the Sparkassen Tribune.

Fans in the Sparkassen Tribune.

Hardi the Badger warms up.

The Main Stand.

Standing at the far end.

Match action.

Tin Tunnels

Friday 18 August 2017

Club Bruges 0-0 AEK Athens, Thursday 17th August 2017

Club Bruges 0-0 AEK Athens (Europa League Play-off, 1st leg, att. 27,115)

Welcome to ...

5 games in 5 countries in 5 days.  I hadn't planned it that way, it just happened to be I had to get from Poland to Amsterdam to meet the better half.  On this journey I've seen Korona Kielce (Poland), Hradec Kralove (Czech Republic), Kapfenberger SV (Austria) and Schwarz-Weiss Essen (Germany).  Now it's Club Brugge in the first leg of a Europa league play-off against AEK Athens.

I got to the stadium with an hour to kick-off, a walk of a couple of miles or so from the city centre. Not ideally situated and nor is it particularly close to the railway station, though it is in the ‘burbs and closer to some main roads, so perhaps ideal for locals in cars, or on bikes.


Heading out of the city centre.

I was here in Euro 2000, seeing France v the Czechs in the so-called ‘Group of Death’, Nedved lifting his head from his prone position to see the penalty he won dispatched.  I also remember in a crowd of 30-odd thousand, there must have been 10000 English, all soaking up the atmosphere (while ‘proper’ England fans wrecked Charleroi).  Ahhhh….those were the days.

One of Club's 'cooler' players commemorated on a lamppost.

Indeed, I recollect how concrete, how tired the stadium looked.  Think Hillsborough.  Little has changed, apart from it being 17 years later.  Still, once you're inside it's quite impressive (think Hillsborough).  Four large two-tier stands, no overhanging upper tier, instead a wall separates the lower and upper tier.  But what I like about the Jan Breydel is that the highest parts of the stadium are its corners, which jut out into the sky.  There's something a little odd about being able to look down on the roof of the Main Stand. Mind, it is breezier and chillier up here and, unlike the rest of the stadium, there's no cover.

The NW corner.

AEK  fans were in the south-east corner and they brought a few, around 1000.  Maybe the economic situation in Greece is improving or they are making the most of perhaps their last European venture this season.  Whatever, they looked in good spirits occasionally bouncing en masse.  1st half, I was in the same end, so I couldn't really hear them.  In the second half I sat on the northwest corner, as far from them as I could be, so I still couldn't really hear them above the home end.

AEK players applaud their fans at full-time.

Ah yes, my choice of seat.  So I walked up to a ticket booth and was accosted by some young lad of about 20. Him and his mate had bought tickets in the south stand but wanted to be nearer the ultras (in the North End).  The club wouldn't let them swap their tickets, a very poor show.  Was I bothered where I sat?  Well, I wasn't really, so thought I'd do them a good deed and bought one of their tickets.  Didn't they have a bigger problem now - they had two tickets, one for either end?  Little did they know that once inside you could go anywhere you liked.

Back of the zuid (south) stand.

I didn't bother finding my exact seat, just climbed high up somewhere behind the goal.  I didn't see anybody else check their tickets either, suggesting a laissez-faire attitude to where folk sat (it was by no means full).  I was in the end that traditionally houses Cercle Brugge when they’re at home, smaller of the two teams which share the Jan Breydal.  I wonder what sort of crowds they are getting these days.  Aren’t they stuck in the second tier?

Match action

I tried not to be in the stadium too early, but I needed the loo.  Outside, I'd had a ‘braadwurst’, which tasted more like the kind of sausage street vendors ply in London i.e not great.  I'd have had a beer too, were it not for them operating some kind of voucher system. It's even reached beer gardens.  Who will rid me of this plague?

Looking towards the Oost Tribune (East Stand), pre-match.

Then there was the match.  I'm not sure I've seen a team get into so many promising positions without creating anything as Bruges.  Time and again they were free out wide, time and again they dinked a ball gently into the middle for the keeper to catch, or a defender to head clear.  Fortunately, there was half-time for the coach to have a word and have the team try something different.  He didn't.

By half-time AEK should have been out of sight.  For all the possession they ceded, they ripped Bruges apart every time they broke.  If they had someone who could finish they’d be dangerous.  0-3 would have been a fair reflection, but it could have been 5.

Almost looks like something's about to happen...

Second half, Club dominated and AEK retreated into their half.  No chances, but the ref decided to help out by sending an Athens player off (foul, second yellow).  Now we’d really see what an average side Club are as they passed it around at a pedestrian pace, moves breaking down every time they made the box.  They had one chance, as a cut back (a cut back!  Something different!) found an advancing player just inside the box but the shot was blocked.  I still can't remember the AEK keeper making a save, least nothing worthwhile.  Bruges will have to do a hell of a lot better than this to progress.  (As it was, they lost the second leg 0-3.)

The view from the NW corner, 2nd half.

Then I got lost walking back to Bruges city centre.  When you've walked for nearly an hour and then see a sign saying ‘Bruges 2’, you know you've gone wrong somewhere and yet that sign was my saviour.  At least I knew which direction to walk now.

The Damage:
€15 ent
€4 braadwurst
= €19

The Tunes:
The Campfire Headphase (Boards of Canada)
Mogwai Young Team (Mogwai)
Translucent Flashbacks (Spacemen 3)
Greatest Hits (Goldie Lookin’ Chain)
Timeless (Goldie)
Original Pirate Material (The Streets)
N.W.A. Legacy (N.W.A.)


Jan Breydal panorama (I)

Jan Breydal panorama (II)
Pre-match kickabout

Ticket office

Entrance and back of stand.  Concrete ahoy!

Stadium plan

More concrete

I do like a sticky-out bit.

Remember, two teams play here (HOME teams, I mean).

The view from the back row.

The West Stand.

A Greek flag beyond the netting.

The teams line up.

The ultras unleash their flag (I).

The ultras unleash their flag (II).

Back row of the North End.

Thursday 17 August 2017

Schwarz-Weiss Essen 4-1 Hilden, Wednesday 16th August 2017

Schwarz-Weiss Essen 4-1 Hilden (Oberliga Niederrhein, att. c100)

Welcome to ...

This was another of those games where I was turning up having no knowledge of the opposition.
 I mean, I know Schwarz-Weiss Essen were playing, but who were THEY playing?  I then wondered what colours Schwarz-Weiss play in.  Ah, the clue is in the name, idiot.  Only it wasn't.  One team played in white, the other in black. The badges were too small and too far away (the pitch had a track around it) and the shirt sponsors were no clue either.  One side didn't have one while the other crammed in so many words for it to be illegible.  I didn't know who was who.


Match action between the blacks and whites.

I'd been to the Uhlenkrug before, but the match was postponed (waterlogged pitch, if memory serves) and I was determined to see what a stadium which once held 45000 for a match looked like ((Germany v Luxembourg, 1951).  Well, apart from one stand the rest is all terrace, with the number of steps dropping behind the goal slightly.  But you can see the potential with the terracing these days only going part way up the hill.  Schwarz-Weiss’s pre-war glory days are long gone, but the stadium still manages to safely house 10,000.

Landscaped terrace behind the goal.

Stadion Uhlenkrug is also the only stadium I've ever been to where grass acts as segregation between areas of the same terrace.  Not that Schwarz-Weiss need segregation in their current position.  Tonight, around 100 spectators turned up to see a match in the 5th tier oberliga Niederrhein.  By contrast, Rot-Weiss Essen regularly pull the best part of 10,000 in the fourth tier regionalliga West.  But with your Dortmunds, Schalkes, Colognes and Moenchengladbachs nearby, it's an uphill struggle for Essen’s own sides.

Grass separates the terracing at Uhlenkrug.

As I said, I'd been before, so I knew the route through the forest from Essen stadtwald railway station.  Confidence can be a killer though, as I got lost in the dusk on the way back.  This added another mile and a half to my journey, before I hit the main road again into town. You can catch a bus (145, 146) from virtually outside the stadium to the hbf,  so there was no excuse, other than I don't mind walking when there's no rush.  You never know what you'll see. Walking through Essen streets at night you'd be forgiven for thinking it was communist era East Germany, so not a great sight.

The Main (only) Stand.

Oh, and it might have taken 20 minutes, but eventually I did figure out who was who:  Schwarz-Weiss were the whites against a team I've never heard of (Hilden, population 55,271...so hardly a village).  4-1, 2-0 at halftime.  Comfortable all round

The Damage:
€7 ent
€2 beer (x2).  Bottles of ‘Staeder’.  Well cheap.
€2 bratwurst (x2)
= €15

The Tunes:
The Campfire Headphase (Boards of Canada)
Mogwai Young Team (Mogwai)
Translucent Flashbacks (Spacemen 3)
Greatest Hits (Goldie Lookin’ Chain)
Timeless (Goldie)
Original Pirate Material (The Streets)
N.W.A. Legacy (N.W.A.)


Uhlenkrug panorama from the corner.

Uhlenkrug panorama from behind the goal.

Side view of the Main Stand.

Terrace behind the goal.

Strange place for a clock tower.

Scoreboard.

Nil-nil, 4 mins in.

The main terrace.

Match action.

The segregational grass.

Going no further.

The terrace used to continue up...

That grass again.  How about 'SW' spelt out on a black and white flowerbed?

Welcome to ...(II)

The exterior of the Main Stand.

Turnstile entrances.

Up to the Field of Glory.

Last time I saw doors like these was at a concentration camp.

Behind the goal.

Inside the Main Stand.

The stand narrows at each end.

Pride in your appearance: even the track has been raked.

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