Todays Games

2-1 down at home.

who the **** cares

 

Nasty surprise for the 'lesser' clubs...

 

Unreal.....the premier league clubs should be footing the whole bill.....another example of screwing smaller clubs.....maybe next season lower league club's could refuse it's use if drawn away at premier league clubs in the cup......

 

Forest 1 up against massive

 

Well, Dresden lost 2-3 after having an equalising goal disallowed by pitch side VAR and the bloke who scored it sent off. Still brilliant, the home fans did not miss a beat in their support.

Today, in Bundesliga 3, Magdeburg (1974 winners of the Cup Winners Cup) took on Meppen (me neither) and lost 0-2 at home. I did not warm to the home team when I saw this:

****ing Millwall. But as usual the fans were brilliant. At the end the home team stood heads bowed in front of the unsafe standing home support and were told off in no uncertain fashion by the bloke with a mic who leads the singing. ****ing brilliant. No snowflakes allowed.

 

That would be an interesting addition at Loftus Road - might last a while though!

 

Leeds are falling apart again.....

Forest win 2-0

 

This was a good 4-5 minute bollocking, and the entire hard core home support waited in place for it. I’ve been to quite a few matches in Germany and this was the first one where the fans were vocally unhappy with their team, usually it’s 100% support whatever the score, no booing at full time like yesterday(though there wasn’t much of it, only a few fans). Mind you Magdeburg were absolutely dire and the standard of football overall was very low. But a nice stadium and an average gate of 19,000 in the 3rd tier. €13 a ticket.

There was also an eerily perfect minutes silence (not sure what for) which took place during the first minute of play. Very effective and you could get (if not, in my case, understand) every word the players and coaches were shouting at each other.

 

I am surprised that no clubs in England have started with having the singing controlled. I attend Norrköping's games where two "leaders" with megaphones direct the singing from the front of a 4K standing section. Every game, however good or bad, always has a good atmosphere.
A couple of seasons ago the supporters had a conflict with the club about pedantic stewarding. There was a five minute silence at the start of a game which really emphasised the importance of the vocal support.
It would work at HQ, no doubt!

 

I’d love it if we were one of those clubs where it was just a given that you stood up away from home and behind the goal at home. It happens occasionally for games where the old cokeheads turn out (Chelsea away, Pompey away) and makes no end of difference to the atmosphere.

 

When we do these old man (average age on this one is 60ish) trips to see European football we always try and stand where it’s allowed and stand as close to the home ultras as possible, precisely because of the atmosphere, which is the main thing we go for - though a couple of my mates are off to Chemnitz today for another Bundesliga 3 game, and I lack the OCD urge to visit as many grounds as possible, going to spend the day exploring the bars of Leipzig and finding a good one to watch Bayern v RB Leipzig this evening. Then another live game in Jena tomorrow.

Here is Magdeburg’s secret motivational fan weapon. Play better or Ronny will sit on you.


Pictures taken at considerable personal risk. The ultras at German clubs are very protective of their image rights and get cross with visitors taking pictures.

 

This is the place to be...

 

Perfect for VAR...

 

It is amazing but I’m not that tempted. There are about 2000 British season ticket holders. Season tickets are like gold dust, if you don’t use yours the club take it away from you. The true fans are superb but it’s a bit of a tourist/ trendy destination, as are St Pauli and Union Berlin, though on a much smaller scale and for different reasons. Plenty of foreign fans at Hertha Berlin too, though I still love going there. Quite keen on the lower league games now, especially in Germany.

 

I'm a bit torn on the whole 'stand up and sing all game' thing.
I enjoy a good atmosphere but, I quite like to actually watch the game.

 

It's one of the big failings of the lower levels at Wembley where everyone seems to stand regardless. Designated safe standing areas should be a must and sooner rather than later...

 

Well, you can sit in a stand a few yards from the ultras, soak up the atmosphere and have a perfect view.

Tonight a bottom of the table and local derby clash in Bundesliga 3, Carl Zeiss Jena v Zwickau. Jena are bottom and almost certain to be relegated to the regional leagues, Zwickau not much higher up the league.

better photos to follow.
Monday night on telly, and the German fans hate this. The home fans remained silent for the first 15 minutes of the game and the Zwickau fans lasted 35 minutes before the singing and flag waving started, in protest against the telly. The home fans were really friendly, curious as to why 3 Brits should be with five and a half thousand people in a freezing (-2C with wind chill) wet stadium on a Monday night. They won 2-1 but still highly likely to go down. Bit of odd afters as home fans had a go at Zwickau visitors and riot police intervened, including tear gas. This interrupted the bollocking of the Zwickau players by their own fans after the game, which I now realise is the right of fans who’s membership organisations own at least 51% of the clubs.

€2 for a 0.3l beer in the stadium so lots were consumed.

 

I seem to recall Carl Zeiss Jena were regulars in European competitions way back, are they old East Germans?...

 

Yep, all the clubs from round here (Saxony) originated decades ago, were disassociated and reformed when East Germany was set up, often with slightly different names, and many went under after reunification and only re-emerged as professional teams relatively recently. Apart from Union Berlin, currently in the top league, they all struggle but this means there are loads of tasty local derbies in the lower leagues, like last night.

Talking to a few locals last night, Jena (a nice little university town) is the odd one out in these AfD strongholds, left wing fan base. Chemnitz (formerly Karl Marx Stadt) are the ‘nastiest’, but most ultras claim to be apolitical. I always had an interest in Red Kaos, the Zwickau ultra group, who are incredibly principled, constantly in clashes with the club, the league, the universe. I thought they might be trendy anarchists but I suspect the red refers to the team kit.

I’ve had a great few days but am rather tired now, waiting at Dresden airport for flight to Munich then home.