SSV Jahn Regensburg 1-2 Union Berlin, Monday 5th August 2013

SSV Jahn Regensburg 1-2 Union Berlin (DFB Pokal 1^st Round)

Welcome to .......

Imagine choosing a train cos it sets off later but gets in earlier than the later trains, yet gets in later than a train setting off 2 hours after.   Anyway, a long delay at Zwickau prevented me getting my connection. That’s the start of it.  So, instead of arriving at 15:38, with time to check in at my hostel, I got to Regensburg HbF after half five and with a sudden urge to lighten my load in the toilet.  That done, I put my backpack in one of the lockers.  Nice little earner for Deutsche Bahn: ensure I’m late, so I have to spend an extra €4 on a locker.

The ticket office (note: photo taken on non-matchday!)

It was a 18:30 KO giving me enough time to walk to the ground.  However, after a few streets of absolutely zero footie shirts, I did wonder of I had the KO time wrong (again).  But it was fine – most folk were already in the stadium as us latecomers queued up for a ticket.  Another case of too few kiosks open for the numbers though.

€13 and I was in, behind the goal.  Thankfully, the ‘ultras’, for some reason unbeknownst to me, preferred to gather behind a floodlight pole (not pylon; it literally was a pole) on the halfway line.  Behind the goal had a small paddock of metal terracing with seating behind.

Behind the goal

The ultras were few in number, possibly due to the narrow terrace.  When they move to their new stadium they’ll have a terrace behind the goal of 5,000.  That’s much more like it.  They’ll also have a roof – much better for projecting some noise.

Union’s end looked packed, but on closer inspection, their fans had covered the boundary fence in flags, meaning fans could only use the top half of the terrace.  Wouldn’t happen in England (cos we don’t have fences).  I remember Chemnitzer doing this too.  Is it an East German thing, like having all their women tattooed?

SSV ultras

A note here about Union’s  players: 3 or 4 of them were the fattest professional footballers I have ever seen.  My favourite, the #17, a midfielder, strolled everywhere and burst into a jog when there was a promising move on.  He never did more in possession than lay it off politely and his slowness in the tackle was exemplified by dropping two Regensburg players in the opening minute of the 2^nd half. (He was eventually booked halfway through the half for chopping down another one.) 

MOTM for me (seriously) was the referee.  He didn’t blow his whistle every time a player went down just cos he couldn’t shake off his marker.  It made a pleasant change having the man in black gesture for players to get up, while the match carried on.

The Main Stand

Naturally, given the above, the ref played a central role in the storyline: at 1-2 he gave Jahn a penalty that never was.  A player bursts through, the defender turns and tracks, they go shoulder to shoulder in the box and the attacker flings himself down.  Never the defender.  They never go down, they can’t afford to.  But give an attacker the option of staying on his feet and possibly getting a shot off, or going down for an easy pen, it’s the latter every time.  The ref this time wasn’t up with play (not his fault, it was sharp break) so gave the decision from 25 yards away.

The away end

In the ensuing melée, the ref sent a Union player off.  I think it was for arguing rather than the foul, cos the ref never reached for his pocket till the row broke out (he was surrounded by Union players).  Did he, a la David Elleray, not mind being called a ‘c***’,  but he drew the line at ‘cheating c***’?

The penalty was taken –and missed.  The keeper saved it, but whether he dived left or right, I couldn’t tell.  I had this big fence in front of me and it was a low terrace.  Still, you’d expect Jahn to have pushed on against 10 men, but the pen took the wind out of their sails.  Although the ref sent off a 2^nd player for a 2^nd yellow (not our fabled #17, but a Jahn player) while the Jahn keeper at one point spent a full minute in the Union penalty area while a couple of corners were dealt with.

The Bischofshof Brewery, behind.

Union comfortably held on, 1-2, Regensburg opening the score early on, scrambling in a corner, before Union equalised 2 mins later from a header, while the awaysters pinched it with an identikit effort.

As for my hostel…reception was unmanned and you needed a code to get in.  Fortunately, I had that code from staying at the same place a few nights earlier.  Thus, I had the run of reception, the dining room and the outdoor terrace.  Still no-one about.  I rang the bell, twice.  Nothing.  For 10 minutes I wondered where to sleep.  I was hot, sweaty and tired.  I imagined sleeping against a wall in reception.  That would surprise them in the morning.  Then it dawned on me, I might still have the code for the actual ROOM.  I rifled through my bag, found the code and opened the door of room 21.  There were 8 beds, only one strewn with clothing.  I was in!  That shower was nice.  And the clean sheets.  Next morning, I never checked out.  What was the point – I’d never checked IN.

Attendance: 6,249  (Stadion an der Prüfeninger Straße or städtisches jahnstadion)

The Damage:
€13 tickets
€5 beer (inc. €2 deposit on the glass, which I kept)
€3 wurst
€4 badge
= €25

Tunes:
Leaders of the Free World (Elbow)
Elastica (Elastica)
Plumb (Field Music)
Total Life Forever (Foals)

Full time

High fives afterwards for the mascot and players

Home end metal terracing and 'camouflage'

An old brew kettle (I think) at the brewery