Geordie Al's Groundhopper Scrapbook: Hansa Rostock 1-0 Preussen Münster, Friday 5th August 2016

Saturday 6 August 2016

Hansa Rostock 1-0 Preussen Münster, Friday 5th August 2016

Hansa Rostock 1-0 Preussen Münster, att. 13,300 (3.liga)

Welcome to ...

It’s Friday nite and thanks to the German fixture system there’s quite a few games to choose from. As I’m coming back from Denmark, how about Rostock? Northern Germany can’t take that long, can it? Over seven hours. Nevermind, what of the away fans? Münster is hardly close. In consequence, around 250 make the journey, all but around 20 being white, male and aged 18-25. Friday evening, 6pm KO, is hardly conducive to the average away fan.

Pre-match queues.

The Ostseestadion can be complicated to get to, needing at least one tram and bus from the city centre, but upon seeing a few fans I just did my usual sheep thing and followed them, which was just as well.

The stadium is very impressive for a 3.liga side (having been rebuilt 10 years ago from an oval). It is unusual though in that the terracing is in 3 corners of the stadium. This means the Hansa ultras take up the seating behind one goal (but don’t use it). The two corners given over to the home fans are also only half open (like Ayresome Park, in its dying days). Health and safety?

Magnificent floodlights.

The third corner of terracing is given over to the away contingent, whose number tonight is boosted by one: me. There were only seating tickets available in the home end so I had a walk around to the away end. Plenty of space and €15 (the cheapest seats were €20).

Wearing my ‘Zico’ t-shirt, I was accosted by a similarly aged Preussen fan. ‘That must be an old one!’ and we chatted about past world cups, as well as why there was only one team for him: Preussen. My next experiences with their fans were less pleasant.

'Peering in.'

Of Preussen’s following, the vast majority were ultras, which meant bunching up behind their banner, halfway up the terrace, doing their thing. I sat on the terrace nearby, quaffing my beer and wurst, before taking a few snaps. One ultra (ironically the bored looking kid whose flag waving looked a chore) came over to berate me. ‘Ok’ I said.

Away turnstile.

Course, I don’t seem to learn. Later, as I took more snaps, another ultra came racing over and attempted to snatch my cameraphone from me. I wanted to say ‘I mean no harm’ but this episode still vexes me. I mean, they had another guy constantly taking snaps. They want to make a spectacle of themselves (in a good way) but they also want to control how they are illustrated. Well, that;s not how it works in this day and age, though I do accept that I don’t like having my picture taken without permission either. But then, we live in an era of CCTV everywhere. These ultras want to have their cake and eat it, to have the pics THEY want reproduced, probably in ultras’ mags like ‘Blickfan Ultra’.

Ultras in action.

I the second half, I moved, further around, partly to avoid the netting behind the goal and to be slightly higher up. Yet still there were obstacles; the plexiglass partitions on which away fans insist on putting their stickers, as well as fencing and roof supports. And this was in an end barely 1/10 full.
Preussen played sme pretty stuff, without ever creating anything, while Rostock found difficulty passing to their own side once they got past the halfway line. However, they did manage the only goal…a cross, a sidefoot?....which was so completely out of the blue, people looked at each other quizzically.

Looking towards the pitch (behind the banner)

The Rostock ultras, to our left, were animated at times though I couldn’t hear them; testament to the Preussen ultras efforts, as well as the Rostock noise being aimed towards the pitch. Thus, another bit of (inadvertent) poor stadium planning, as the opposition fans barely goaded each other (though I heard a couple of ‘scheisse Rostock’ chants. Presumably these were aed at the team, rather than the town, though the latter didn’t seem to have much about it, save for a couple of medieval gates and some old town wall. I found Rostock rather dull. Even the guidebook suggests going further down river to Warnemünde. I concur – and I’ve never been.