Geordie Al's Groundhopper Scrapbook: Alemannia Aachen 1-1 Borussia Moenchengladbach II, Friday 28th July 2017

Saturday 29 July 2017

Alemannia Aachen 1-1 Borussia Moenchengladbach II, Friday 28th July 2017

Alemannia Aachen 1-1 Borussia Moenchengladbach II (Regionalliga West, att. 9,100)

Welcome to ...

Having contemplated Valencienne in Ligue 2 on a Friday night, I decided upon Aachen in Regionalliga West. It made for an easier following day’s travel. That said, I was quite looking forward to it after a few days of the Womens Euro Championship.

Many moons ago, I saw a game just over the Dutch border from Aachen, at Roda JC, and I remember the adverts encouraging Dutch fans to come and have some of their own Bundesliga action at Alemannia in Bundesliga 2. At the time, clever marketing I thought. 7 or so years later and Alemannia are two divisions down, in the regional leagues, where they have been for quite some time now. Like Coventry City, building a new stadium wasn’t ‘ambition’, it was folly. Aachen nearly went bust.

Tickets easily procured.

In a contrite tale of where ambition lands you, they left their 21,000 capacity Tivoli stadium for one of them brand spanking new stadiums which might just be the wrong side of too big. Think the Ricoh Arena, but with yellow seats. It's a smart stadium, three sides of single tiered seating, with the away corner for standing, and 4^th side a large home terrace, as it should be in England. So what you have in a crowd of 9,100 is 2/3 of them behind the goal paying the minimum. The rest of the stadium was sparse to say the least, though well done to Moenchengladbach, who brought 5-800 to see their under 23s. The stadium was about half an hour’s walk from the railway station.

The teams come out...in front of the visitors' corner.

Hauntingly, the New Tivoli sits next to the old one. Great for continuing your aeons old match day rituals, not so good in trying to forget every other week why you're playing professional sides under 23 teams in a regional league. I went for a walk around the old stadium or as much as I could. Who knew Aachen is some Colossus in the world of horse prancing, sorry show jumping? The outer walls of Old Tivoli are decorated with past showjumping ‘heroics’. Who can forget David Broome in the 1961 world championship? Anyway, it was good to see the old stadium survive, even if I could deduce no plaque to remind me of Alemannia’s history there.

Silver Knight winning it for Great Britain.

I bought a ticket in the home end, helpfully divided into sections 1-4. I was nominally in 3 but eventually snuck into 4, closer to the corner flag, where I wouldn't have the netting impeding my view of the pitch and the ultras’ flags impeding my view of the near goal. (May I say, I'm not discouraging them.) Also, it prevented me being jostled and gave me plenty of space to rest my beer.

This is the life...

The game ended in a draw, lit up by two spectacular goals. Borussia went ahead when a pass out wide allowed the winger to control it then hit it on the outside of his right foot it. It curled beautifully into what was his far corner. I was right behind it.

Aachen equalised direct from a free kick and while he took it well, up and over the wall, it seemed a nice height for the keeper. He was nowhere near it. The goal certainly raised the atmosphere, but despite 20 minutes left, Alemannia couldn't find a winner. Are they destined for another season of purgatory?