Geordie Al's Groundhopper Scrapbook: FC Giessen 0-1 TSV Steinbach, Tuesday 13th August 2019

Wednesday 14 August 2019

FC Giessen 0-1 TSV Steinbach, Tuesday 13th August 2019

FC Giessen 0-1 TSV Steinbach, Regionalliga Sudwest, att. 3,349 (Waldstadion Giessen)

Welcome to the .....

Being based in Frankfurt and planning what game to go to tonite, I saw there were 4 games in the regionalliga sudwest and plumped for the one with the biggest stadium: the 10,000 capacity Waldstadion of FC Giessen, and what a good decision it was, even if I’d never heard of them before.

Giessen is a decent sized German town (c. 80,000) and is ‘famed’ (Wikipedia tells me) for its Mathematics museum. No, I didn’t go. I did the maths and figured if I arrived late enough I’d have an excuse…

Seems ~~Hamlyn~~ Giessen has a rat problem.

The stadium was a good walk away, a mile through the streets, then another mile up a hill. Don’t bother looking for floodlights – they don’t have any. I presume this scuttles any chances of promotion to the national 3.liga?

I expected a crowd of a few hundred. There were 3,000 and odd there, in a local(ish) derby with TSV Steinbach, who'd brought at least 300 themselves. The capacity of 10,000 must be some way out though: the curves at either end have been dismantled, leaving an empty space at one end and a VIP tent and various stalls at the other. Down one side of the pitch lay terrace, while opposite, the Main Stand was flanked by terracing either side, the terraces on both sides of the pitch going way past the byeline.

The view upon entry.

I entered at the car park end of the ground. Looks like that crawl of traffic up the hill WAS for the football after all. I took a quick photo from a decent distance away; the stewards insisted on seeing the photo, obviously worried I’d be identifying them in some way. Paranoia. What was I going to use it for? And how many times a day are their photos taken by CCTV?

The entrance. Watch our for stewards.

Upon entry, I was asked which team I was supporting, home or away. I said ‘home’ and was pointed left, towards the large terrace. The near side terrace on the right was reserved for the visitors. The home terrace was busy and it was difficult to see a spot. However, I needed food, water (beer) and most of all….a pee. I never did find a toilet, so ended up doing what most Germans do, finding a bush on the stadium perimeter.

The main home terrace.

For the first half, I stood on the home terrace flanking the Main Stand; it was a decent enough view and certainly ideal for the only goal of the game. A corner, taken right in front of me, was curled in to the near post. It was a bit low, so the Steinbach player dummied it for his team mate to head home on the half volley. A well-taken goal, but not the sort you see higher up the footballing pyramid.

The view from the corner.

TSV, who could have gone top if other results favoured them (they didn’t) always looked the better side and should probably have won by more. The players and fans looked more than happy though, with choreographed bouncing and chanting at full-time. The Giessen ‘ultras’? One man and his drum, with half a dozen mates. No matter how hard they tried, no-one else joined in. It’s summertime. Far nicer to wallow on the terrace than get all het-up over some footie match.

One man and his drum.

The Damage:

€10 ent
€3 beer (x2, Licher, 300ml)
€3.50 bratwurst
€5 badge
free prog

= €24.50 (£22)

The Tunes:
Watermark (Enya)
Shepherd Moons (Enya)
Mixmag Apr09 (Aeroplane)
Bummed (Happy Mondays)
Pills ‘n’ Thrills ‘n’ Bellyaches (Happy Mondays)
Turns Into Stone (Stone Roses)

Stayed at:
Frankfurt Hostel (£18)