Borussia Dortmund 1-1 Augsburg, Tuesday 20th December 2016

Borussia Dortmund 1-1 Augsburg (att. 81,360 – ‘ausverkauft’)

There but for the grace..etc.  I may not be religious, but it’s worth taking a moment to think why I’m in Germany at this time: the Christmas markets.  I was in Dusseldorf and Dortmund, but it could so easily have been Berlin, where, yesterday, some maniac murdered a lorry driver and drove his vehicle into a crowd of shoppers at one of Berlin’s Christmas markets.  What a world we live in.

Signal Iduna Park from the Rote Erde.

My partner and I work hard.  So with a fortnight off at Christmas, we planned a short foreign trip to get us in the mood.  ‘Let’s visit a German Christmas market.’  I was sold.  After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, (basically, looking up cheap flights) we plumped on Dusseldorf. Even better, there were midweek Bundesliga fixtures.  Where is near Dusseldorf?  That’s right, the Big Fish - Borussia Dortmund.  If I could just get hold of some tickets, there’s one Xmas present sorted there and then.

Colour co-ordinated portaloos

Borussia sell out every game, so what to do?  Well, opponents Augsburg are based over 300 miles to the south, in Bavaria.  And if they’re entitled to 10% of tickets, surely they’ll not sell out 8,000?  I went on their website.  After sale to the members, they’d go on general sale. I sent them a cheeky e-mail about my chances and they replied; wait till general sale.  I was back on the website on the day of general sale.  Turned out I had to live within a certain postal address to get tickets and SE5 wasn’t among them.  I sent another e-mail to the ticket office.  I think the earlier e-mail had softened them up; tickets were sorted, an invoice sent and I had to sort out an international bank transfer.  OK, so not cheap (seating tickets were €49.10) but you don’t visit the Westfalenstadion every week.

An Augsburgian pre-match.

FYI, the Dortmund Xmas market is much better than Dusseldorf, which is far too spread out and is more a case of lots of markets in lots of places.  And in Dortmund’s case, there’s a metro station right in the middle of it which will take you direct to the stadium (‘stadion’).  I’d already had one transport victory: having match tickets entitled us to free travel from Dusseldorf, as it’s in the same region.  Super, smashing!

Happy Xmas!

We got to the stadium early, to savour the atmosphere and enjoy sausage and gluhwein in the Rote Erde beer garden.  Including the Xmas market, I drank over a pint of the stuff. But it is nice.  And it is cold.  So much so, we head to the club shop, and even that is one of the finest of its kind, incorporating a pretend stand and an indoor court for the kiddies to kick a ball about.  We escape relatively unscathed (a programme and a bell for my bicycle).

Plenty of angles in scoreboard corner.

Next, I have to drop off my man-bag in a portacabin, as it’s not allowed in.  Woman-bags are.  I shouldn’t grumble.  I’m not grumbling.  Means more space inside.  What I can grumble at is the cashless prepaid card-only payment system.  How do I know how much I’ll buy at the counter?  Actually, I know exactly how much: nothing.  I refuse to be part of this gimmick.  So no beer for me, though as I said, it’s freezing in here.  Not sure I wanted one.  Bah humbug.

The pre-match flag waving.

Our seats turn out to be up in the gods – 2^nd off back row, top tier.  So we can’t see the entire ‘Gelbe Wand’ because the front of the roof is lower than we are.  But we are on the halfway line, so not a bad view.  We’re in amongst about 30 Augsburg fans (the rest are in the corner, to our right).  Their other tickets appear to have been devoured by Dortmund fans, judging by the yellow.

Looking towards the Yellow Wall.

I am unsure who to pull for, I like both these teams.  However, Augsburg start the brighter and score a canny opener, Ji being put through for an easy tap-in.  So easy, he misses, but the rebound falls to him and he bundles home.  Then Augsburg miss a crucial chance before half time.  The centre forward goes to control it (and fails) when all he had to do was lift it over a stranded keeper with his head.  He may regret that.

The Gelbe Wand.

Halftime comes.  We go for a wander.  The toilet break takes longer than it should and we get back in time to hear an almighty cheer; we have missed one minute of action and all of Dortmund’s goals (they don’t get another).  An old woman goes nuts at us for getting in the way of her seeing everyone else celebrate.  At least she saw the goal!

The expected onslaught never really appears.  Aubameyang is off colour, Götze anonymous and sub Schürrle haphazard.  Dortmund never really look like getting another and one breakaway nearly results in an Augsburg winner.  Still, at full time, there’s no doubt who’s happiest, as the Augsburg fans are delirious.  Imagine if they’d won.  Then it’s time to head to the main railway station and a couple of Paulaners for the journey ‘home’ to Dusseldorf.  I am cold.  I am tired.  But I am alive.

Home time!

The Damage: 
€49.10 match ticket (x2) 
€5 delivery fee
€10 international payment fee 
€2 programme 
€6 bicycle bell 
€3 mulled wine (x2) 
€2.50 sausage (x2)
= €132.20 (for 2)

The last remnants.

Rhubarb beer.  As bad as it sounds.

FC Augsburg 0-1 Hertha Berlin, Saturday 15th August 2015

FC Augsburg 0-1 Hertha Berlin, att. 28,130 (Bundesliga)

Welcome to ......

Whatever you do, DON’T walk to this stadium – it’s miles away! While at the Hbf, looking for a tram to the stadium, I spotted a few Augsburg fans dawdling on bahnhofstrasse, at what looked like a tramstop. It wasn’t the line I was looking for, but offered me ‘futballinen’ which sounded like exactly the man. Turns out they do football specials on matchday, from 2 hours before kick-off. This was 2pm, an hour and a half before, and the tram was full after two stops, so beware. We thus traipsed past 8 or so other stops without stopping, trying not to think ‘schedenfreude’ on the passing by of every sorry group. Not much point having free travel to the stadium if you can’t get on it.

The journey was long, and the streets were flat. Couldn’t the locals have cycled there? The tram tipped us off…and the stadium was STILL the best part of a mile away, last building in town, then the motorway. Bolton all over again. Not the most beautiful of facades either, concrete a-plenty. Turns out Augsburg have plans to encase the stadium in something more salubrious, but it’s all about the money. A pity, since Augsburg FC has grown exponentially in recent years, to the point where they’re virtual Bundesliga mainstays.

The stadium looms in the distance.

The stadium is less than 10 years old and is not much bigger than their previous ground in terms of capacity, but the club president, in his scheming, felt the Bundesliga could only be achieved with a new stadium (less athletics track, more seating, more cover…more VIP space)…and he was right. Augsburg have been in the Bundesliga for five years and have qualified for Europe this season.
I know all of the above cos I dropped on lucky in the ticket queue. A similarly-aged fan approached me with a spare ticket for the kurve - €14. Turns out he targeted me cos he only had one ticket and I looked alone. Well, he got that right. As ever, the home terrace was sold out. Whatever you read about cheap Bundesliga football, it’s rare you’ll find a terrace ticket for most of the teams.

The stadium has 26 sections (literally A-Z) with the home terrace K-O. Peter was normally in ‘N’with his sister, but after a swap of tickets, he came in ‘M’ with me. Unfortunately, having talked too much (BOTH of us), we left it late and space was at a real premium. We ended up right at the back, stood behind fans on the same step as us, so viewing wasn’t ideal, but no matter. We were still too busy talking.

In case you're in doubt

The WWK Arena is one tier all round, with a large terrace behind one goal for the home support, while the away fans are situated in the opposite end, in one corner. Excellent views too, with the terrace having a steep rake, although there are staunchions at the back holding the roof up. Costs obviously had to be cut somewhere.

The match was generally a let-down (well, it was for the home fans). The only goal was a weak penalty straight down the middle from Kalou, following a foul. Otherwise, FCA only threatened in the last few minutes, as the keeper joined in the attack. (On one of these, the Hertha keepr caught the ball and could have kicked for goal, given there was no-one in their half. But he chose to hold onto it and waste time. Boring.) An earlier free kick slammed against the Hertha post.

Note the away terrace, far corner.

There were cards galore though and Hertha saw redhalfway through the 2nd half. A chance for Augsburg perhaps? 11 v 10. Only it wasn’t 11 v 10, it was 10 v 10. We’d missed star player Bobadilla getting a second yellow for taking out a player on the halfway line in the last minute of the opening half. Ironic, given that the loudest cheer of the day was for the earlier news that Bobadilla had signed a new contract. Hero to zero.

After the match, the heavens opened and we hid under the stands, having a beer. We chatted rubbish for another couple of hours before we had to leave – I hadn’t checked in yet, and it was Peter’s teatime. I’d had a great day, whatever the result.

The Damage: €14 ent€4.70 beer (x2)= €23.40

***Apologies for the lack of pics; too busy rabbiting!  

RasenBallsport (Red Bull Leipzig) 0-2 Augsburg, Friday 2nd August 2013

RB Leipzig 0-2 Augsburg (DFB Pokal)

Everyone's favourite Weimar Chancellor...

'Perfunctory',  That about sums it up as 3.liga 'RasenBall' are despatched with ease by Bundesliga Augsburg, ahead after four and a half minutes, killing the game with a late second and never in danger inbetween. But that didn't matter, cos what a stadium!  Built actually INSIDE the former communist concrete bowl that was the 'Zentral Stadion', this is as spectacular a setting for a football stadium as it gets.  Enter from the direction of the 'Festwiese', a large open expanse to the south of the stadium.  As myriad other streams of people come together from all directions, everyone heads towards a large tower and steps.  You are within touching distance of the stadium...yet all you can see is a big hill and a glimpse of...something.  (It's the roof.)

The walk across Festwiese.

I climbed the steps and turned left and a handy ticket booth appeared.  After negotiating the seating plan, I plumped for somewhere high up in Sektor C.  €15, all-seater.  So, slightly more than an average German terrace, alot less than your average German seat.

It was sweltering.  So obviously, Red Bull (let's not pretend they're called anything otherwise) had the slowest turnstiles imaginable.  The 1st problem was getting past the barriers; one guy was checking everyone's tickets to make sure we were in the right sektor.  But then you still had to get through an electronic ticket barrier, so what was the point?  And while this punter sweated amongst the herd, the turnstile operators at least had the protection of a gazebo.  Good job this is an EVENING game.

Shade for security...swelter for fans

Once through, I climbed the steps to the top of the hill before looking down on the magnificence that is this stadium-within-a-stadium.  It is the Russian doll of stadia!  You then have to walk DOWN some steps and go across the walkway over what is, in effect, a moat.  Wow!

Inside, the upper lower (!) concourse had plenty of refreshment stands, though never enough for a day like this. A middle concourse contains loads of toilets, a clever way of reducing the normal crushes.

After queueing for a quarter of an hour, I finally gained the sustenance I was craving, a Sprite and a beer.  Today was not a day for food.  Once I reached the upper tier, rather than take my assigned seat amongst the throng, I headed to the back where there was space to spread myself out.

The stadium within a stadium.

One had a great view from everywhere.  Some stood at the back, leaning on railings, some stood on the stairs, no-one bothered them.  Meantime, if you wanted to join the ultras, they had the block below, behind the goal.  They did their best (god bless 'em), but despite the home end being just about full, it was only a couple of hundred waving their flags and joining in the chanting. Possibly to do with the artificial construct of 'Red Bull' themselves; formed ostensibly to be a marketing tool for a multinational company to buy their way up the leagues and get some use out of this super stadium, built for the 2006 World Cup.  Leipzig already had at least one team - and Lokomotive still struggle on at their ramshackle home in the suburbs.  (Another, Sachsen, have since gone bust).

Across the drawbridge (sort of).

However, with continued Red Bull backing, this side could go all the way, much to the chagrin of Germans who support 'proper' teams.

Still, I love this stadium. This includes the walk.  Get a map, you can't go wrong.  At the very worst, walk from the city centre towards the river, and when you get there, turn right. Or left (if you've gone down a different road to me).  It can't be more than 15 minutes from the Hbf.  There's a reason this was once 'Zentral Stadion'.

The teams come out.

Attendance: 30,307 (Red Bull Arena)

The Damage:
€15 ent
€3 wurst
€3.50 beer (50c deposit on the glass; kids collecting them later on made a fortune.)
€3.50 Sprite.  How desperate was I?

The Tunes:
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back - Public Enemy
The Fool - Warpaint
Intro: The Gift Recordings - Pulp

His 'n' Hers - Pulp

The home end.

Augsburg didn't bring alot.

The Main Stand (club offices behind, leastways).

The upper tier pincer movement

The mezzanine floor (toilets).

My block...and make no mistake.

East German chic.

The Leipzig Armadillo.

Beautiful!

Energie Cottbus 3-1 Augsburg, Sunday 9th August 2009

Energie Cottbus 3-1 Augsburg, Bundesliga 2, att. 13,600

Welcome to ...

The Augsburg coach, outside the Radisson.

Welcome to...(II)

Side of the stand.

Are there enough police?

Everything spick and span.

The fan shop.

Stadium plan.

Main entrance

The home ends awaits their heroes.

The teams come out.

Arriving in style.

The Big Match.

Welcome to ...(III)

The away end.

Looking towards the away end.

A player is interviewed at full-time.

The home end.

The far corner.

A handy perch.

Down the line.

The view from the terrace.

The Sky cameras.

Fans mill about at full-time.

A local fanclub.

The home terrace, full-time.

One's the mascot.

The players' tunnel.

Welcome to ...(IV)

The view from the top of the stand.

An auspicious year...Energie was formed!