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| Coming out of the station... |
Monday nite and I'm watching football beyond 10 o'clock. Last nite, on the Sabbath, I was watching footie till 10:20pm. All for television. I s'pose we have similar in England, but we've yet to truly embrace the Sunday evening spectacular.
Still, Dresden brought a fair few, maybe a couple of thousand. The vast majority were in the seats. Why? Since none of 'em sat down, weren't they just giving more dosh to VfL Bochum? I suspect there's more to it...maybe the number of police gives it away, maybe they were put in the seats hoping it might calm them down. Didn't look like it though.
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| On the way to the match...note graffiti |
I reckon I was lucky to get a standing ticket in the home end, cos it was PACKED. I was in a corner section and even then spent the 1st half stood on the gangway, to the chagrin of a steward who twice came to berate those of us daring not to squash ourselves onto the terrace. Good job it was quite sedentary where we were, fenced off from the main tribune behind the goal.
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| Welcome to the Ruhr Stadion...Dresden are in town! |
Thus, I couldn't really see the Bochum terrace in full swing, but you could hear them. In a completely covered arena there was little chance of noise escaping. Karlsruher should look into this: get rid of the athletics track and stick a couple of stands behind each goal. Boost the atmosphere and save me from the sunstroke I nearly had 2 days ago! As it is, they have a couple of side-stands and open ends, which, I s'pose at least makes it characterful (compared with many modern stadia).
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| Concrete heaven...but I like it. |
Tonite I'm staying in Cologne, an easy journey to/from Bochum. And for once I time it just nice, arriving at Bochum HBF with an hour to kick-off, ie, perfect time to follow the crowd, rather than dig out my map. I am instantly impressed by the VfL flags flying outside the station. Why don't more towns celebrate their football teams like this? After all, you'd never have heard of many places were it not for their football team.
A la Aalen, and Aue...find a road going uphill and keep going. It's about 25 minutes walk. On another night there may be trams; I saw the tracks but not a single tram came our way. When I later saw police parked across the tram track, I took this to mean they were out of action for some reason.
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| Ticket booth |
Then I bought my match ticket. I'd passed booths for seating areas (€27/€32 for adults) and walked on for the 'stehplatz'. €12. What a difference. No wonder the terrace was packed. Note to Bochum: take out some more seats and put more terracing in. Still, a crowd of 20,000 was more than respectable (last season's average being 15k).
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| Behind the goal |
The match was one of intensity, both sides really going at each other. True, it was cooler than the previous 2 games I'd been to (but still t-shirt weather) but this was an excellent game. In the end, a draw was problies fair, VfL opening the scoring early with a free header from an inswinging free kick, with Dynamo equalising midway through the second half with an absolute belter. A ball was played to the right midfielder and while the right back pegged it 40 yards up the wing, the ball was instead played inside where, with one touch, the player controlled it, then turned and smashed it high into the net from 25 yards with his left foot. Although it seemed to take an age to get there, it looked a goal all the way.
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| Busy in the seats too |
Later on, both sides had chances to nick it. It was interesting to see both the players who caught my eye - the Japanese and the #18 - be taken off though. Is this the lot of the attacking midfielder? I saw the obligatory Japanese fan (they're everywhere there's a Japanese player in Europe). But seeing the Bundesliga's obsession with Asian players, I wouldn't be surprised if this one is destined for bigger things.
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| The away support...on a Monday night. |
I was puzzling on a few other things today as well. If 'rewir power' provide energy, isn't it a bit embarrassing if the whole of the stadium's name doesn't light up? (see photo, albeit blurred.) And why do I keep seeing Celtic shirts? Today's guy was definitely a German. And why do German teams insist on playing 'You'll never walk alone'. If the Germans have made terrace culture their own, then this is one habit they really ought to kick.
Attendance: 20,195
The Damage:
€12 ent
€3.70 beer
€2.50 wurst
= €18.20
The Tunes:
Five Leaves Left - Nick Drake
Careless Love - Madeleine Peyroux
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| Left side seats |
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| VfL's No. 1 fanclub (possibly). |
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| After match interview with Sky. |
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| The home terrace clears |
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| Perhaps they should change energy supplier? |
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| Next up...St. Pauli |
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