Preussen Münster 1-1 MSV Duisburg, Wednesday 10th August 2016

Preussen Münster 1-1 MSV Duisburg, att. 9,544 (3.liga)

Welcome to ....

Munster has an awful lot of beggars in the streets, as well as a busker on every street corner.  Wonder why?  Are the people of Munster renowned for their generosity?

Certainly, they weren’t generous in positioning the stadium.  It’s miles away from the city centre, but walkable if you’ve plenty of time and are an idiot.  The walk was simple enough…just head down Konigstrasse from the centre, cross the roundabout and carry on down Hammerstrasse until you reach the stadium on your right.  The fact you even cross over a motorway tells you something about the length of the walk.

The cyclists had the right idea.

At least you arrive at the right end, next to the ticket booths. Unusually, each sold tickets just for one area.  I figured I’d go for a standing ticket by the touchline (Block K), an inadvertently clever decision as that part had a roof and it intermittently chucked it down. Blocks L and K, instead of being one continuous stand, are split in two by a camera gantry.  So nobody gets the prize position of standing on the halfway line.  Looking at the metallic structure of both stands, this is relatively new.  And cheap, propped as the roof is with enough beams to block one’s view of the goal (see later).

The Duisburg fans

The main stand, opposite, is a plain one-tier cantilever, the ‘tribune’, which was sold out today.  No seating tickets for latecomers!  Both ends were curved terraces, around a dirt track.  Was/is it a motorcycle venue too?  MSV filled half of one end, while Preussen had the other.  Stramgely, Preussen had not one, but two ultras’ groups,  The smaller ‘Deviants’ or ‘Disaffected Youth’ (great names) dominated one pen, while the main group opened proceedings covered in a huge banner.  Good job nothing happened in the first 5 minutes.

Preussen ultras unfurl their banner.

This being close to a derby, MSV brought around 2,000, but the crowd of 9,544 was still a couple of thousand down on Preussen’s first match of the season.  After opening with two consecutive 0-1 defeats, has hope expired already? The team certainly look low on confidence.  Lots of pretty passing (enough for one fan to bemoan ‘tiki-taka’) followed by…nothing.  They don’t look remotely likely to score.  MSV, on the other hand, strode forward with purpose, went close several times and finally took the lead 20 mins in with a front post flick on from a corner.  I think it went straight in, but given there was a post between me and the goal, who knows?

The teams line up.

Half-time, and the sun was out again.  I eventually escaped the bottleneck of the stand and headed for the curve, via a sausage and beer stall.  It was true, I was further away from the action, but at least I didn’t have a post in my face.

I’d be tempted to say even less happened in the second half…I can’t remember much in the way of keeper action..when a looping high ball entered the MSV box, the defender slipped and the ball hit him smack on the hand.  Completely accidental, completely avoidable - this cross came from miles out.  Penalty, lashed home and you could see the relief, FINALLY a goal…as the players ran toward the curve, screaming and fistpumping.  MSV had thrown it away and now couldn’t get their momentum back to retake the lead.

Preussen equalise.

I didn’t walk back.  There was no need – a fleet of buses awaited us.  It was 8:50pm and I still made a 21:10 train to Dortmund.  You don’t get that in England.

The Damage:

€8.50 ent
€3 beer x3

€3 wurst

€2 badge

= €22.50

The Tunes:

The Digging Remedy (Plaid)
Lady’s Bridge (Richard Hawley)
Truelove’s Gutter (Richard Hawley)

Knee Deep In The North Sea (Portico Quartet)

Late Night Tales (Nils Frahm)

Live At The Social Vol. 1 (Chemical Brothers / Various)

Preussen Stadion panorama.

Tribune sold out.

Main Stand from the field behind.

Back of the Main Stand.

Badge above the Main Stand entrance.

Queue for tickets pre-match (good job I got in early).

Turnstile entry.

Beyond the away end..empty terracing.

Camera gantry.

All this for a camera gantry.

Another banner is put up at the front.

Preussen ultras.

The dirt track in all its glory.

The Main Stand.

The view from the curve.

Note the split for the camera gantry.

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.

Sing Your Heart Out.

The Damage:
€15 ent
€3 beer (400ml) x 2
€3 bratwurst
€1 prog
€4 badge
= €28

The Ostseestadion.

Outside the stadium, pre-match.

Floodlight overhangs stadium.

From the car park...

I spy..a Hansa team coach.

A  building painted up.

Graffiti near ground.

Behind the stand...edging closer to the away end.

Preussen ultras.

The view from inside the stadium.

Hansa ultras set off a flare.

The stadium at full-time.

That plexiglass screen.

Match action.

Time to leave.

Sunset over Ostseestadion.

Back of the Ost Tribune, Ostseestadion.

Plaque commemorating the stadium's rebuild.

Wehen Wiesbaden 1-1 Preussen Munster, Saturday 17th August 2013

Wehen Wiesbaden 1-1 Preussen Munster, 3.liga (att. 3,916)

Welcome to ...

An early season promotion duel?  Dunno, but with Wehen being top of the table after 3 games and Preussen having narrowly missed out last time, could be.  Tiny Wehen are confounding expectations though still not dragging in the fans, 3900 gathered today, of which the best part of a thousand came from Munster.  The stadium (think Glanford Park, but with standing on metal terracing at either end) was a mere 10 minutes from the railway station.  Get off the train, turn right at the main concourse and keep walking, past a fleet of policemen.  With relatively meagre support, don’t pin your hopes on following anyone.  In fact, when the crowd of 3,961 was announced, it actually got a cheer.   At the station I saw more Eintracht Frankfurt fans, heading for their home game with Bayern Munich.

A Wehen fan weighed down by scarves.

Once I'd bought my match ticket (in the home end), I had a nose around and came across the Helmut Schon Sportpark, next door.  This athletics stadium had seen Wehen play here on occasion, though they were based in nearby Taunusstein.  In the meantime, this was the ground of another Wiesbaden team, SV Wiesbaden.  Anyway, the terraces still exist, so you can get a flavour...

Athletics adjoining football.

After the death of a thousand cuts that was watching  Saarbrucken yesterday,this was a much better game.  Faster, more skilful, more attacking.  Preussen looked an excellent outfit in the first half and then struggled to hold on.  They also had some clever deadballs, with dummies and movement which always ended with them getting a shot off (shame about the shot).  So after all the work on the training pitch they went ahead in rudimentary fashion.  The corner was lobbed straight in the box, the keeper saved the header and the rebound was bundled over the line.  One or two half chances then went begging and Wehen hold on for nil-one at half time.

The Wehen ultras.

Second half, the traffic changed direction.  Or technically remained the same (it was the teams wot changed around).  This was good for me, as the action continued to be towards my end.  Preussen barely had a sniff as Wehen took the game to them, roared on by their 50-strong ultras (average age: 15).  The centre forward in particular, strong, quick and able to dribble the ball looked their best hope and he had a hand in the equaliser, drawing the defender than laying the ball left for his mate to hit home from 12 yards.  Honours even, points shared.

The Preussen fans.

At full time I was straight out, via the ticket office.  This was another stadium which takes your bag off you, though there was plenty of space inside. I even managed to make the 16:03 (this was a 2pm kick-off, btw).  Fabulous.  Enough time to collect my bags in Frankfurt…. no panic on as with later trains…..to find that my outward bound to Leipzig was 30 minutes late.  Oh well.

The Damage:

€10 ent

€3 beer (x2)

€3 wurst

€2 glass deposit

= €21

The Tunes:

Loss (Mull Historical Society)

Stick Around For Joy (Sugarcubes)

Ticket office

Back of a stand.

Enter here.

Here, there...metal everywhere.

Terracing in the Helmet Schon Sportpark next door.

Welcome to ...

Club shop wares.

Metal overload...even the terracing.

Looking towards the far end, pre-match.

In the seats...

Match action.

More match action.

The Main Stand.

Today's crowd is ...

A floodlight overlooks the scoreboard.

The cheerleader takes a breather.