Euröpean Football 2016/17
12-10-2016
, 05:35 PM
12-10-2016
, 06:17 PM
12-12-2016
, 08:37 PM
Watch the throne.
12-12-2016
, 09:26 PM
12-13-2016
, 01:32 PM
Quick weekend trip report, as toedder wanted one:
- Flight into HAM pretty much on time giving me far too long before KO to kill, so have a look round some of the Christmas markets before finding a couple of pubs on Google that claimed to be open, neither were so just headed straight to the ground. Stellingen was fairly busy already about 2:30 before kickoff so grabbed a couple of cans there then walked down, which from a previous visit I knew not to be too far. Seemed to be some sort of big piss up going on at the arena opposite the ground, but knowing I wouldn't need to mess around with bezahlkarten I ignored it, grabbed beer/bratwurst and waited for kickoff. Game was pretty dire, became LOL when Holtby was sent off just before the break, but the ref evened up the LOL with a second yellow to an Augsburg player just before HSV grabbed the only goal of the game. Bloke next to me twigged that I was English and suddenly switched to very, very basic German asking me where I was from, if I'd been before etc, maybe my berating of the ref and every single player needed work. Atmosphere was fairly dire, despite being in the tier above the main HSV support they were pretty quiet. Was quick enough to get away post game, was going to sit down and watch some of the late game at the Hbf (Hertha/Werder?) but it took forever to get a beer so thought **** it, back to the hotel and drink there
- Opting not to go cross country and take ICE/connection to Braunschweig proved to be a great success, trading 15 euros for an extra two hours in bed was plenty worth it. Only downside was that it involved a connection in Hannover, through which the train from Bielefeld went, so it was standing room only for ~45 minutes and meeting shedloads of dibbles on the station, holding us on the platform for about 10-15 minutes while the DSC fans were filtered off. Train was already delayed a bit, so with having standing tickets I opted to get the tram straight down to find a good spot, was able to get in, grab a beer and find a free barrier with roughly a side-on view. Place was nowhere near sold out so I have no idea why they didn't allow an online sale for this (I know DSC have a friendship with HSV who have a friendship with Hannover who hate Braunschweig, but that all seems a bit convoluted) although the kurve was pretty jammed - as I'm not the tallest I couldn't see about a third of the far end. Game delivered pretty well, tons of fouling that the ref didn't feel like penalising, Eintracht needed to go for it off the bat after conceding after around 5 minutes, equalising on the half hour then taking the lead early in the second half. Was nice that they did things like make reference to their league title on 67 minutes etc, shortly afterwards they conceded an equaliser which looked like a deflection/keeper cock-up, hard to tell, but Eintracht took it straight down the other end for Kumbela to bag the winner. Was pissing it down after full time, so waited a few minutes for a few fans to clear before grabbing the tram, googling frantically to see if anywhere would be showing the end of the United game and/or Plop, but couldn't so just found somewhere that would have the back end of Mainz and then the Schalke game and drank plenty of Wolters
Some photos:
Markets around the Rathaus
Modern football is rubbish
Hamburg holding their lead
Eintracht-Stadion well before kickoff
Südkurve late in second half stoppage time
Assume this to be the Braunschweiger Schloss given the tram stop opposite was called that
- Flight into HAM pretty much on time giving me far too long before KO to kill, so have a look round some of the Christmas markets before finding a couple of pubs on Google that claimed to be open, neither were so just headed straight to the ground. Stellingen was fairly busy already about 2:30 before kickoff so grabbed a couple of cans there then walked down, which from a previous visit I knew not to be too far. Seemed to be some sort of big piss up going on at the arena opposite the ground, but knowing I wouldn't need to mess around with bezahlkarten I ignored it, grabbed beer/bratwurst and waited for kickoff. Game was pretty dire, became LOL when Holtby was sent off just before the break, but the ref evened up the LOL with a second yellow to an Augsburg player just before HSV grabbed the only goal of the game. Bloke next to me twigged that I was English and suddenly switched to very, very basic German asking me where I was from, if I'd been before etc, maybe my berating of the ref and every single player needed work. Atmosphere was fairly dire, despite being in the tier above the main HSV support they were pretty quiet. Was quick enough to get away post game, was going to sit down and watch some of the late game at the Hbf (Hertha/Werder?) but it took forever to get a beer so thought **** it, back to the hotel and drink there
- Opting not to go cross country and take ICE/connection to Braunschweig proved to be a great success, trading 15 euros for an extra two hours in bed was plenty worth it. Only downside was that it involved a connection in Hannover, through which the train from Bielefeld went, so it was standing room only for ~45 minutes and meeting shedloads of dibbles on the station, holding us on the platform for about 10-15 minutes while the DSC fans were filtered off. Train was already delayed a bit, so with having standing tickets I opted to get the tram straight down to find a good spot, was able to get in, grab a beer and find a free barrier with roughly a side-on view. Place was nowhere near sold out so I have no idea why they didn't allow an online sale for this (I know DSC have a friendship with HSV who have a friendship with Hannover who hate Braunschweig, but that all seems a bit convoluted) although the kurve was pretty jammed - as I'm not the tallest I couldn't see about a third of the far end. Game delivered pretty well, tons of fouling that the ref didn't feel like penalising, Eintracht needed to go for it off the bat after conceding after around 5 minutes, equalising on the half hour then taking the lead early in the second half. Was nice that they did things like make reference to their league title on 67 minutes etc, shortly afterwards they conceded an equaliser which looked like a deflection/keeper cock-up, hard to tell, but Eintracht took it straight down the other end for Kumbela to bag the winner. Was pissing it down after full time, so waited a few minutes for a few fans to clear before grabbing the tram, googling frantically to see if anywhere would be showing the end of the United game and/or Plop, but couldn't so just found somewhere that would have the back end of Mainz and then the Schalke game and drank plenty of Wolters
Some photos:
Markets around the Rathaus
Modern football is rubbish
Hamburg holding their lead
Eintracht-Stadion well before kickoff
Südkurve late in second half stoppage time
Assume this to be the Braunschweiger Schloss given the tram stop opposite was called that
12-13-2016
, 08:51 PM
12-13-2016
, 09:08 PM
