28th November 2015
VFL Osnabruck 2 Chemnitzer 0 (Liga
3)
Civic duty called on the Saturday of our trip,
the City of Derby is twinned with the City of Osnabruck in Germany, and it was
with a degree of seriousness that we emailed the Osnabruck envoy to Derby the
night before, to see if he fancied meeting us at the game!
He didn’t reply until the Monday, apparently he
doesn’t check his emails at weekends, but that said, the thought of a freezing
cold afternoon sat with three beer swilling and bratwurst scoffing blokes with
a passion for all things Derby was perhaps a bit too much for him.
I’d wanted to go to Osnabruck for a while, for
a few reasons to be fair. One being the fact it is twinned with Derby, the
other that the ground was meant to be quite a smart and traditional stadium,
and thirdly, I’d heard from a friend of mine that the fans were known for their
support and passion.
It was my turn to drive, so I insisted on a 10.30am start, and by the time we were going past Deventer on the road towards
Enschede, both of my companions were snoring away. The autobahn soon arrived
and within two hours we were parking up on the side streets that are adjacent
to the ground.
The stadium in Osnabruck is not too far from
the centre of the City, and given it’s hemmed in nature with housing on all
four sides, you could to a degree draw parallels with the old Baseball Ground
at Derby. On that note, not a single reference to Derby was anywhere to be seen
as we travelled to and from the ground, certainly not on any road signs like
you would find in England. I’m sure though, somewhere in Osnabruck there is a
reference to it, just like the old Osnabruck Café in Derby where my Grandmother
used to work.
We managed a beer and a bratwurst on the
concourse outside the stadium, and as is always the case in Germany, the crowds
like to arrive nice and early. The stadium itself is a little cracker, holding
16,000 it has a fairly modern stand on one side and then in the main stand
where we sat were some executive boxes to the rear, while underneath were
various food and drink outlets.
Behind the goal to our left was covered
terracing, split down the middle between home and away fans, while behind the
goal to our right were the hardcore VFL supporters, and they didn’t half make a
racket.
Just shy of 9,000 were in the stadium for the
game against Chemnitzer. Chemnitzer come from the town of Chemnitz, which is in
the former East Germany, and while the name may not be overly well known, many
will remember them by their former name of Karl Marx Stadt. East German
football prior to the unification of Germany is something that fascinates me
somewhat, and when time permits I would like to do some more research into some
of the famous old names like Carl Zeiss Jena, Dynamo Dresden and Lokomotiv
Leipzig.
The atmosphere inside the stadium was
fantastic, the VFL fans were simply amazing, putting on a display of scarves
and flags prior to the kick off, and then singing non-stop throughout. The away
fans numbered about 30, but then according to the programme Chemnitz is 489
kilometers from Osnabruck!
The match was in what is known as Liga 3 in
Germany, and it is as you would expect, the third tier of football in the
Country. Some of the teams in the league have experienced the top flight
Bundesliga football, Energie Cottbus for one, and while Osnabruck sat fifth in
the table, Chemnitzer sat ninth.
The first half was pretty poor, but the game
came to life in the second period when the hosts found the net twice, in front
of the packed terracing. It was probably a fair result in the end as the
visitors offered very little in front of goal. As is always the case in
Germany, at the final whistle the players went to celebrate with, and applaud
the fans. Ten minutes after the game as we approached our car, the Osnabruck
fans were still in the stadium at full voice, celebrating the victory. My
admiration of German football fans continues to grow the more I see them. They
constantly support their teams, and never ever seem to get on their backs when
things aren’t going so well.
We escaped the City pretty easily and within a
couple of hours we were pulling onto Theo’s drive back in Duiven. Our Civic
duties complete, normal service could be resumed, the beers were very quickly
out of the fridge!
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