Ground #156: Nudelarena, BSG Stahl Riesa.

25/04/2015
BSG Stahl Riesa 0-1 FC International Leipzig

Losarah '68

Sachenliga (6th division)
Attendance; 492 (20 away)
Admission: €4

I was first alerted to the existence of meinfernbus from an MSV Duisburg supporting friend who recommended the budget bus company as a cheaper, viable alternative for longer cross-city trips across ze Deutschland, as opposed to the often costly (if somewhat sexy and swanky) intercity trains. 

Scouring around, I discovered a link of routes that would enable me to fit in the perfect three match trip. An overnight, seven-hour journey bus would leave from Dortmund to Dresden in the infant hour of Saturday morning, enabling me to watch the mighty Zebras conquer the much reviled Dynamo in their infamously hostile Gluckgas Stadion from the away end.

Then the same website would enable me to catch a two hour coach ride to Berlin (and specifically taking in Union Berlin's home game) on Sunday, setting me back just a measly in €7 in addition to the €25 cost from the previous night. Unlike our own economy national bus companies like National Express, meinfern actually provide genuinely cheap, comfortable and affordable longer distance trips with the savings being great enough to warrant overlooking travelling by favourite method of transport (railway, natch). 

What could possibly be greater than this beautiful plan that had all clicked together? From a historical perspective there are fewer cities I have been more eager to visit than Dresden and Berlin, particularly as a Cold War and WWII *enthusiast. 

*Is 'enthusiast' the right term here? I mean, I'm not actually joyful to the concept of an ideological conflict between two world superpowers who are the on the brink of destroying one another with nuclear weapons. Nor do I particularly enjoy the thought of mass warfare that left thousands of cities lying in rubble and perished millions of innocent lives across the world. But I do enjoy learning and reading about such things, in particular I have always questioned the moral justification of the allied forces' firebombing and destruction of the city of Dresden in the closing months of WWII and whether the civilian death toll was proportionate to military gains and the subsequent ending of the war. Thus with my deep interest in the city and its following rebuild, visiting the 'Florence of the Elbe' had long been on the bucket list.

Regardless though, devastation struck me hard the very following day I had booked all the key components of my trip (travel, hostels and match tickets). The game had against MSV Duisburg had already been pegged back to the Sunday thus meaning that I'd be faced without the main football event of my trip. Gut wrenching. I was eagerly relishing the task of navigating out of the stadium alive from the hands of Dynamo Ultras after having had the audacity to have beaten them. 

For the record, I'm not actually an MSV Duisburg supporter, nor do I identify myself as one. They were one of my very first experiences of football in Germany and a key part of why I fell in love with their football culture. I do feel a certain fondness for them and look out for their results though. I really hope they can return to the second tier this season, only a few seasons after they were demoted for financial irregularities. 

I undertook hours of research in the hope of finding a reasonably close and worthwhile backup options but sensible ideas were at a premium. None of the traditionally big East German clubs, such as Carl Zeiss Jena, Chemnitzer, Hallescher or BSG Chemie Leipzig were either at home or playing on the Saturday. The closest professional clubs in action, Rot-Weiss Erfurt and Energie Cottbus (both of them in the third division) were awkward 3 hour journeys by public transport, such is the lack of decent rail infrastructure available in the east. Oddly enough my closest top flight game choice would be a few hour bus ride over the border in Prague at Bohemians 1905.

Even Dynamo Dresden's reserves (5th tier) home match at the splendid communist era Heinz-Steyer Stadion was moved to a Tuesday evening at short notice. Thus it appeared as if I would have to endure the hardship of a football-less 24 hours. 

As part of my exploration of Dresden, I trespassed into this aforementioned Heinz-Steyer Stadion, home of Dynamo's reserves, and home to the first team many moons ago. An absolute behemoth of a bygone era still standing, albeit in a wonderfully derelict and crumbling state.

But fear not. One final push to not make me not reflect on a sense of squandered opportunity thereafter made me stoop as far down as searching as low as the sixth level of the pyramid; in the localised state of Saxony.

Now. as a general rule I have generally abided by in recent years is this; to never watch non-league football as a neutral ever again. Having had to endure the misguided and completely false notions about non-league football being a "real" game being played by "real" men in a friendly, cheap and cheerful environment where everybody peacefully coexists has long left me harbouring a feeling of familiarity breeding contempt. So to abandon this principle it would have to be something of real temptation to lure me back into the world of paedophile mascots, meat-paste sandwiches and hip flasks.

There was something particularly stoking about the history of BSG Stahl Riesa, however, that grasped my attention. Located just 40km north of the city of Dresden, I would not have to venture to far offbeat to get there, somewhat of a consolation if the game and match experience would evolve into a complete dud. 

BSG like many clubs in the former GDR, have floundered badly since reunification. Like so many others in the region, financial struggles have hit them hard, compounding in the former club dissolving in 2003 after years of mergers and desperate attempts to stay afloat. 

The original club, TSV Stahl Riesa, were of the original stalwarts of the DDR-Oberliga, otherwise known as East Germany's top flight. They spent sixteen seasons there from 1967, usually just as one of the division's also rans - but quite a remarkable achievement given the town's modest population. After dissolution of GDR, the town of Riesa was badly affected due to the closure of the town's traditional steelwork industry, as somewhat clearly indicated by the club's name. The town's population has decreased from over 50,000 to just 32,000 in the intervening couple of decades. 

The town's other footnote of the town's reputation is for its pasta production; hence the brilliant name of the club's ground; Nudelarena. Literally a translation of 'Noodle Arena'! Thus making the effort to go there would give Lewes FC's 'Dripping Pan' long overdue competition for the best name ground I have ever been to. There's even a noodle museum on the same road as the ground (which unfortunately I didn't have enough time to visit). 

The 3km walk from Riesa's bahnhof to the ground was a bit of an eye opener, an 'experience' to put it kindly. You hear and read perceptions of the East being a bit grim, backwards and derelict; set back after decades of a communist totalitarian regime. The grandeur of Dresden would lead you to believe such an idea is a myth, but this fully lived up to such a stereotype. What an odd place this was. Really run down, eerily quiet, several abandoned warehouses and railway buildings, graffitied streets and a sense of the land that time forgot. Completely contrasting, I also surpassed several pleasant country houses, seemingly dotted in totally the wrong environment.

Approaching the mythical Noodle Arena, I was soon felt to feel like I was completely in the wrong universe. Joining the queue at the tea hut turnstile, a hench, heavily bulked, skinheaded, completely tattooed and bearded steward hurried over to me. Attempting to communicate to each other in broken languages, us both unable to converse properly in each others mother's tongue, he pulled my phone out of my pocket and indicated towards the gallery of my phone. He was signifying to not take pictures of the ground, as I had done with the ground's entrance sign.

Needless to say having skid my pants just a tad, I duly obliged to his request. Well, sort of. Any photographs I have taken below are sneak ones on the few rare occasions where I felt I wasn't being observed, so you'll have to excuse their poor quality. It's a shame really, as it was a cool, quirky little ground. Completely uncovered but terraced three sides around the length of ground, the other goal is just a small field with a couple of football nets, which, true to non-league rituals, had several enthusiastic whippersnappers enjoying a kickabout rather than viewing the dross being served up the seniors. One length of the ground has a sectioned scarily ugly Eastern European styled corrugated away end, completely barriered and fenced off. This was required for BSG Chemie Leipzig's 600 travelling supporters earlier in the season when a group of Stahl Riesa fans invaded the pitch and tried to attack them. The tinpot visitors on this occasion,  newly founded FC International Leipzig (actually hailing from an outside town called Schkeuditz) weren't required to be placed under such security measures. Their small smattering of followers (presumably friends and family of the players) freely cheered their solitary goal from nearby the away dugout, which was enough to keep them at the summit of the division.

I knew the game would be of absolutely dreadful quality from within 5 seconds of the game commencing; the visitors attempting to shoot from the halfway line upon kick off. And true to my sneering expectations, it was. The goal that won the contest, midway through the second half, came courtesy of a comically soft header that slowly trickled in off at the post. Truth be told it was probably a tad unwarranted on the home side, who competed and fought well with the league leaders, but having failed to take their few golden chances when they did arrive they inevitably ended up with nothing.

For those of you who like to claim that lower league football is puritanical and played by the burliest and most honest of men, FC International were extremely cynical on their course to grind out the three points, playacting and time wasting their way successfully to see out the contest. A BSG player was shown his marching orders late on for deciding to lamp one of the main culprits. I know it's wrong to justify violence, but maybe sometimes, well......

This was an extremely weird and odd little place. Maybe my initial encounter with that steward prompted my paranoia somewhat but I felt very much an outsider in the ground, very much as if i was being watched. Naturally I expect that don't get many unfamiliar faces creeping up in their habitat, but I certainly didn't feel much of a friendly or laidback vibe here. As I continued to drift off and venture into thought while the mind-numbing poorness that was taking place on the pitch, I did have to ponder why exactly I had abandoned a reasonable chunk of my day devoting to such lower league shitness, all while I only have a short period of time in one of the most compelling cities on the continent. "Why didn't I just go on that free walking tour I was booked to go on, like any normal or sane person would" I questioned to only my complex and nonsensical brain, wondering why football appears to still have such a stranglehold on me when, truth be told, my interest in the actual game itself is somewhat lacking.

Nonetheless, it was an interesting experience. The draught halleroder pilsener at €2.50 a go made it much less of a hardship, and the bratwurst I tucked into there was as pleasant as anywhere else I have experienced in the Weimar Republic. Amusingly, Riesa did boast a small group of ultra style support from the side. A handful of nonleague-esque oddballs with a few flags and a drum. They seldom actually bothered to sing, but when they did, it was what I imagine myself and my small band of mates sound like after a 8 pint ale session in Basingstoke.

As for Dresden itself, wow.......
I spent the best part of five hours in the morning just wandering around and exploring the city and it just "up there", completely joining the likes of Prague, Vienna and Krakow in terms of architectural beauty. When you're at the tip of the Altstadt you just repeat to yourself "wow" at every corner you turn, dazzled by its Baroque magnificence. It's hard to envisage that only in recent history the city was completely ruined and reduced to rubble. On some of the famous buildings you can see the effects of total war, but even the rebuilt ones such as the notorious Frauenkirche ('church of our lady') and it's opera hall have been restructured to retain so much character and elegance.

Other areas of the city are just as impressive. In the south of the town close to Dynamo's stadium there are picturesque, wide-open parks (including one of the oldest and biggest zoos in Germany + an electric steam train route going through it for reasonable admission). There's a carnival esque market in the old town square with hordes of sausage, steak and beer halls that are so lustful on senses like mine. And the new town, north of the river, is a livelier, youthful district with artistic buildings, plentiful bars, shops and clubs.

Quite honestly, I'm surprised how under the radar the city manages to go with tourists. It's now tied with Heidelberg as my favourite German city and I can't wait to revisit. When I do I'm sure I'll get to sample this notoriously mental atmosphere produced by the Dynamo K-Block. 

Yeah, I couldn't really get my head around the idea of ex-pat fans of this club either.

Ultra culture. 

Also startling was the presense of several HSV-Stahl Riesa 2CW flags.

Dulka Praha and Dynamo Dresden fighting over supremacy of this odd town.

Some of the pleasant scenery en route from the ground.