24/05/2015
VFL Bochum 0-2 FC.Kaiserslautern
Zoller '31, Hofmann '76
Attendance: 19,057 (2,500 away)
Admission: €12
There seems to be a perception with German football amongst the Safe Standing campaign activists back at home that terracing in Germany is mostly built with rail seating that gives you a designated area and exact space to go onto. This form of standing is extremely few and far between, however, and VFL Bochum's Ostkurve is certainly as old-school as they possibly come, and at wide odds with a perceived image of comfort and safety in mind.
In fact in the case of Bochum and it's Ostkurve, it was an absolute filthy dive! I was expecting the stadium to appear rather contemporary and well maintained. Oh uh. Bird shit splattered everywhere, grimy and littered paths, the step pathway not clearly marked with nobody adhering to the no standing rule on the lines, meaning getting back down the exit from the top was a very navigating task that involved a lot of bumping, squeezing and pushing. But I liked it, it was a proper environment for watching football in, and good fun to boot. The roof of this particular stand was really low and made for strong acoustics, which was just as well as VFL's vocal core were reasonably loud for the duration, in spite of the weak on field showing.
Another remarkable thing I find with terracing is just how much it can increase a ground's capacity. In term's of size Bochum's ground isn't too much bigger than somewhere like Loftus Road. However, it's 29,300 capacity vastly dwarf's the 18k that QPR can fit in, thanks to its 13,100 standing spaces.
Onto the unimportant part - the actual match. I was expecting reasonably good things from VFL. Although their league form is extremely inconsistent (their 14 draws this campaign is the joint highest in the division) their home matches since the turn of the year had wielded a plentiful batch of goals (their previous seven home games had overseen a total of 31 goals). Thus I was hopeful I might witness some more attacking intent than I had seen than in February's unfruitful outing into the continent.
VFL were toothless in this one though and Kaiserslautern ran out comfortable winners, rarely requiring to venture out of second gear, though looked exciting and dangerous on the wings when they did break free. A solitary goal in either half was enough to see through the job and both goals came courtesy of the aforementioned fine work from the channels. The first was a fast paced, route one, flawlessly worked attack that saw a measured ball lofted into the path of winger Karim Matmour whom accurately picked out the run of the supporting Simon Voller, who duly finished smartly at the near post to score for the third game in successive. For their fluid, finely worked counter-attack they were shown their appreciation from a few bodies in the Ostkurve, a few beer glasses from the stand hitting a few of the celebrating FCK bodies.
Their victory was sealed 15 minutes from time with Voller's partner in crime Philip Hoffman also notching, guiding a header from a deep cross from close range. I've often read and heard observations that German fans are far more reserved in the stands during the climax of a tor than us British counterparts, but there certainly appeared to be some absolute fucking scenes amongst the 2,500 estimated away supporters, who went absolutely ballistic in the cornered away terrace.
I was impressed with their noise and support all evening. For a really away fan unfriendly 6:30pm kick-off, that's a pretty solid turnout for a 3 hour drive.
Kaiserslautern and their imposing, steeped stands in their gigantic Fritz-Walter Stadion home remains firmly high on my Germany footballing bucket list, they are a puzzling club with huge tradition and fanbase more than a relatively small, sleepy (some say backwards and inbred!) town of their size would usually attain. It is a place renowned for being Americanized, hence it's moniker of "K-Town", loving adapted in certain flags behind the goal.
As for Bochum, well, they competed well and played some nice possession football at times but rarely ever mustered up a threat when they ventured into the final third. Their lack of attacking prowess was summed up when much to my sheer surprise, the evergreen Mikkael Forsell leapt of from the bench as a late substitute for them. I thought his career was long finnished (crap pun intended).
Also unexpected was the pronunciation of 'Bochum'. I had always assumed it would be a 'Bock-umm' rather than the 'Boock-em' it appeared to come out in song to my tinnitus-affected ear drums.
I would certainly recommend a trip to VFL Bochum on the basis of this evening. It's not one to particularly set the pulses racing but it certainly makes a nice supplement to any football trip in that area, particularly those wanting to jump on the Borussia Dortmund bandwagon. It's a nice old-fashioned English style ground, the ticket prices are dirt cheap and easy to obtain and the atmosphere rings around well. Their home fixtures this season have regularly fallen on this Friday early evening slot, presumably favoured to avoid losing out competition to those at Schalke 04 und BVB. Indeed, their were hordes of fellow Brits in attendance at this one, probably as a warm up prior to the main event of Wesfalenstadion the following day.
Not for me however, I'm far too much of a hipster wankstain for that.
The observants and autistics amongst you may have noticed that since I last posted my ground count has numerically reduced. This is due to me finally conforming to the sacred rule amongst the groundhopping nonce fraternity; to not include grounds you have not witnessed a match take place inside in.
Some of you may have also noticed that I've recently been to Germany. Yet again. As usual, I feel like I'm indebted to provide a justification of why I've made an effort to watch a run-of-the-mill German second division game on my own in a widely-perceived dull provincial city. This time I'll shorten my answer somewhat though and list it simply as this; I enjoy watching German football live and I wanted to do it.
Truth be told though, in the case of VFL Bochum, the game here chose me rather vice versa. Having been scheduled to work my standard 0430-0830 shift on Friday morning, I would require a flight out from Stansted that would be achievable to make boarding within the short timeframe window, that would also enable me to reach kick-off for one of the few Friday early evening kick-offs. This left me a direct choice between games at either Bochum or Nuremberg (another city very much on the to-do list) but I opted for the former because of my thereafter transport links (more on this on the succeeding blog in due course).
Fortunately both my train and flight into Dortmund ran as smoothly as so often proves to be the contrary case when you most need it, and my path towards the rewirpowerstadion (another case of ghastly commercialization - so it should otherwise be referred to as the Ruhrstadion) miraculously went without hitch.
VFL Bochum are one of the several big clubs in the congested North-Rhine Westphalia state; they reside just a measly 22.2km from Dortmund and an even scanter 13.1km from Gelsenkirchen, meaning they are sandwiched and have to compete with two of the traditional powerhouses on the doorstep. But the city of Bochum is hardly a minnow itself - with a population of 360,000, it is actually the 16th most populous in the country. And since its first elevation to the Bundesliga in 1971, VFL have only spent 10 seasons outside of the top flight, often yoyoing between the two divisions since the 1990's. This current season however is their fifth consecutive season at this level and there appears to be no lingering threat of them returning amongst the spotlight any time soon.
Unlike their opponents on the evening, the traditional name of Kaiserslautern, whom have actually won the national title twice since I exited my mother's wretched minge in 1991. They are another recent example of a yoyo club and are looking set to return to the Bundesliga after a three year absence, going into this fixture sitting pretty in an automatic promotion bound second place and looking to waive off the threat of nearest challengers Karlsruhe and Darmstadt, or possibly even catch chase with table-topping Ingolstadt.
Upon entering the rewirpowerstadion and soaking in the pre-match build up, I soon went into sensory overdrive, lapping up all the minor and collective idiosyncrasies that so enlists me into watching German/European football.
Upon entering the rewirpowerstadion and soaking in the pre-match build up, I soon went into sensory overdrive, lapping up all the minor and collective idiosyncrasies that so enlists me into watching German/European football.
- The fans wearing biker style denim jackets with several memorabilia badges attached or sewn onto them.
- Spotting those scarf skirts or belts that look utterly ridiculous but you can't help but admire the fanaticism.
- The sea of mass colour, with seemingly the vast majority of the crowd decked out in replica shirts or some sort of memorabilia.
- The artistic fan graffiti that has been permissioned by the club, as well as the hordes of stickers you see splattered across the bogs and stands.
- The broad spectrum of people of all different areas of society you see at games. In particular, the sheer volume of attractive female fans! Apologies if it comes across as condescending but football shouldn't be about a sport for working-class males as some people like to drone on about, it should be an all inclusive game for all variants of society. Young, old, female, male, poor, rich, transgenders, aliens, animals, bikers, goths, punks etc should be just entitled to watch a soccer game as the next person.
- Purchasing that first pilsener inside the ground, wandering onto the terrace and thinking "yeah, I'm actually allowed to do this".
- The stench of cigarette smoke exalting through the air. I say that as a now sneering former smoker as well. You should have the liberty of choice. Totally oppose it? Go and sit in a non-smoking area.
And that is just to list some.
There seems to be a perception with German football amongst the Safe Standing campaign activists back at home that terracing in Germany is mostly built with rail seating that gives you a designated area and exact space to go onto. This form of standing is extremely few and far between, however, and VFL Bochum's Ostkurve is certainly as old-school as they possibly come, and at wide odds with a perceived image of comfort and safety in mind.
In fact in the case of Bochum and it's Ostkurve, it was an absolute filthy dive! I was expecting the stadium to appear rather contemporary and well maintained. Oh uh. Bird shit splattered everywhere, grimy and littered paths, the step pathway not clearly marked with nobody adhering to the no standing rule on the lines, meaning getting back down the exit from the top was a very navigating task that involved a lot of bumping, squeezing and pushing. But I liked it, it was a proper environment for watching football in, and good fun to boot. The roof of this particular stand was really low and made for strong acoustics, which was just as well as VFL's vocal core were reasonably loud for the duration, in spite of the weak on field showing.
Another remarkable thing I find with terracing is just how much it can increase a ground's capacity. In term's of size Bochum's ground isn't too much bigger than somewhere like Loftus Road. However, it's 29,300 capacity vastly dwarf's the 18k that QPR can fit in, thanks to its 13,100 standing spaces.
Onto the unimportant part - the actual match. I was expecting reasonably good things from VFL. Although their league form is extremely inconsistent (their 14 draws this campaign is the joint highest in the division) their home matches since the turn of the year had wielded a plentiful batch of goals (their previous seven home games had overseen a total of 31 goals). Thus I was hopeful I might witness some more attacking intent than I had seen than in February's unfruitful outing into the continent.
VFL were toothless in this one though and Kaiserslautern ran out comfortable winners, rarely requiring to venture out of second gear, though looked exciting and dangerous on the wings when they did break free. A solitary goal in either half was enough to see through the job and both goals came courtesy of the aforementioned fine work from the channels. The first was a fast paced, route one, flawlessly worked attack that saw a measured ball lofted into the path of winger Karim Matmour whom accurately picked out the run of the supporting Simon Voller, who duly finished smartly at the near post to score for the third game in successive. For their fluid, finely worked counter-attack they were shown their appreciation from a few bodies in the Ostkurve, a few beer glasses from the stand hitting a few of the celebrating FCK bodies.
Their victory was sealed 15 minutes from time with Voller's partner in crime Philip Hoffman also notching, guiding a header from a deep cross from close range. I've often read and heard observations that German fans are far more reserved in the stands during the climax of a tor than us British counterparts, but there certainly appeared to be some absolute fucking scenes amongst the 2,500 estimated away supporters, who went absolutely ballistic in the cornered away terrace.
I was impressed with their noise and support all evening. For a really away fan unfriendly 6:30pm kick-off, that's a pretty solid turnout for a 3 hour drive.
Kaiserslautern and their imposing, steeped stands in their gigantic Fritz-Walter Stadion home remains firmly high on my Germany footballing bucket list, they are a puzzling club with huge tradition and fanbase more than a relatively small, sleepy (some say backwards and inbred!) town of their size would usually attain. It is a place renowned for being Americanized, hence it's moniker of "K-Town", loving adapted in certain flags behind the goal.
As for Bochum, well, they competed well and played some nice possession football at times but rarely ever mustered up a threat when they ventured into the final third. Their lack of attacking prowess was summed up when much to my sheer surprise, the evergreen Mikkael Forsell leapt of from the bench as a late substitute for them. I thought his career was long finnished (crap pun intended).
Also unexpected was the pronunciation of 'Bochum'. I had always assumed it would be a 'Bock-umm' rather than the 'Boock-em' it appeared to come out in song to my tinnitus-affected ear drums.
I would certainly recommend a trip to VFL Bochum on the basis of this evening. It's not one to particularly set the pulses racing but it certainly makes a nice supplement to any football trip in that area, particularly those wanting to jump on the Borussia Dortmund bandwagon. It's a nice old-fashioned English style ground, the ticket prices are dirt cheap and easy to obtain and the atmosphere rings around well. Their home fixtures this season have regularly fallen on this Friday early evening slot, presumably favoured to avoid losing out competition to those at Schalke 04 und BVB. Indeed, their were hordes of fellow Brits in attendance at this one, probably as a warm up prior to the main event of Wesfalenstadion the following day.
Not for me however, I'm far too much of a hipster wankstain for that.
 |
| There were hordes of evidence that the fanfreundschaft between VFL and FC Bayern is still as strong as ever. |
 |
| View from the back to the streets. |
 |
| Scarf skirt. |
 |
| Bochum ultras conjured up a nice little display before kick-off, sadly unable to be captured from the summit of the stand. |
 |
| Most of the FCK lot were in the cornered terrace, obviously. |
 |
| There they are. I need to invest in a proper camera. |
