FCUnion play in the south of the Berlin in Köpenick (pronounced Cooper nick) only about fifteen minutes from the centre of the city by S-Bahn...The bar I went to was directly opposite the railway station,no idea what it was called but let's say The Railway Arms or whatever the equivalent in German is.It was'nt a 'Spoons though even if the prices were comparable...as it was 10am the place was pretty full( maybe it was a 'Spoons) and I seemed to be the only bugger not wearing red & white.It did cross my mind they may think I was a Bielefeld hoolie spy as I did get a few glances as I walked in, however as soon as i opened my mouth the glancees returned to their beer as it was obvious I could barely say Bielefeld never mind pass info on to their top boy...
Union Berlin have a bit of a trendy alternative fan base.Nowhere near the anarchist/left wing base of Hamburg's St Pauli but they have as much kudos having saved their club from financial ruin and rebuilt the stadium to their own specifications ( 22,000 capacity, 3,500 seats & the rest terracing) The stadium is about a ten minute walk from the station but you do have to pass beer stalls so obviously it can take much longer...
Oh and you then stroll to the ground through a forest...
Think Hansel & Gretel combined with Green St...
There are a good few differences between football in the UK and Germany.For one thing security is tighter...Everone entering the ground is searched.This is also fairly meticulous compared to the perfunctory one second tap down to every fourth fan over here.I presume their stewards are both better trained and better paid...
Clearly this system takes longer which is one reason many German grounds are pretty full a good hour before the game unlike ours where everone piles in two minutes before kick off...If you have that many fans in the ground so early then make sure you can adequately cater for them.Again unlike our stadiums there is plenty of room for everyone and many bars & food outlets.Obviously the booze & food is a little dearer than outside in the real world but that's to be expected.However this is good food we're talking about here and not a half cooked steak & kidney pie with more gristle than Matt Murray's knees..and of course the beer is German not Carling.Even the worst German beer is infinitely better than Carling...
Much is made of how cheap the pricing is compared to our game and up to a point it's true.My ticket to what was effectively a Championship game was about £13.Very reasonable.However the merchandising was a lot more expensive.Club shirts are somewhere between 60 & 80 Euros...
As beer is also served within sight of the pitch,unlike here where obviously we can't be trusted to watch a game or even see a freshly mown patch of grass,with a beer lest we go apeshit,..then the atmosphere is already rocking by ko time.After all what else are you gonna do?
Considering Bielefeld is nearly 400km from Berlin and it was an early Sunday afternoon ko they had a decent away following...although I'm sure Leeds fans would claim they'd take more...
Probably 3,000 away fans...good effort.
The game was solid Championship fare.Union should have been three/four up before Bielefeld took the lead( sound familiar?) before equalising after about an hour played.After that they laid siege to the opponents goal with no success and almost lost it to a last minute sucker punch breakaway...the match ending 1-1
The home end.I think they were belting out the club song written by celeb fan Nina Hagen.Bit like us if we sang a song by Robert Plant!
The singing never stopped all through the game and was probably loudest when Union were losing.Also a good variety of songs too including a few in English...Meanwhile all around me fans were happily boozing & smoking like sailors on shore leave...
End of the game...many fans hung around.After all the bars were still open so what's the rush.,,
Union Berlin are a solid top ten Bundesliga 2 team having never stepped up to the top division since reunification( they were an East German team before of course) It's a well supported club with an average of about 20,000 and clearly well run but not sure how much of a benefit going up to Bundesliga 1 would
be.The fans I spoke to don't seem too fussed either way.They just love the day out...
After the game I went back to The Railway Arms for a few more beers and a few Jägermeisters ( when in Rome an all that) and had a good old natter with a couple of home fans.All good stuff...
This was my third German game,all at this level and i have loved every experience.It's worth going just for the novelty of it if nothing else but once you have been you'll probably want to do it again...
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