Away Days: Eintracht Frankfurt v TSV 1860 München
Eintracht (red/black shirts) plays FC Bayern in an U-19 game
Hi everybody, I’m back! Yes, it has been a while since I’ve written anything new for the blog and I won’t bore you with the reasons for my prolonged absence. It’s also been a while since I went on an Away Day to Frankfurt am Main and wanted to share with you the joys of celebrating promotion with my favourite German club Eintracht Frankfurt.
Having arrived “on the Main” last Friday, the football action got under way one day later when, as a warm-up to the main event (no pun intended) on Sunday, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Under-19 side played against 1860’s local rivals FC Bayern in the national Under-19 Bundesliga championship (South/South-West division). On a beautiful sunny Saturday morning there must’ve been at least two hundred souls at the Stadion am Riederwald who came out to see a glimpse of German football’s future potential stars in action. Sadly for the home contingent there weren’t too many great chances to shout about but the visitors hardly imposed themselves on the game either. FC Bayern did score the only goal of the game early in the second half; the goalscorer’s identity must however remain anonymous as I’d unprofessionally taken my eye off the game while the ball hit the back of the net.
Following a home defeat to one group of Bavarians I did privately fear that the professional Eintracht team would go on to lose to the other mob in the 2. Bundesliga (second division) game on Sunday. I was very privileged to get a ticket for this match as Eintracht had for many weeks looked likely to gain promotion and, unsurprisingly, this game was the hottest ticket in town. Having ventured with them on previous Away Days (see past reports) to Nuremberg and Dortmund, I express once again my eternal gratitude to the members of Eintracht supporters group “EFC 11-er Freunde” who helped get me into the stadium and make sure I was a part of the promotion party. Only six days earlier had Die Adler (the Eagles) confirmed their top flight status for next season with a convincing 3-0 away win against Alemania Aachen but they still, in theory, had first place to fight for along with SpVgg Greuther Fürth.
Fans choreo before the game
Following a fantastic choreography before the start of the game, in which fans held up cards above their heads to produce the slogan “Nie mehr 2. Liga” (Second Division no more), the game got under way in front of a sold out 50.800 crowd. Sadly my earlier fears about losing out to more Bavarians were to come true as the visitors started well and deservedly went two goals up in the first quarter of the match. An unfortunate own goal by Eintracht full-back Sebastian Jung in the 17th minute was followed up with an unchallenged header for Guillermo Vallori from a corner kick just four minutes later. For the remainder of the game the passion of the Eintracht supporters couldn’t be emulated on the pitch by the players who, it seemed, already had their minds on the beach for the summer holidays. Just as well, I guess, that promotion was already sealed but that is not to take anything away from 1860 München, who are the only team to defeat Eintracht home and away this season and who were evidently more up for the game. Despite the result a good natured pitch invasion came about at the end of the game in which the fans could celebrate with the players and look forward to a new season of fighting it out with the big boys such as FC Bayern, Dortmund and Schalke 04, exactly where a traditional club of Frankfurt’s stature should be.
Frankfurt fans celebrate promotion after the game
One last shout goes towards a fan group from the English town of Oldham, who I met for the first time in Dortmund last season. Folowing the 1860 match I arranged to meet up with all the lads in the famous Eintracht fans’ bar “Klapper 33” in the district of Sachsenhausen and discovered just how popular they were with some of the regulars. Die Engländer have certainly made an impression over the years, confirmed by the fact that the last thing I expected to hear in a Frankfurt bar was a group of Germans chanting „Come on Oldham!“ at the top of their voices. Having attempted, and failing miserably, to get a similar chorus of Liverpool chants going I took defeat on the chin and realized that there would be a part of Germany that would be forever Oldham and posed with one of their home-made „Two Teams, One Spirit“ scarves. Hopefully it won‘t be long before there’s an away day in Oldham to look forward to and I could just be the latest convert to the „Come on Oldham“ brigade.
Away Days: Marine AFC v Chorley FC
On Monday I knew that I could wake up and forget about work for at least another 24 hours as it was a public holiday. Therefore I decided that I would go to a football ground in my home city that I’d been meaning to go to for quite some time.
The Arriva Stadium, at one time known as Rossett Park before the ground was sponsored by the Arriva bus company, is the home of Marine AFC and lies in the outer Liverpool suburb of Crosby. On quite a few occasions already this season I had sacrificed a visit to this particular stadium in order to watch Waterloo RFC, a rugby union team just ten minutes up the road, and who I’ve never seen lose whenever I have gone to see them play. The reason why I always had to choose is that, for some peculiar reason, both Marine AFC and Waterloo RFC’s home games always seem to kick-off at exactly the same time. This time though, on a cold and windy Monday afternoon, Waterloo had no game to play and Marine were able to fill the void.
Marine AFC, fifth in the league, played host to fourth placed Chorley FC, a team based in a town of the same name just 35 miles away, in the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League Premier Division, effectively the seventh tier of English football, with the two teams separated by just three points before the game kicked off. I took my seat in the only seated stand in the stadium, located behind one of the goals, and found myself sitting next to a Roberto Mancini look-a-like. Just in case I was actually lucky enough to be sitting next to the Manchester City coach himself I asked him if he knew the time but his accent was more Scouse than Italian. “Roberto” did prove useful in one area; his knowledge of the English non-league football scene was encyclopaedic and he came in useful in pointing out players whose identities remain as anonymous with me now as they were before I entered the stadium.
Marine (white shirts) greet Chorley before the game
The game started with Chorley enjoying most of the possession and it was no surprise when they took the lead after 20 minutes thanks to a Tom Ince shot from an acute angle beating Marine keeper Ryan McMahon. This spurred the home side into life and it wasn’t too long before the game’s major flashpoint flared up. A midfield battle, culminating with some flying tackles from both sides, ended up in a needless mêlée in which Marine’s Thomas Moore was given a straight red card after seemingly throwing a punch at an opposition player. Despite the numerical disadvantage Marine were able to pull level just three minutes before the break with Neil Harvey scoring from the penalty spot following what looked to me to be a soft foul on Aaron Rey.
For the second half I left the confines of the seated area and was able to stand on the side lines in what looked like a glorified garden shed. In a game which had been largely devoid of atmosphere throughout the first half both sets of supporters amongst the crowd of 575 suddenly began to make some noise and made it worthwhile standing in the bitterly cold weather. Chorley re-took the lead eight minutes into the second half with another penalty converted, scored by Steve Foster. But Marine wouldn’t lie down and came back to level things again with Aaron Rey able to tap the ball home from a couple of yards out in the 68th minute to set up a grandstand finish between two teams who both have genuine hopes of gaining a spot in the top five and being in the end-of-season play-offs this season. However the home side were not able to enjoy parity for too long as Chorley wrapped up the game in the last twenty minutes; a Mark Ross free-kick from the halfway line somehow lobbed over McMahon in the Marine goal in the 71st minute before a glorious strike from the edge of the box by Steve Denham sent the visiting fans wild, knowing that the three points would be theirs unless the home side had some luck in the dying minutes.
Chorley celebrate the first of four goals
Chorley’s reward following the victory was to see their advantage in the table double over Marine from three points to six and cement fourth spot with 48 points, five behind league leaders Chester FC who have two games in hand. Despite defeat Marine should not be too disheartened but they will have to fight it out with the likes of Bradford Park Avenue and FC United of Manchester who lie just below them in the table. Whether I will get to see Marine again anytime soon is anybody’s guess. After all, with my record amongst the Crosby sporting scene, something tells me that the oval ball merchants of Waterloo RFC will welcome me back a lot sooner than the round ball practitioners of Marine.
Away Days: FSV Frankfurt v Erzgebirge Aue
After the trauma of Eintracht Frankfurt’s relegation on Saturday came a little bit of light relief on Sunday. Frankfurt’s second club is FSV and it was to their Frankfurter Volksbank Stadion that I went to in order to see their 2. Liga match against Erzgebirge Aue, a club hailing from the east of the country.
Fußballsportverein Frankfurt, to give them their proper name, are a small team from the Bornheim district of the city and have done well on limited resources to stay in the 2. Liga for the last two seasons. On both occasions they finished in 15th place and will, for the first time ever, play in a Frankfurt city derby when Eintracht play in the same division from next season. Erzgebirge Aue, a former three-time champion of the old East German Oberliga under their old name of SC Wismut Karl Marx Stadt, are also a modest club and have done well following last season’s promotion from the 3. Liga. The game yesterday was a chance to secure fifth place in the table with Energie Cottbus and Fortuna Düsseldorf waiting in the wings in case of a slip up.
Once inside the stadium I gained a sense of nostalgia in the sense that I was standing on an open terrace behind the goal, something which has alluded me in England for many years. At the front of the stand was a lone cheerleader who, tried as he might, found it difficult to motivate the fans in the Südtribüne despite having the advantage of shouting through a megaphone. To be fair to him the football on the pitch wasn’t exactly a feast for the eyes and one was wondering if the players’ minds were already on their summer vacation ahead of the post-season. There was one moment which defined the first half and that was Aue’s opening goal which went in of the head off the unfortunate FSV midfielder Christian Müller. Erzgebirge Aue were 1-0 up at half-time.
Play is about to re-start following Aue's first goal
The second half carried on in much the same vein, the only highlights proving to be each slurp of the cheap beer that was selling well around the stadium. What each person in the crowd of 4,011 thought about this game would probably prove negative with the exception of the travelling hoardes of supporters from Aue who had their second goal to celebrate with ten minutes remaining. Following more good work down the right side Robert Strauß crossed the ball for Jan Hochscheidt who ghosted into the box to put the away side 2-0 up, a margin which they never relinquished for the remainder of the game.
The Erzgebirge supporters unveiled a banner at the end of the game saying “Top Saison Männer!” which it ultimately proved to be as they cemented their fifth place spot thanks to the three points won on the final day. FSV Frankfurt, following a good start to the season, dropped markedly in performance as the season went on but not so bad that they had to worry about a relegation campaign unlike their more illustrious neighbours Eintracht. It will be interesting to see how the city takes to the derby next season.
Away Days: Borussia Dortmund v Eintracht Frankfurt
Things really have gone from bad to worse for Eintracht Frankfurt since the winter break. Only one win in 16 games going into their final game of the season away to the newly-crowned champions of Germany saw the club who occupied seventh place at the winter break start the day in second bottom and were involved in a real relegation dogfight which hadn’t looked like coming at Christmas.
I set off from Manchester airport on Friday morning and was very surprised to see a group of men wearing T-shirts with the club badges of Oldham Athletic, who currently play in England’s third tier, as well as that of Eintracht. Curiosity got the better of me and so I asked if they were going to the game on Saturday to which they said yes. It was a pleasant surprise, no doubt to the Oldham lads as well as myself, that there were quite so many English who not only wanted to go to the game but were playing an active supporting role in a club not many people in our country probably neither know nor care about. I’ve been following Eintracht since 2006 but these guys had a good 20 years experience on me so I was even more impressed by their love for the club.
I travelled to the game on Saturday morning with a fan group called EFC 11er-Freunde, about whom I wrote a piece in a previous Away Days trip to Nuremberg. With the beer flowing from just before 10am the fans were in good spirits despite the mammoth task which lay before the Eintracht team. We had to beat title winning Borussia Dortmund and hope that VfL Wolfsburg (away at Hoffenheim) and Mönchengladbach (away at Hamburger SV) both got inferior results. Upon arriving at the stadium I was surprised to bump into the Oldham group yet again as I got off the coach and our thoughts turned to the game before we had to separate into our respective areas of the Eintracht fan block. When I got into the stadium the Dortmund fans were preparing a chereography to herald their heroes and it seemed that the famous Yellow Wall, the nickname given to the massive 28,000 capacity Südtribüne which stands behind one of the goals, would generate a cracking atmosphere.
But once the game got under way the Yellow Wall resembled a real wall insofar as it didn’t make any noise for most of the first half. During the first 45 minutes Eintracht keeper Ralf Fährmann saved a penalty from Lucas Barrios whilst, at the other end, Theofanis Gekas hit the crossbar in the last minute, meaning that the game was goalless at half-time. At the same time Wolfsburg were also goalless whilst Gladbach were leading in Hamburg which meant that, if the scores remained the same after 90 minutes, Eintracht would be going down. But, just sixty seconds after the break, Eintracht took the lead through midfielder Sebastian Rode. Almost at the same time came the news that Hoffenheim had taken the lead in their game against Wolfsburg meaning that Eintracht’s destiny looked positive.
Dortmund players on the stage waiting for the Meisterschale
Sadly for us the hope began to fade once more in the 68th minute when Dortmund striker Lucas Barrios, following some clever play from Łukasz Piszczek, restored parity. Just four minutes later Eintracht’s world turned upside down as a Marco Russ own goal gave the champions the lead whilst Wolfsburg had turned it around in their game winning 2-1 with fifteen minutes still to play although Hamburger SV had equalized in their game against Gladbach so a bit of luck for Eintracht could still have kept die Adler up in the top flight. The last ten minutes of the game for Eintracht, however, proved to be a nightmare as substitute Marcel Titsch-Rivero, who came on in the 79th minute to replace goal scorer Rode, got himself sent off just 43 seconds later after bringing down Marcel Schmelzer in the box to give away another penalty. But one person who didn’t lose his nerve was Fährmann who, having saved a penalty from Barrios in the first half, then kept out Dede to keep a glimmer of hope alive. This hope would finally be extinguished in the last minute of the game when Barrios headed home a Robert Lewandowski cross from the right flank to secure the three points for Dortmund who could now finally begin their championship celebrations.
Strangely there were many Dortmund fans, acclaimed by the club’s stadium announcer as “the best fans in the world”, who seemed more intent on coming outside to give Eintracht fans grief about their oncoming relegation rather than see captain Roman Weidenfeller lift the Meisterschale inside the Signal Iduna Park stadion. Thankfully the heavy police presence outside ensured that trouble was kept to a minimum around the stadium as emotions ran high on both sides after the game. For the record Mönchengladbach drew 1-1 at Hamburger SV which means that the former will take place in a two-legged Relegation Play-Off match with VfL Bochum, who claimed third place in the 2. Liga on Sunday. VfL Wolfsburg, meanwhile, managed to secure 1. Liga football next season following their eventual 3-1 away win at Hoffenheim.
Away Days: Bangor City v The New Saints
Welcome to Bangor City FC
The Principality Building Society Welsh Premier League, to give its full title, saw a classic last-day title decider on Saturday. Bangor City, whose most recent championship came in 1994-95, were at home to defending champions The New Saints who were narrow favourites to pick up the point they needed to win a sixth league title in just over a decade. At one time Bangor had enjoyed a massive 16 point lead at the top of the standings but in recent weeks TNS looked to have turned things around and could’ve won the title before Saturday’s game. But TNS lost their anti-penultimate match of the season at home to Neath Athletic who, in turn, were defeated days later at their home ground by Bangor City leaving the destiny of the championship wide open going into this match.
I arrived at Farrar Road stadium, just five minutes walk away from Bangor train station, about three hours before kick-off in order to sense the anticipation ahead of this mouth-watering fixture. Speaking of mouth-watering, I headed to the club bar to buy myself a beer and could also have found myself taking advantage of a ticket for the Welsh Cup final – which Bangor City hopes to win for the fourth year in a row against Llanelli AFC this coming Sunday – for an amazingly cheap £5 as there were a stack of tickets on sale. Following the beer I set out to blend in with the locals and buy myself a scarf but, much to my disappointment, there was nobody in the club shop. I asked a nearby steward when it will be open and all he could tell me was that it’d be open “when the merchandising guy turns up”. As much as I tried to coax any more information out of him he was unable to give me a time so I had to settle for the match programme. I returned to the club shop a little under an hour later and the “merchandising guy” had finally arrived. “Do you have any scarves for sale” I asked him; “No we don’t have any” came the reply. Naturally I couldn’t believe how blasé he was about the lack of available merchandise, especially as the club’s biggest game for years was just little more than an hour away, so just decided to walk around the stadium and plan from which section of the stadium I would watch the game.
The two teams in action
Kick-off time of 15:30 finally arrived and I had placed myself behind the goal to which the home side would shoot towards in the first half. Bangor City, playing in their traditional all-blue strip, enjoyed the lion’s share of possession but were unable to make the most of their dominance. With only a couple of clear chances in the opening period it was no surprise to see the first half remain goalless. The point would’ve been good for The New Saints and it was clear that they had come to Farrar Road hoping to frustrate their hosts. In the second half Bangor continued to pile the pressure towards the visitors’ goal but it seemed for a while that luck would allude them. I had changed ends for the second half and was watching the game from behind the goal in which Craig Garside would give the hosts the lead in the 68th minute. A throw-in from defender Peter Hoy was flicked on by midfielder Dave Morley and Garside found himself just yards from goal and able to turn the ball home to send most of the 1,700 capacity crowd ecstatic.
Bangor coaching team Powell (left) and Limbert lift the championship trophy
Naturally The New Saints had to come out and attack if they were to re-claim the title and they did threaten in the last twenty minutes but the sense of anticipation around the stadium meant that Bangor gave everything to preserve what they had. When the final whistle sounded it prompted a pitch invasion from the home supporters who could finally celebrate their third league championship title. A media scrum ensued as the game was featured live on the Welsh TV station S4/C as well as an assortment of photographers, supporters and yours truly basking in the warm sunshine and the champagne that was in the air following the Bangor team’s victory. As Bangor City coach Neville Powell and his assistant Marc Limbert lifted the championship trophy in the air it was clear that this ever popular management duo had created even bigger names for themselves amongst the home faithful. Bangor City (played 32, points 70) won the title by just two points from The New Saints and now have a chance to win the club’s first ever league and cup double this weekend. It may only be considered one of the smaller leagues but this was a fantastic occasion for Welsh football and one which would’ve graced any other championship in the world.
WATCH BANGOR CITY v THE NEW SAINTS HIGHLIGHTS HERE:
Away Days: RKC Waalwijk v SC Cambuur Leeuwarden
Two down, one to go. After what had already been a very productive weekend the final leg of the Benelux journey took us another 296km firstly to Breda, the town where we would stay the night, and secondly on to Waalwijk for an early Sunday afternoon kick-off. The Dutch Jupiler League is the country’s second tier of football (not to be confused with the Belgian top-tier championship of the same name). For the home team, who were relegated from the top-flight last season, dreams of an imminent return to the Eredivisie heightened as a result of this match.
We arrived at the Mandemakers Stadion basking in the sunshine and still slightly worse for wear following a good night on the beer some hours earlier. With the mileage of the trip starting to take its toll on all of us the early kick-off at least ensured that we had to be in some way fit for the Sunday ahead. Nonetheless we had all agreed before the weekend that we expected this game to have the most quality on the pitch and we weren’t wrong. RKC Waalwijk, a club whose initials let you know of the club’s Roman Catholic roots, have spent most of the last twenty years in the top flight and expect to come straight back up whenever they go down. CS Cambuur, their visitors from the town of Leeuwarden, are a club of more modest targets and last tasted Eredivisie football over a decade ago but still went into the game knowing that they had a chance of qualifying for the promotion play-offs.
The game kicked off to a colourful banner from the home support and they had something to shout about just eleven minutes when Robert Braber gave RKC the lead following a defensive error. Twenty minutes later Ghanaian forward Fred Benson doubled the home side’s lead following a move which one could politely describe as route one. RKC Waalwijk were coasting the game and the modest away support of SC Cambuur – all 26 of them (I counted them at half-time) – had to suffer further in the second half as Benson grabbed his second of the game in the 53rd minute from the penalty spot. Donny de Groot bagged the fourth of the game for the home side in the 90th minute but SC Cambuur, who were a distant second best in the match, could at least celebrate a consolation strike from Kevin Diaz in stoppage time.
The game finished 4-1 to RKC Waalwijk much to the joy of the home support who knew that their team had accumulated the most number of points in the fourth period of the season and, at the very least, guarantee play-off football if not automatic promotion. FC Zwolle stand between RKC and first in the standings with the two teams due to fight it out next week but for now there was something to celebrate as the Waalwijk players reached for the champagne at the end of the match. As for myself and my fellow Eintrachtler our Groundhopping tour was now officially over and we headed back to Breda for a much deserved beer or ten. After all, having witnessed fourteen goals in three games spread throughout three countries in three days we were just as worthy of alcohol as any of the footballers we’d seen.
WATCH RKC WAALWIJK v SC CAMBUUR HIGHLIGHTS
Away Days: F91 Dudelange v CS Grevenmacher
Following the previous night’s events in Belgium, me and the boys drove a further 230km to Luxembourg City. After dropping our bags off in our hostel we then set about going the extra 19km to the town of Dudelange, home to F91.
The club, known in the local Luxembourgish language as Diddeleng, are a growing power in the country having won six out of the last seven titles with only record champions Jeunesse d’Esch having broken the spell in 2009-10. Dudelange, created by a merger of three teams in 1991, had already claimed the 2010-11 championship trophy prior to this weekend’s game but we still hoped that the champions would put on a show for us. CS Grevenmacher, their opponents and former one-time champion in 2002-03, naturally had other ideas although their league position of ninth place (out of 14), a distant 23 points behind their opponents, suggested that such thoughts would be optimistic.
On the way to the game we met a lone German Groundhopper by the name of Klaus whose alleged devotion to the cause of Bayern Munich most certainly irritated each and every one of us, all of whom are Eintracht Frankfurt supporters and very much against the sort of plastic, over-commercialized pap with which clubs such as the Bavarian giants are renowned. Despite his choice of favoured club Klaus remained with us until the end of what was a half-hearted match. Not surprising given that the F91 “Ultras” section consisted of just three fans and two banners in arguably the most modest attempt of a fan culture that I have personally come across thus far in my time watching football. If the home team’s fans could hardly be bothered to make an effort then it was no surprise to see that feeling transfer to the players.
The home side included one of the league’s top scorers in Daniel da Mota, a naturalized Portuguese who had scored 16 league goals this season leading up to the game and was everybody’s “Man to Watch” before the game began. Ultimately he may as well have been sitting with us in the stands as he was practically a spectator throughout the match. The game saw one goal in the first half with Daniel Huss outpacing the F91 defence to put visiting Gravenmacher into the lead. The game would be settled as a contest after the break with goals from Rhalid Benachou and Samir Louadj, the latter of which was a beautifully taken volley into the top left-hand corner, helping Grevenmacher to a morale boosting 3-0 away victory and depriving the home side any chance of a KSK Heist style comeback. The victory helped Grevenmacher remain in ninth position just behind CS Petange on goal difference and with only four games of the league season remaining and just five points separating them from second placed FC Differdange 03 could this game prove the spark for a potential European tour next season?
Speaking of European tours there was still one more game left on our itinerary. It was now on to Holland for the final leg of the Benelux weekend………
Away Days: Boussu Dour Borinage v KSK Heist
This weekend has been a very busy one for myself as I, along with four friends from the German city of Frankfurt, set off on a Groundhopping tour of the Benelux countries. Having flown to Frankfurt from Manchester on Friday morning the scene was set for a road trip worthy of the name. The journey would take us through three countries in three days with the first leg taking us 427 kilometres from Frankfurt to the beautiful Belgian city of Mons, from where we would embark further to the small village of Boussu another 19km away.
The Belgian second division is a strange affair to most football fans used to the idea of a simple 34 game table deciding promotion matters at the end of the season. However, in order to keep up interest for each team throughout the season, the league is split into three periods. The overall champions goes up automatically whilst the three period winners, assuming the champions aren’t amongst them (if so the next best team onwards) play-off against the winner of a relegation play-off from the first division. Sadly neither team featuring in Friday’s game at the Stade Robert Urbain were amongst the front-runners but that didn’t mean that the game would diappoint.
On the contrary, the game saw plenty of chances and a bit of controversy along the way. Home team Royal Boussu Dour Borinage, to give them their full name, took the lead in the 14th minute following goalkeeper Steven Olieslagers apprehending striker Anthony Delplace in the box, thus leaving the referee no option but to show Heist’s number 1 the red card. Kamel Ouejdide scored the first from the spot and was on hand to score a beautifully struck third goal for RBDB on the stroke of half-time with the aforementioned Delplace having scored the second inbetween. KSK Heist, playing their first season at this level, had brought a small but loyal following to the game and it would be they who would be celebrating at the end of the game.
The second half started with RBDB hoping to capitalise on their numerical advantage but, as the game went on, KSK Heist began to venture further forward and were rewarded with what everybody thought was a consolation goal in the 77th minute when Bram Criel pulled one back from close range. Unfortunately for the home side this led to a collective bout of self-doubt and they allowed the visitors another goal two minutes before full-time when Kurt Van Dooren nodded the ball home to set up a grandstand finish. The ninety minutes of regular time were up and all the home side had to do was hold on. After all how difficult could it be with a full compliment of players against of a team depleted by one? Alas, football doesn’t always work out this way and when Bart Webers eventually saw the ball home following a free-kick two minutes into stoppage time the scene was set for the Heist players to run the full length of the pitch to celebrate an unlikely point with their loyal supporters.
Following the end of the match KSK Heist remained in 10th place whilst further results over the weekend saw Royal Boussu go down to 14th, not quite out of the picture regarding a relegation battle, lying just four points ahead of Rupel Boom in 17th place. Following a comeback reminiscent of Liverpool’s triumph in the 2005 UEFA Champions League final in Istanbul it would take something special to beat this game in terms of excitement and goals. We set off to Luxembourg on Saturday hoping that we might just experience another miracle of our own…..
WATCH RBDB v KSK HEIST HIGHLIGHTS HERE
Away Days: Skonto Riga v FK Jaunība Riga
Sunday, October 30th, 2005: Skonto Riga, fourteen times champions of Latvia with all of those titles won consecutively from 1991-2004 in order to create a world record, have finally been deposed from their number one position. Their opponents on this day are Liepājas Metalurgs who, only the week before, clinched their maiden Latvian league title with four matches left to play such was their domination in that season. It was fitting that my first ever match on my first ever visit to the beautiful Baltic state of Latvia involved the two aforementioned teams and it was this match, a 1-1 draw with much attacking play, that developed my interest in the game in this part of the world. Many people in my home town of Liverpool (and, no doubt, beyond) think that I’m mad for following Latvian football, and Skonto Riga FC in particular, but it is footballing world far removed from the hype and money obsessed world of the English Premier League and it makes a refreshing change to see football so laid-back as it is there.
Following Metalurgs’ 2005 title success came three-in-a-row for FK Ventspils between 2006-08 and then Metalurgs won their second crown in 2009. It was a painful period for Skonto as they saw their two main rivals win most of the silverware but that was now all in the past as there was no doubting the fact that Skonto Riga were the best team in the LMT Virslīga in 2010. After a five year wait I was finally going to see Skonto FC play a match with the status as champions of Latvia and as I went to the stadium with just twenty minutes to go before kick-off I noticed a familiar face outside the ground. It was none other than Latvian football legend Vitālijs Astafjevs, Europe’s most capped international footballer with 165 appearances for his country to date, who will be known to fans of English club Bristol Rovers for whom he graced the club colours for three years before heading back eastwards. If I was surprised to see and be able to talk to Astafjevs then I was more surprised to meet the Skonto FC and Latvia national coach Aleksandrs Starkovs. For anyone without any knowledge of Starkovs he is a true legend of the game both as a player and a coach. His exploits in the latter category have seen him win twelve league titles and six national cups, all with Skonto, and in 2010, his first season back in charge of Latvia’s record champions, he managed to end Skonto’s six year trophy drought.
Before their final home match of the season Skonto FC had scored the most goals in the league (80) and conceded only sixteen goals, which was the second best record in the league. After clinching the title last week Skonto put on a champions performance against FK Jaunība, who were already as good as relegated before the game began. Yesterday’s game showed the gulf in class between the league’s best and worst sides as Skonto completed dominated possession and territory hardly allowing the visitors to leave their own half of the pitch. Despite Skonto’s dominance they went in at half-time with only a two goal lead, Alans Siņelņikovs opened the scoring in the 23rd minute with left foot thunderbolt in the top left corner and Brazilian Nathan Junior doubled the lead with a headed goal on the half-hour mark.
At the half-time break I met some guys from South London who were all Crystal Palace fans except for one whose allegiances lay firmly with Millwall. Not only did we agree in our assumptions about the cozyness and laid-back attitude of Latvian football (they were particulary impressed at having met two ex-Crystal Palace players – Andrejs Rubins and Aleksandrs Koļinko – at the game) but also a mutual loathing at how English football seems to have lost its soul in its dire pursuit of all things financial. We even spoke about the Bundesliga and I was surprised to find out that one of the Palace fans was also a huge Eintracht Frankfurt, a bit like yours truly, so for me it was a great experience talking to them although they had to miss the second half of the game so I’ll let them know that they missed a pretty good last 45 minutes of the Latvian season.
Skonto FC (in blue) dominated the match against local rivals FK Jaunība
After the chat it was back to the footie and the second half continued in much the same vein as the first with chance after chance for Skonto. It didn’t take them too long to score goal number three, Nathan Junior again found the net to keep up his impressive goalscoring record for the season. Following that it took until the final ten minutes of the match for the game to truly come alive as Skonto scored three more times thanks to David Janelidze, Igors Tarasovs and another from Junior whose hat-trick came from the penalty spot. For the Brazilian the match topped off a perfect season in which he was the Virsliga’s joint top-scorer with eighteen goals along with Liepājas Metalurgs’ Deniss Rakels. At the final whistle the small but boistorious Skonto hardcore following “H-Side” gave the team a great send-off showing their appreciation by setting off flares into the Riga sky. This culminates a season in which Skonto won the league with 69 points from 27 matches, six ahead of second place FK Ventspils, and will see Latvia’s finest enter the UEFA Champions League at the 2nd qualifying round next season. For FK Jaunība it’s back down to the Pirma Līga after just one season in Latvia’s top flight.
A convincing win for the champions
Away Days: Liverpool v Blackburn Rovers
Having lamented Liverpool’s woeful start to the 2010-11 Barclays Premier League season Stoppage Time – International Football Blog went back to Anfield yesterday for what proved to be a crucial three points won for the Reds.
I wrote a report for this section of the blog towards the end of last season regarding Liverpool’s UEFA Europa League quarter-final, 2nd leg against Lille OSC. The situation at that time seemed to most Liverpool fans like a desperate one: sixth in the league, fighting for a ‘mere’ UEFA Europa League place rather than the UEFA Champions League spot they’d grown accustomed to in recent years and out of both domestic cup competitions by January. With the ending of the Rafael Benítez era at the end of last season came the reality that the club were in transition and that the successes of previous years were becoming a distant memory after a fourth trophyless season. Roy Hodgson has since taken over the club and has hardly endeared himself to his new club’s supporters in recent weeks. After a start to the season which saw only one win (1-0 against West Bromwich Albion) in the first eight league games, the club lying in the bottom three and already knocked out of the League Cup against 4th tier side Northampton Town, the time had come for Liverpool to stand up and be counted.
Thankfully the recent ownership issue, in which Liverpool fans had set out to rid the club of their previous owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett, had finally passed and yesterday was the first home match under new owners. New England Sports Ventures had taken control prior to last weekend’s Merseyside derby defeat away to Everton and were hopeful that their first home game would bring about the win needed to start things afresh. Before the game there was a surprise live performance of the club’s anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone” by the one and only Gerry Marsden, the only sad thing for me personally was that the backing track over which Marsden sang sounded like a home karaoke system. Nonetheless the great man was still able to do the song justice and its conclusion signalled the beginning of the game.
The first half saw Liverpool create numerous chances but Blackburn’s goalkeeper Paul Robinson was showing some of the form which once made him England’s number one. Having gone in at half-time with the game goalless Rovers would’ve been satisfied that their game plan of trying to frustrate the home side seemed to be working. However it only took two minutes after the interval for the deadlock to be broken when Sotirios Kyrgiakos scored his second goal of the season getting on the end of a Steven Gerrard corner. The big Greek has started to chip in with the odd goal just like the club’s former centre-half Sami Hyypiä used to do and his personal performances have looked more consistent in recent weeks. Unfortunately for Liverpool they let the lead slip just a couple of minutes later when former player El-Hadji Diouf, not the most popular person at Anfield yesterday and constantly booed whenever he touched the ball, did his bit to silence the home fans after his shot was deflected in by Jamie Carragher. It seemed yet another ominous sign that Liverpool would prove to be their own worst enemies when faced with pressure but this time, rather than let their heads drop, they went up the other end and scored once more in the 53rd minute. Fernando Torres, whose only other league goal this season came in Liverpool’s previous win against West Brom, would score the winning goal against Blackburn and the relief in the crowd was huge, not only because Liverpool had re-taken the lead but because the popular Spanish striker was once again on the score sheet after a recent loss of form.
There were no further goals and it was surprising that Blackburn Rovers hadn’t taken the game more to their opponents especially as they had the comfort of knowing that a Liverpool victory still wouldn’t see the Reds climb above Rovers in the table just yet. Liverpool now have nine points after nine games, the same as Blackburn, but Rovers remain in 17th position (one above Liverpool) due to a better goal difference. Nonetheless for Liverpool yesterday it was about getting back on track and it seemed that Anfield was a happy place to be once more.
1 comment