Schwarzwald-Stadion

Ground: Schwarzwald-Stadion (Dreisamstadion)

Visits: 1

Date: 28th October 2015

Match: Freiburg - Augsburg 0-3 (DFB-Pokal)

Attendance: 19 600

Arriving back at my hotel shortly before midnight I slept late on Wednesday. Since I only had to travel for two hours it was an easy day travelwise. My ICE-train left Frankfurt at 10.50 and two hours later I was in Freiburg. The weather was quite nice with 14-15 °C and sunshine. Freiburg im Breisgau is situated in the southwest corner of Germany, only a few kilometres from the French border and around 60 km from the border to Switzerland. In the 80s I visited Freiburg once but that visit apart I have never been to the city. The city of Freiburg has a population of around 220 000 and the town is one of the warmest and sunniest in all of Germany. After checking in at my hotel I did a sightseeing tour of the city centre. As is the case with so many cities in Germany the city centre (Altstadt) was really nice. After a while I found a restaurant which offered 20 different kinds of Schnitzel. That sounded like a place for me and the delicious Wienerscnitzel confirmed I had chosen the right place. I then went back to my hotel for a short rest.

Schwarzwald-Stadion, the home of SC Freiburg, is situated in the outskirts of the city. From Freiburg Hbf it took around 20 minutes with tram to reach the ground. Kick-off this evening was at 19.00 and I was outside the ground at 16.30. I wanted to take exterior (as well as interior) pictures of the ground before it became too dark. Schwarzwald-Stadion, then named Dreisamtstadion, was opened in 1954 and after several redevelopments the ground nowadays has a capacity of around 24 000. The ground cannot be expanded though and a decision, after a referendum, to build a new ground for SC Freiburg was made in 2015. I had bought a ticket for one of the outer blocks of the Haupttribüne but was a bit confused as I entered the ground. The entrance for the Haupttribüne was via the Osttribüne but I didn´t realize this and once inside I was on my way to the wrong stand. Anyway, I made it to the correct stand and was pleased with my seat which was in row 17. Above all there were no pillars obstructing my view.

SC Freiburg are currently top of 2. Bundesliga and a cup game against Augsburg, who are struggling in Bundesliga, would on paper be an open affair. Freiburg were relegated from the Bundesliga at the end of last season and going by their performance tonight the league seem to be their priority this season. Augsburg were by far the better and made it 0-1 in the 11th minute. 14 minutes later it was 0-2. Augsburg only brought around 200 fans to Freiburg but it was those fans who could go home in a good mood. Augsburg made it 0-3 in the 50th minute and that goal killed the game as well as the atmosphere at Schwarzwald-Stadion. The hard core home fans behind the goal to my left did their best this evening but with two early goals for Augsburg the rest of the crowd never got going. Many (home) fans left before the final whistle. Even the referee seemed to want to come home early as he blew the final whistle as soon as the clock showed 90 minutes. No stoppage time in the second half, I can´t remember last time something like that happened. As I made my way back to the tram station it started to rain but as this was to be the only rain on this trip I wasn´t too bothered. I made it onto the fourth tram and was back at my hotel room around 21.30. Tomorrow I will enjoy six hours with Deutsche Bahn as I head for Hamburg.

rathaus