Halle

Ground: ERDGAS Sportpark

Visits: 1

Date: 4th August 2012

Match: Hallescher FC - Rot-Weiss Erfurt 3-0 (3. Liga)

Attendance: 11 326

On Saturday morning I woke up by 8am and 90 minutes later I was onboard the first (of four) train of the day. I only had 7 minutes for my change in Leipzig but I had no problems catching the train to Halle. There are plenty of trains from Leipzig to Halle but it was still nice to make the planned train. Hallescher FC (or Chemie Halle as the club used to be called) manged to win Regionalliga Nord last year and 2012/13 will be their first ever season in 3. Liga. As a chemistry teacher it was very pleasing to hear several thousand home fans chant "Chemie, Chemie" during the match. Chemie is the German word for Chemistry. Halle play at ERDGAS-Sportpark. This ground was opened in September 2011 and has a capacity of 15 000. It was built on the same place at the old "Kurt Wabbel Stadion". ERDGAS Sportpark is a small bowl but the terrace behind the north end (and in the corners) make the ground look better than all-seated bowls.

The match against Rot-Weiss Erfurt was named "The friendly derby" and the fact the clubs hadn´t played a competitive match against each other since 1992 played in a role in giving the match this epitet. The ground was a 30 minute walk from Halle Hbf and in the warm weather I was a bit exhaused upon arrival. My seat was in the West Stand (shadow!) and a really good one. The seat to my left was in the VIP-area. The ground filled up well and in total 11 300, including 1 100 from Erfurt, turned up on this very warm Saturday afternoon. Very good atmosphere from both sets of fans during the match and in the 60th minute there was even a joint statement from the fan groups. Even if the match itself wasn´t very good the atmosphere inside ERDGAS Sportpark made this an enjoyable afternoon for me. In the first half there were few chances but after being rewarded a soft penalty Halle were 1-0 up at half-time. The second half started with a really good chance for Erfurt but it was still not a good match though. In the last 15 minutes Halle manged to score twice to win the derby 3-0. An OK match with a good atmosphere and as I made the long walk back to Halle Hbf I could look back on a good day out in Halle. At 17.04 I left Halle for Mannheim (more than 5 hours in different trains) and the remaining two matches on this trip.

erdgas-sportpark