Süderelbe

Ground: Sportanlage Kiesbarg

Visits: 1

Date: 30th October 2015

Match: Süderelbe - Paloma 3-0 (Oberliga Hamburg)

Attendance: 312

Once I got a ticket for Werder Bremen vs Dortmund, a game taking place on Saturday afternoon, I looked for fixtures on Friday evening in northern Germany. There were no fixtures in the top three divisions and I had to look at Regional- and Oberliga games. In the end I decided to visit the Oberliga derby between Victoria Hamburg and Altona 93. Two traditionsvereine and a game that would attract a decent crowd. I booked a hotel in Hamburg from Thursday to Sunday as well as a train ticket from Freiburg to Hamburg on Thursday. That train journey would take around six hours and I wanted to buy a Sparpreis-ticket meaning I couldn´t wait for too long. Once I had bought my train ticket I found out the game had been moved to Sunday afternoon. There were other games I could go to but they were also moved to Sunday afternoon. In the end I only had Süderelbe vs Paloma left to choose from. Süderelbe are based in Neugraben, just outside Hamburg, but their ground didn´t look to inspiring. I was therefore pleased to notice Bremer SV had moved their game, in Oberliga Bremen, to Friday evening. Their ground, Stadion am Panzenberg, is situated next to Bremen Hbf and looks quite nice. I made plans to go with a friend of mine, Oliver who lives outside Hamburg. Oliver however finds out the game won´t be played at Stadion am Panzenberg. Instead an artificial pitch, far from Bremen Hbf, will be used so we cancelled our plans to go to Bremer SV. Instead it is back to Süderelbe. I can´t remember ever changing my plans for a specific match as many times as I did for this Friday. Anyway, I arrive in Hamburg on Thursday evening and checks in at my hotel, Ibis, which is a 7-8 minute walk from Hamburg Hbf.

Kick-off at Sportanlage Kiesbarg, the home of FC Süderelbe, was at 20.00. That meant I had many hours to kill in Hamburg. I slept late and then wandered around in the city centre, mainly around the Alster lakes, before ending up at Millerntor-Stadion, the home of FC St. Pauli, where I wanted to do the stadium tour. I was at Millerntor-Stadion 2,5 years ago but now the ground has been completely rebuilt I thought it was time for a re-visit. The stadium tour was very interesting and the guide, die-hard St. Pauli fans Frank, had a humoristic touch and made this an enjoyable 90 minutes. After the tour I went by U-bahn back to my hotel. I had arranged for Oliver to pick me up at Hamburg Harburg station at 19.15. We eventually found each other but as we were about to leave the parking lot the car in front of us hit a pedestrian. Police and ambulance were called in and cars were unable to leave. Maybe it was written in the stars I was not supposed to watch any football this Friday evening. After 20-30 minutes we could leave though and at 20.15 we finally arrived at Sportanlage Kiesbarg. As we entered the ground I noticed the match was about to kick-off. Since kick-off was supposed to be 15 minutes ago I was a bit puzzled. It turned out there had been problems with the floodlights and kick-off was delayed by 15 minutes!

The actual match this evening was alright. Paloma are second from bottom and rarely threatened the Süderelbe goal. It was 1-0 to Süderelbe at half-time. A nasty challenge should have resulted in a red card for a home player though, which of course could have changed the momentum. The Paloma manager was furious when it was only a yellow card. Two goals for Süderelbe in the second half meant the game finished 3-0. In total 312 was at Sportanlage Kiesbarg for this games. One of those, Oliver, dropped me off at Harburg station after the game and around 23.00 I was back at my hotel. Tomorrow I go to Bremen for the highlight of this trip, Werder Bremen vs Dortmund.

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