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Anyone ever been to any?

I've got tickets to FC Cologne vs FC Hamburg next weekend, should be a cracker. There have been some tasty signings in the past few days, Van Nistelrooy should be playing his second game for Hamburg and they also have Ze Roberto in their side. Cologne/Köln have just signed the Man Utd youngster Tosic on loan for the rest of the season and despite being near the relegation spots they've got some names I recognise in their squad; Mondragon, Pierre Wome, Petit, Maniche, Lucas Podolski and bizzarely someone called Kevin McKenna!?

The stadium looks decent and we're in a good spot, high up, with the rowdy contingent of the fans. Am hoping for a good match (though I doubt it will be up to Blue Square standards) and good atmosphere. I shall partake in some Würst and Kölsh (Beer) in the hours before the match.

Mondragon must be ancient by now.

i thought pierre wome was dead

I thought Emmanuel Petit retired 10 years ago to his porn career !!

I saw a German 2nd division game a few years back. I think at the time I equated the standard to that of 4th Division Cheltenham Town, having watched them a few weeks before.

An ex-girlfriend was working in Hamburg for a few months in 1998 and while visiting one weekend we went to see St Pauli vs VFL Bochum.  (Bochum were playing in the 2nd division back then.)  Was one of the best 0-0 draws I've been to.  Beers on the Reeperbahn afterwards.  Cracking day out.

I thought van Nistelrooy was going to be joining West Ham at 100k a week! Or was that just "look how ambitious we are" bullshit perhaps? (As I suggested at the time <smug>)

They offered him it, as did Spurs, but RvN preferred Hamburg as it's not far from his family home in Holland, I can't imagine he needs the money, and I expect he's on a fair bit in Germany.

Karlsruhe_Red will be your man for this.

Screw Hamburg. Its all about Pauli.

[url width=450 height=327]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e124/Kacho58/stpauli.jpg[/url]

Kevin Mckenna is Canadian. Used to play for Hearts. He must be ancient as well!

Church. Fucking ace team.

Found myself in Dusseldorf a few years ago on a 2 week training course with no flight back at the middle weekend. Just so happened that Dusseldorf were playing Bayern Munich in the days of Lothar Mattheus etc. Bought a ticket from a tout for face value outside the ground. The atmosphere was amazing. Full house, probably 50% away fans, most of them bladdered. Dusseldorf centre got pretty smashed up that night too. Oh and the football wasn't bad !

Seen lots of great matches in Germany. First was at Schalke's old ground against their arch rivals Borussia Dortmund the Saturday before Princess Di died in August 97. Schalke won 2-0. All the trams to the stadium were packed full of fans singing and rocking the tram.

Saw a 1-1 draw between Borussia Moenchengladbach and Borussia Dortmund in May 2004. I was more concerned about Swindon's final league result and making sure they got to the Play Offs, which they did (1-1 against Hartlepool I think?) That was Gladbach's final game in their old stadium.

I saw a Division 2 match between Hannover 96 and Nuremberg in August 2000, who have both yo-yoed between the top 2 divisions. That was non eventful, but a good evening game. 

The weirdest game was seeing Klinsmann's testimonial in 1999 in Stuttgart. It was a great game, and he had Colin Calderwood and I think Micky Hazard playing for him who were at Spurs when he was there, so it was great but somehow strange seeing ex Swindon players play out in Deutschland.

I've never been to Köln's ground, but I imagine that so long as you drink loads of beer it will be absolutely quality. If you're in with the loud ones you may need to jump up and down every single time certain songs are sung. Are you in seats? I'm sure there's loads of videos of Youtube of the 1.FCK fans if you want to see what it may be like before you go. I expect if anyone susses you're English they will be desperate to talk to you about everything to show you how skill they are at speaking English, and also because on the whole German people are very friendly.

The football will be pretty good too I imagine - however that is usually of secondary importance when I watch German football.

Make sure you look out for the fans who appear to be in a competition to see who can wear the biggest number of Köln/HSV scarves to a game.

P.S. Last German game I went to was Nürnberg vs. '60 München in May and you can still smoke and drink in the stand. At Karlsruhe a man even comes round the terrace selling beer so you don't even need to go anywhere in order to buy one! Germany also seems to have made up its own rules with regards the smoking ban - it seems that so long as you are not completely indoors with a million asthma sufferers then you can smoke to your heart's content.

Oh and by the way - I'm jealous.

I've always found that very funny. It seems like every German team needs a token English name in the squad.

Hello Aaron Hunt!

Unfortunately Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting is on loan at Nürnberg from HSV so will not be playing.

How was it then?

Going to Berlin in June. Get there on Friday 18th June which ties in with an England World Cup match. Should be a good atmosphere.

Remember I watched the Euro 2008 final in Trier, Germany. Even though I wanted Spain to win the Germans that evening were fantastic losers, drinking and singing late into the night and not a hint of trouble. I'm sure they were doing the conga through the town centre at midnight beer bottles and flags in hand and just having a good time.

Going to see PSV v Sparta Rotterdam on the 20th Feb, game has been moved to Sunday afternoon, should I expect trouble between Eindhoven and Rotterdam?