What did you make of Ingolstadt? Were they any good? Karlsruhe have got them at home on Sunday and desperately need to start putting a run of wins together to avoid the utter humiliation of dropping down to the same league as Stu**gart reserves.
On topic, however, I'm off to 1860 vs. KSC in about 3 weeks. 15,000 people in a 70,000 capacity stadium is going to feel weird. Massively disappointed with the Allianz Arena banning alcohol in the stand for the away fans, and giving us a seated section. This is the first time I've ever been to a German game as an away fan - it's literally going to be 400 Ultras and me and my mate in the 'pen' - I cannot wait, must remember to pack the fireworks.
Were you in a safe standing area? What do you make of it? I've never been in one or seen one in action in person, all the grounds I've been to in Germany have just had standard terracing where you end up a few rows forwards and covered in lager every time a goal goes in.
P.S. the landlord of one of my locals in Keynsham used to play for Fortuna!
Personally I didnt think that Ingolstadt were that bad, they passed the ball about pretty nicely but didnt really have anyone up top to take the game to Fortuna and therefore the Fortuna defence had a pretty comfortable afternoon. They just seemed to be a typical team struggling at the wrong end of the table. Fortuna had an excellent season last year, mainly helped along by bringing in Martin Harnik on loan however I believe that he is doing the business at Stuttgart this season and Fortuna have missed a regular goalscorer which is why they have been in mid-table for the majority of the season. Losing the first 6 games of the season didnt help either. Fortuna also have a defender called Lukimya who is a cross between Jean-Francois and Jerel Ifil!
You will have a fantastic time with the away fans, the great thing about the Ultras it seems that no matter how far the distance, how many there are of them, they will always create an excellent atmosphere. After speaking to locals at Fortuna it seems that they took 5000 to the game against Hertha Berlin a couple of weeks ago, they had to get up at 4am to make the journey. Get the aviators & flares going and you will fit right in!
We were a couple of rows behind the safe standing area but we stood, pretty much as we do in the Town End. The people in the safe standing area though all kept within their 'zone' and it seemed like everyone obeyed the rules and there were certainly no over crowding in the terracing area. I am not sure that would happen in England though.
The Espirit Arena is being used for the Eurovision Song Contest in a few months so as I understand Fortuna will not be allowed to play at the stadium as a favour for the local council building the stadium for them. Instead of using their 'Reserve Stadium' which holds about 7000, they are building a 'Temporary Stadium' which can hold 30,000 just for the remaining 3 home games of the season. Once again, I am not sure that would happen in England.
