This weekend I went to my first German football matches. This was a very big and important step for my overall comprehension of Deutsch football. I have seen so many matches on tv, but now it was time for the real thing. The first game I went to was a Berlin Liga, 6th tier, game at Ludwig-Jahn – Sportpark. I had heard about this complex, and for good reason. The first thing I saw when I arrived was the giant stadium. I had hopes that the game would be played there, but those quickly went away as the stairs up to the seat were all locked. Moving on I saw two more turf fields side by side, this is a common sight for complexes. These could be practice fields, or for games of lower Leagues. Past these fields though, I saw my destination. There lay the beautiful grass field reserved for the higher profile matches. In case you had not realized this yet, grass is by FAR the best surface to play on. There was a relatively large building I had to pass through in order to get to the field. In here there was a guy selling tickets. The original price was 6 euro, but with a student id it was down to 3, what a great deal. The seating area was small, and restricted to one side of the field, but as I found out later that section would get packed. The view was great, though. The grass looked great, wanted to run around on it so bad. And the location as awesome as well! There were apartments all around which gave the field a very urban feel. A lot of the time urban fields are in the middle of parks or forest areas so there aren’t very cool views around the field, but I found the view here to be quite enjoyable. If someone wanted to, they could easily look out one of the windows and watch a game.

Once the game started it was down to business. I watched everything closely, from their formations to how many players were on the bench. Each team had roughly 5 or six players on their bench, so a total of 17 present. This made sense though as I realized that here they would follow traditional substitution rules with only 3 subs per game. I have never played in a game that follows these rules, in college there are free subbing basically.  Overall the level of quality as approximately that of two good college teams playing. I found their pace to be quality, but not overwhelming in any way. One of the most immediate differences I noticed, though, which continued throughout the game was the utilization of free kicks. For both of these teams, every free kick presented a huge opportunity that wa taken advantage of fully. This means complicated runs around the ball for misdirection and most importantly, QUALITY SERVICE. I can’t tell you how often, even in my games that the service is sub par. These crosses were whipped in, not floated, and all of them were dangerous. There was constant communication as well, which is always the sign of a well organized team. The chatter latex all game and it showed, the defensive organization was phenomenal for both squads, all the way to the end, even when they were getting tired. One of the words that I was able to pick, from what they said was ‘zeit’ which means time. There was a lot of English used as well, but all of the German was hard to pick up. Shame, this is something I need to learn.

There were lots of little details that were interesting to note as well. For instance, when ever someone got injured and went to the sideline, and thus that team would play with ten men for a little, they would completely collapse on defense, drop the forward back and protect the goal first. Good choice I say. The players in the midfield were the most fun to watch, although the overall level of everyone’s touches was quite phenomenal (far better than a college game) the most inspiring moments were their turns with pressure on their backs. The ability to use strength to hold of the defender as well as play the touch into the right space was something to admire. These battles in the midfield are where I need to take notes. The play there was so aggressive. It almost seemed like, the was a foul on every play, but only half the time it was called. You gotta want the ball! This aggressive attitude translated into headers as well. Every aerial play was hard fought with two players going up and reaching the ball at its highest point. Very impressive. I did notice, however, that a lot of players had a knack to force the play in one direction with the ball at their feet. I have seen this often, this may have been because they are more comfortable with one foot, but regardless, the game could have used a lot more Cruyff turns. I will need to practice this. Like most teams I know of, the home team definitely had a trouble maker as well. The type of player who would get into it with any one any chance he got, he got yellow carded and deservedly so. In fact I could have sworn he got two yellows, but I guess I was mistaken.

 I’d guess around 110 people were there. Pic doesn’t do justice.

As far as the actual game went, this covered most of the important details. The fans on the sideline were always into it too. On one occasion when the home team had a corner kick during the closing minutes of the game, there were some people who started a slow clap for it. This was the only time, though which makes me think, was that their only corner? The store for food and beer probably earned the club a couple more dollars too. I wouldn’t be surprised if they made over 1000 euros on the day. This really isn’t enough to pay the players though, considering field maintenance costs as well as kits, etc. Another discovery I made was how in depth the clubs here can get. The building I had walked throu to get to the field was actually the headquarters of the home team. Here they had locker rooms, offices and even a cafeteria where there 1st, 2nd, 3rd and u19 teams could eat, I’m assuming after practice. In the pamphlet they handed out, I discovered that they practice 3 times a week. This is good, but not enough to play at the next level. You need to be able to play every day before you really start getting better.

When the game ended, I left quite satisfied with my discoveries, but still still quenching more. I was pleasantly surprised to find a cool statue waiting for me which I had walked passed earlier. And just passed that I found a pleasant game of pick up going on. They were playing on a dirt basketball court, with hoops in the middle that they were playing around, but people had brought mini goals, so they had a perfect field. Watching them was fun, but I couldn’t last long, for it just made me want to play more. These are the times I curse myself for not bringing my shoes. This is an interesting topic though, which I often consider. In order to step in and play with these guys, I would have wanted a completely different change of clothes as well. This may have been a lot to carry. Anyways, I will be sure to visit this Sportpark again in the near future, I really enjoyed the time I spent there, but I knew my weekend was not over yet. Tomorrow I would be going to another game for the regionalliga. I could not wait.