After scouring the area for two weeks now, I realized that the closest field to where I am living in Steglitz is a complex called Lichterfelde. Along with the two turf fields, one of which I played with the roughly 8 year old Nieltz earlier, there is a grass field with stadium seating. It is a small venue to be sure, but lovely none the less. I had been to these fields many times now, so I decided this would be the weekend that I finally saw their team play. Their game was at 1:30 on a Saturday, so at around 12:30 I biked over, which takes closer to twenty minutes as a whole actually (I may have said ten minutes earlier). When I got there this venue, which had been rather empty the last couple times I had visited it, was now full of people. This wasn’t like the Berliner AK game I went to with Ian where there were police everywhere, but I’d still say there were a couple hundred people there, packed into a small area. What is interesting to note is that this team, should it win the regionalliga and then the next two following leagues, could theoretically be in the Bundesliga, where teams have stadiums that pack tens of thousands of people into them. That’s just how the system works here. The likely hood of that happening is low though, so one has to relish the history behind a place like this. The club, FC VIKTORIA 1889, was founded in, duh 1889, and so there is a brick building at the entrance that serves as the locker room, bathroom and most likely club house as well. The field is grass, of course, but not the nicest grass I’ve ever seen; I was able to go on it earlier since they don’t lock the fields during the day. When the game finally started I decided to stand rather than sit.

The match was a good one, ending with a 3-3 tie, two of the away teams goals, though, came off of very lucky deflections where the ball bounced right to one of their players. In my opinion the home team was the better squad. They controlled the game and had most of the momentum. The level of play didn’t match the BAK/Zwickau game, even though they are all in the same league, but it was good competition none the less. When of the players on VIKTORIA, their center defender #4, Mike Eglseder, was very impressive, with twenty minutes left in the game I decided to keep my eyes on him the whole time. He was very athletic, confident and had good instinct, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he was playing in the Bundesliga in a couple years.