1.FC NEUBRANDENBURG (Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Stadion)

DFB POKAL 1, 1.FC NEUBRANDENBURG 1-3 KARLSRUHER SC, ATTENDANCE: 3,500

After waking up with a somewhat sore head, I boarded a train at Berlin hauptbanhof going north to Neubrandenburg (at this point I will shatter some illusions as the train journey took longer than expected due to delays, track closures and bus replacement services). 

The town of Neubrandenburg is about 85 miles north of Berlin and is an old medieval fortification and you can enter the town through one of four gates.

Ticket booth outside
1.FC Neubrandenburg's
normal home venue

Oberliga Nord 1.FC Neubrandenburg were taking on 2.Bundesliga Karlsruher SC in the DFB Pokal, my final game of my European jaunt. The reason for choosing this game above any others was the chance of a very rare "tick"

Neubrandenburg's Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Stadion (another stadium named after the 19th century German gymnastics educator) was being used today for football for the first time in years. 1.FC Neubrandenburg normally play on the 2,500 capacity Liga Platz adjacent to the Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Stadion but because of the expected large crowd, the game was switched to the main stadium.

The club have only been in existence for the last decade having been founded in 2004, when the clubs FC Neubrandenburg, Neubrandenburg Tollense  and SV Nevag Neubrandenburg all came together as 1.FC Neubrandenburg.

The roots of 1.FC Neubrandenburg can be traced back to 1947 with the formation of SG Fritz Reuter Neubrandenburg. The club underwent various name changes and reached the second tier of  East German football in 1954 as BSG Turbine Neubrandenburg and then reached the top flight in 1964 as SC Neubrandenburg. 

In 1965 the club changed it's name once more to BSG Post Neubrandenburg and played at the main Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Stadion until the mid 1980's before moving. To the best of my knowledge, please correct me if I am  wrong, competitive football has not been played on this ground until today's game, hence the rare "tick".

The first half was pretty much a non-event with very little goalmouth action. Neubrandenburg took the lead after 48 minutes through Christoph Fischer but their joy was short lived as the visitors were level within three minutes when Gaetan Krebs (51) equalised.

Karlsruher were then awarded two (in my opinion) soft penalties converted by Jan Mauersberger (55) and  Ilian Micanski (67).

This game brought an end to another great European jaunt, hopefully another will follow later on in the season courtesy of Everton's Europa League campaign!

Ye olde scoreboard, sadly not working

The Karlsruher fans