HALLESCHER FC (Kurt Wabbel Stadion)

3.LIGA, HALLESCHER FC 2-1 VfL OSNABRUCK, ATTENDANCE: 5,328

The final leg of this weekend's trip took me East to the former DDR city of Halle an der Salle. I had been here previously back in May when visting the othe team in the city, VfL Halle.



Destination this time was the Erdgas Sportpark, or Kurt Wabbel Stadion as it used to be known. The ground has been redeveloped in recent years into a modern sports ground. Only the outer wall remains from the original stadium (click here).

Hallescher played in the East German top flight until reunification before suffering the fate of many former East German teams by dropping down the leagues. In 2012 though they finally returned to the upper echelons of professional football by clinching the Regionalliga Nord title and with it promotion to Liga 3.

The origins of the club can be traced back to 1900 but the club in it's current form was founded in 1966 as FC Chemie Halle. This is when the football club broke away from it's parent sports club. The Chemie was dropped in 1990 but remains the clubs nickname.

Today's game was a great advert for 3 Liga football. though Hallescher really should have had the game wrapped up by half time.  Marco Engelhardt (13) gave the homesters the lead before proceeding to miss a hatful of chances, including an effort that rattled the crossbar.
Hallescher finally made it 2-0 after 36 minutes through a Tim Kruse header. The chances continued after the break but Hallescher proceeded to shoot themselves in the foot by conceding after 64 minutes when Massimo Ornatelli fired home a free kick for Osnabruck.

Osnabruck found themselves down to 10 men when Dominic Rau was shown a second yellow card. Despite being a man down they piled the pressure on the Hallescher defence but just couldn't find the breakthrough.

So my latest German football trip was at its end. Post match I managed to join the crowds in the city centre as the Halle Christmas market got underway. More Gluhwein on which to end proceedings....