Hamburg "Sonntag Doppel"

The conclusion of this particular European football trip concluded in Hamburg, with a double header from the lower tiers of German football...

1045 Oberliga Hamburg
Teutonia Ottensen 4
Wandsbeker TSV Concordia 2
Att: 175 (plus 20 or so tightwads, who wouldn't pay the €6, watching from road)

What better way to blow the cobwebs off than a spot of Sunday morning Oberliga action. FC Teutonia Ottensen regularly play their home games at 1045 in the morning so this was ideal. The ground, Sportplatz Kreuzkirche, is about a 15 minute walk from Hamburg-Altona station and, as suggested in the name, is in the shadow of the Ottensen Kreuzkirche (Church of the Cross). 

FC Teutonia were the Landesliga Hamburg-Hammonia champions in 2017, earning promotion to the Oberliga (level 5 of German football) Hamburg. They are enjoying a good season and they are comfortably in third place in the table (at the start of play today).

However in this league there is only one promotion spot to the Regionalliga Nord and that looks sewn up by TuS Dassendorf, who are 12 points clear at the top, with games in hand.  Teutonia do play the champions-elect in a couple of weeks time in the Hamburg Cup semi-final, so maybe there is still a chance of silverware this season.

Abdel Abou-Khalid gave Concordia the lead after two minutes but Aytac Erman (19, 32) and Georgios Cholevas (23) gave Teutonia a comfortable half time lead.

Two Wandsbeker TSV Concordia players received red cards, Martin Werner after 66 minutes for his second yellow card and  Kevin Zschimmer after 75 minutes for foul and abusive language. In between the red cards Concordia did pull a goal back when Abou-Khalid (73) scored from the penalty spot. However after 80 minutes Erman completed his hat-trick to make the game safe.

The second game of the day was 5 miles across town in the district of Lokstedt. The timings were tight so I had to be on my toes at the final whistle. I had to catch a bus to Schlump station and then jump off at Hagenbecks Tierpark and then walk 10 minutes to the ground. However whilst I was on the bus I received a text message to say kick off had been delayed due to an injury sustained at a earlier match on the pitch. The knock on effect meaning the remaining games were at least 30 minutes behind. The second half of Lokstedt's second team versus Inter Eidelstedt was just kicking off as I entered the ground, so at least there was time for a chill and a beer (or two) in the clubhouse as the temperature began to rise...

1430 Bezirksliga Nord Hamburg
Eintracht Lokstedt 2
HFC Falke 2
Att: 272

Sportpark Lokstedt, on Dörntwiete, is another artificial surface (if you can remember, it is very similar to Luton Town's pitch of the 1980's).

There is a small piece of wooden cover and also a decent view from the clubhouse decking behind the goal. Eintracht Lokstedt are celebrating their centenary this year and there is a display in the clubhouse to commemorate this achievement, including a plaque from the Deutscher Fußball Bund and a signed photo from Germany and Hamburg legend Uwe Seeler (pictured above right).

Eintracht Lokstedt were the league leaders with HFC Falke in 5th position (at the start of play) in the Bezirksliga Nord Hamburg, which is a district league and basically the equivalent of an English County League. In Hamburg the Bezirksliga sits at Level 7 in the German structure.

Today was a chance for me to catch up with friends who follow HFC Falke and chew the fat, sink a few beers and watch a decent game of football. 

Lokstedt raced into an early two goal lead. Mario Beslic opened the scoring after 5 minutes, after a defensive mix up up left him with an open goal. After 10 minutes Tamino Kunter raced through to slot home and double the home sides advantage.

Tobias Leuthold (25) halved the deficit after Falke were awarded a dubious penalty when Lokstedt 'keeper Jan Giesecke pushed  in the area resulted in the referee pointing to the spot. Kevan Hermann (55) equalised for The Hawks in the second half and the game could have gone either way. In the 81st minute Lokstedt had a chance to grab the victory but Nils Kuchenmeister saved Luis Gleich's penalty kick. The resulting draw was a fair result and brought to a conclusion another fantastic week of European Groundhopping. 

All that was left was to head back into town and sink a few more ales at the fabulous Galopper des Jahres! Until next time, a very fond farewell! 

UHLENHORSTER SPORT CLUB PALOMA (Jonny Rehbein Sportplatz)

OBERLIGA HAMBURG, USC PALOMA 5-1 SV LURUP, ATTENDANCE: 150 (est)

After finishing Saturday night, in the wee small hours, at a fun fair in St Pauli, my alarm went off at 9am. I had a choice; either roll over and have another couple of hours sleep or drag myself into the cool Sunday morning air for the first game of a Hamburg Oberliga double header?

I managed to make the train to Dehnhaide where a 10 minute stroll soon found me at the Jonny Rehbein Sportplatz, on
Brucknerstraße, where USC Paloma play their home games. 

The ground has a clubhouse but little else in the way of football furniture. The pitch was an artificial surface but none of your modern day 4G technology, this was your 1980’s Luton Town model. I dread to think of the players slide tackling on this surface!

Uhlenhorster Sport Club Paloma was formed in August of 1909 by a group of students and it's name is taken from the Spanish word for dove, hence the club crest. 

The club's biggest successes have been in the 21st century when they won the Hamburger Pokal twice, beating Viktoria Hamburg in 2002 and SC Condor in 2014, to earn a place in the DFB Pokal first round proper. In 2002 Paloma lost 5-0 to Bundesliga side 1.FC Kaiserslautern and 2014 they lost to another Bundesliga side TSG Hoffenheim, who beat Paloma 9-0.

USC Paloma have played in the Hamburg Oberliga (level 5 in German football) since 2014 though they are struggling this season. Indeed looking at the statistics before the game, it hardly seemed to have had the makings of a classic as second bottom Paloma hadn't won in five games and rock bottom SV Lurup had only drawn one game all season. It turned out to be a decent watch, though a little one sided, with plenty of goals.

The game was virtually one way traffic as Paloma looked like scoring every time they went forward. The only surprise was that it took until the 16th minute for the first goal to arrive, Ahmed Osmanov firing home. Paloma skipper Mladen Tunjic made it 2-0 after 20 minutes with a superb overhead kick. He soon made it 3-0 after 24 minutes. If it wasn't for some fine saves by Lurup goalkeeper Michael Glamann (and some intervention by the woodwork) it is no exaggeration to say the scoreline could have been treble that at the break.

The second half continued in much the same vein as the first, however Lurup did manage to get out of their own half and have some efforts at the Paloma goal. Milos Ljubisavljevic made it 4-0 to the home side after 76 minutes before Tunjic (81) completed his hat-trick to make it 5-0. Shafi Karimi scored a stoppage time goal for Lurup, but I doubt that was any consolation whatsoever.

HAMBURGER FUSSBALL CLUB FALKE (Rudi Barth Sportplatz)

HAMBURG KREISKLASSE 5, HFC FALKE 7-1 TSV STELLINGEN, ATTENDANCE: 459

After visiting HFC Falke for their first ever competitive game back in July today was a chance for a catch up to see how things are progressing at this fledgling club, and also an opportunity to catch up with friends, sink a few beers and have my faith restored after the previous night's adventure!

Finally, I got to use my season ticket!

Falke are now at 'home' playing at the Rudi Barth Sportplatz, the ground of SC Union 03 Altona, which was unavailable at the beginning of the season, and things are going very well for Falke at the moment.

They currently sit top of their league, the Hamburg Kreisklasse, Group 5, which is the lowest level of football in Germany. They have won all of their 12 league games, so far, and made it through to the 4th round of the Hamburg Cup, eventually losing 2-1 to TSV Bulcholz.

Today Falke were hosting TSV Stellingen (who sat 4th in the table at the start of play) and were hoping that it wasn't unlucky thirteen in the league.

Sebastian Semtner heads home to make it 2-0

In the end it was a comprehensive victory for Falke as they thrashed Stellingen 7-1.

The first half hour of the game was tight, as the visitors closed down the home side and allowed them little space to play. The turning point was on the half hour mark when Stellingen's Andreas Korneev received as second yellow card for a lunging foul.

Within six minutes of the red card, Falke had broken the deadlock through Marcell Voß and then doubled their lead two minutes from the break when, with a hint of offside, Sebastian Semtner headed home.

Ich möchte wimpel, bitte!

The game was over as a contest within minutes of the restart when Björn Naruhn (46 & 51) and Timo Braasch (47) scored to make it 5-0.

Krischan Ramon Stein scored a consolation goal for Stellingen on the hour but Braasch (75) netted his second to make it 6-1.

Substitute Niklas Koopmann completed the scoring in the last minute to set Falke up for their forthcoming Friday night clash with second placed Blau-Weiß 96 II.

Post match was spent meeting and greeting people in the clubhouse, whilst having some more beer and schnapps, before settling down to watch Darmstadt and Hamburger SV play out a 1-1 draw live on the TV. A massive 'danke' to all who made me so welcome!

The handcrafted cider went down an absolute treat!

The Falke/FCUM flag that I also saw on display at
Broadhurst Park a couple of weeks ago.