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.

SG UNION SANDERSDORF (Sportzentrum Stadion)

OBERLIGA NOFV SUD, SG UNION SANDERSDORF 3-0 FSV BARLEBEN, ATTENDANCE: 300 (est)

After three games in the upper echelons of German football, it was now time to drop down a few levels and watch some real stuff!

After watching RB Leipzig the previous evening I was based in the city of Leipzig for the night, so was looking for something close by. There were a few games in Berlin, but that would have taken me further away from where I needed to be for my Saturday game.

One fixture that caught my eye was the Oberliga Sud derby between SG Union Sandersdorf and FSV Barleben. A 30 minute train journey took me from Leipzig Messe to Bitterfeld, where a connecting bus service to Sandersdorf took a further 20 minutes.

Sandersdorf is a small village with a population of less than 10,000 people. Luckily where the bus dropped me off there was a bar where I was able to have a couple of liveners before heading over to the ground.

SG Union Sandersdorf was founded in 1911 as BC Union Sandersdorf, joining the Central German Football Association. In 1933 SV Sandersdorf joined the club then after the Second World War, when all German football clubs were disbanded, the club was reformed as SG Sandersdorf, later changing it's name to BSG Work Hermann Fahlke Sandersdorf.

In 1948 the club then became  BSG Aktivist Sandersdorf and in 1957 was forced to merge with BSG Chemie Wolfen and become the reserve team of that club (a common theme with East German clubs).

In 1959 the name was changed again to BSG Chemie Sandersdorf. Throughout the history of the old GDR, the club never played any higher than the Bezirksklasse leagues. After German reunification, the present name was adopted and in 2013 the club was promoted to the Oberliga Sud, where it still competes.

The club play at the Sportzentrum Stadion which, as the name suggests, is in the middle of the town. The ground is an athletics track surrounded by banks of terracing, of which in the middle of one side there are seats bolted on and covered. It was only this side of the ground that was open tonight.

Sandersdorf took the lead after 4 minutes when Felix Krause tapped home after an initial shot was saved. Barleben came back into the game and hit a well worked move wide and then a headed effort came back off the crossbar.


The home side also dragged a couple of efforts wide before extending their lead after 25 minutes when a corner kick hit the unfortunate Benjamin Karg (pictured right) and deflected into the net. Barleben were reduced to 10 men after 32 minutes when Phillip Linze was shown a straight red card for a foul.

Any hopes of a Barleben comeback were extinguished 25 seconds into the second half when Dan Lochmann scored to make it 3-0. After that the game petered out as both teams went through the motions. Luckily events off the pitch were more enjoyable as there was a young lady walking round with a tray full of ale, selling it to whoever wanted a cold beer. Naturally I could not resist!

The last bus back from Sandersdorf to Bitterfeld was at 2134 (and I was the only person on it) and I comfortably made the train back to Leipzig. All tucked up in bed before midnight and all set for my final leg of the week...

My player of the match!