REGIONALLIGA WEST, ROT WEISS ESSEN 1-2 ALEMANNIA AACHEN, ATTENDANCE: 10,580
It was over to Germany once again for a weekend involving three games. First up was a Friday night game under the lights at Essen.
The day started early with a 7.00am flight to Dusseldorf where, after making my way to the main station, I met up with a mate of mine, where we enjoyed a couple of alt-biers before catching a regional train for the 30 minute journey to Essen.
The journey involved changing at Duisburg, so it would have been churlish not to go and seek out the fabulous Finkenkrug bar with its fine selection of beers on tap.
Stadion Essen is about 5km from the main station but the train from Duisburg stops at Essen-Bergeborbeck, which is a 10 minute walk from the ground.
The ground was opened in 2012 and is approximately 100 metres from where the ground it replaced, the Georg Melches Stadion, once stood. The ground is another fine example of a modern football stadium. The original stadium was the first floodlit ground in Germany and there remains a solitary floodlight from the old ground to serve as a reminder to this proud fact.
Founded in 1907 as SV Vogelheim, out of the merger of two smaller clubs in SC Preussen and Deutsche Eichehe, the club became Rot Weiss Essen in 1923.
The club reached the one of the top flight leagues (Gauliga Niederrhein) in 1938 but the club's golden era was the 1950s when Essen won the DFB Pokal in 1953, before going on to win the German championship in 1955. This meant they were the first German club to qualify for the then newly created European Cup, where they were eliminated by Scottish champions Hibernian.
Rot Weiss Essen now find themselves plying their trade in the fourth tier of German football after a catalogue of financial problems. They were demoted to the fifth tier in 2010 after insolvency but had previously been demoted from 2.Bundesliga in 1984, 1991 and 1994 because of financial problems.
Tonight Rot Weiss Essen were hosting Alemannia Aachen, who themselves were not without problems in the recent past.
After an even opening half, it was Philip Gödde (52) who gave Aachen then lead when he was on hand to roll the ball home after an initial shot was saved by Niclas Heimann.
Benjamin Baier (55) scored a screamer to equalise for Essen. The ball broke loose to him on the edge of the box and the skipper took one touch before unleashing a dipping shot into the net. A superb strike.
Both teams went searching for a winner and it was Aachen who grabbed the victory with two minutes remaining.
Joy-Lance Mikels broke into into the box and was tripped. Penalty. Jerome Propheter stepped up to score. Essen did have a late chance but Gino Windmüller dragged his shot wide.
REGIONALLIGA WEST, FC VIKTORIA KOLN 2-0 SC VERL, ATTENDANCE: 624
The modernisation of grounds that seems to be taking place across the higher echelons of German football has yet to filter down to the lower regions and fortunately you can still find some absolute gems out there. I certainly put Sportpark Höhenberg, the home of Viktoria Koln, in that category. Today though only the large grandstand was open.
The club has an ambitious owner whose dream it is make Viktoria the second team in the city. The club have had an interesting history with many mergers and takeovers over the past century.
Founded in 1904, they are one of the oldest football clubs in Cologne. They began life as FC Germania Kalk before mergeing with FC Kalk in 1909 to form SV Kalk 04. In 1911 this club joined forces with Mülheimer FC to create VfR Mülheim-Kalk 04. The club was then renamed VfR Köln 04 in 1918.
During the war years the club joined forces with Mülheimer SV to play as KSG VfR 04 Köln/Mülheimer SV 06 before making the merger permanent and becoming to become SC Rapid Köln 04 in 1949. Rapid joined local rivals SC Preußen Dellbrück forming SC Viktoria 04 Köln in 1957.
In 1963 the club represented Cologne in the Inter Cities Fairs Cup. In 1994 the club merged with SC Brück to create SCB Preußen Köln before changing name to SCB Viktoria Köln in 2002.
This club was liquidated in 2010 and a new club called FC Viktoria Köln was founded, which took over the youth teams of now insolvent SCB Viktoria. The club were forced to start in the lowest league but in 2011 they took over FC Junkersdorf, who won the 2011 Mittelrheinliga meaning FC Viktoria Köln could start in in the Regionalliga.
Speaking of new beginnings it was the first game in charge for new Viktoria coach Tomasz Kaczmarek and he witnessed his new charges score two goals without reply.
SC Verl succumb to two late goals from Daniel Reiche (76) and Tim Väyrynen (82). Post match is was into the city centre for one or two well deserved glasses of Kolsch!
