1.FC LOKOMOTIVE LEIPZIG (Bruno Plache Stadion)

REGIONALLIGA NORDOST, LOKOMOTIVE LEIPZIG 1-1 ENERGIE COTTBUS, ATTENDANCE: 6,299

For the final game of my latest weekend in Germany, I headed back east to Leipzig. The seeds for this visit were planted last year when I visited the city and took a tram (number 15 in the direction of Meusdorf) out of the centre to visit the Brauhaus Napoleon.

I noticed the Lokomotive Leipzig fanshop (which was no longer there but there is a stall inside the stadium) so I figured the ground must be nearby. It was. I went and had a little peek before resolving to come back and watch a game. I didn't think it would be this soon!

Lokomotive Leipzig play at the fabulous Bruno Plache Stadion. The ground has been home since the club was reformed in 2004. The ground was first opened in 1922 and the wooden stand, which was packed to the rafters today, was built in 1932. It is a truly fantastic sight. The rest of the ground is terracing and has a capacity 15,000 but for safety reasons the capacity is reduced to just under 7,000.

Lokomotive Leipzig are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year having been founded in 1966 when the club adopted the name. In 1963 a merger of two of Leipzig's most important clubs, SC Rotation and SC Lokomotive Leipzig, lead to two new sides being founded, SC Leipzig and BSG Chemie Leipzig. In 1966 SC Leipzig became 1.FC Lokomotive Leipzig.

However the origins of the club can be traced back to VfB Leipzig, who were founder members of the German Football Association in 1900 and the very first national champions in 1903. The club also won the title in 1906 and 1913 before the club was dissolved in the aftermath of the second world war.

After German reunification in 1990 Lokomotive Leipzig were placed in the 2.Bundesliga and changed their name back to VfB Leipzig. The club reached the Bundesliga in 1993 but they finished bottom and began a slide back down the leagues.

VfB Leipzig went as low as the Oberliga Sud before they went bust in 2004 and were reformed as a fan owned club under the name Lokomotive Leipzig. They had to begin again in the lowest level (11) of German football, the Kreisklasse.

After a series of promotions, the club are now back in the Regionalliga (level 4) for this season and today were hosting Energie Cottbus, who are currently experiencing their own slide down the leagues, having suffered two successive relegation's from 2.Bundesliga and Liga 3, having been in the top flight Bundesliga as recently as 2009.

It was Cottbus that had the better of the opening exchanges and it was no surprise when they took the lead after 12 minutes, though there was an element of fortune to the goal when a deflected cross was diverted into the path of Marc Stein, who headed home from close range.

Lokomotive were level after 39 minutes when a cross from the right was slotted home by Djamal Ziane to send the home crowd wild.


The second half was pretty even with both teams having chances but unable to find the winning goal. Cottbus finished the game with 10 men Benjamin Förster was shown a second yellow cards in the final minute.

   

A visit to this ground was my highlight of the weekend and if you have not visited the Bruno Plache Stadion I urge you to do so, I promise you will not be disappointed!

ROT WEIß ERFURT (Steigerwaldstadion)

3.LIGA, ROT WEIß ERFURT 0-3 HALLESCHER, ATTENDANCE: 8,168

The third tier of German football kicked off today so I decided to leave Dresden behind and take the 2 hour train journey across to Erfurt.

Rot Weiß Erfurt (RWE) are a mainstay of the 3.Liga, having been founder members in 2008. Today they were hosting Hallescher FC in the season opener, as they looked to improve on last season's 8th place finish.

Like a majority of old East German clubs, RWE are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year having been founded in 1966 when, like a host of other clubs, the football department became a separate from the more general sports clubs. The origins of the club though can be traced back to the 1880's and in 1900 Sport Club Erfurt were founder members of the German Football Association. The club won their league title in 1909, advancing to the national semi-finals before losing 9-1 to eventual winners Phönix Karlsruhe.

The two clubs of SC Turbine Erfurt and BSG Optima Erfurt were merged in 1966 to form RWE and competed in the old East German Oberliga until reunification in 1991 when a 3rd placed finish meant they were placed in Bundesliga 2 and also qualified for the UEFA Cup, where they eventually lost to Ajax in round two. This meant they were the last team to represent East Germany on a European stage.

The Steigerwaldstadion, which was opened in 1931, has undergone extensive redevelopment in the past year or so with the old terracing replaced by a modern seated stand, with blocks of terracing at each end for the home and away fans. Walking around the ground there is still evidence of construction work. The "new" stadium is due to be officially inaugurated with a friendly against Mainz in two weeks time.

This afternoon's game turned out to be a routine away win for Hallescher. Once RWE fell behind to an early Benjamin Pintol goal, who tapped in from close range after three minutes, they were always struggling to get back in the game as the vistors were happy to play the counter attacking game.

Hallescher almost doubled their lead before the break but a Martin Röser free kick crashed against the bar. RWE came out fired up in the second half but, despite their possession, they did not trouble the visitors goal.

Hallescher made it 2-0 after 66 minutes through Toni Lindenhahn before substitute André Wallenborn wrapped up the three points with seven minutes left.

DYNAMO DRESDEN (Stadion Dresden)

DRESDEN CUP, DYNAMO DRESDEN 2-1 EVERTON, ATTENDANCE: 12,533

Here we go! Here we go! Here we go!

Welcome back to my humble blog as Season 2016/17 got underway with a lovely weekend, and three games, in the east of Germany.

The mighty Everton, along with Real Betis and Werder Bremen, were taking part in a pre-season tournament at the Stadion Dresden, the home of Bundesliga 2 side Dynamo Dresden.

 After the old Rudolf Harbig Stadium was redeveloped, the stadium in it's present form was opened in 2009. The ground is a typical modern stadium with a capacity of 32,000.

Dynamo have returned to the second tier this season after two years in the 3.Liga. The club, established in 1953 as part of the Dresden police force, are a famous name in German football with an illustrious history.

The club enjoyed it's most successful spell in the 1970's, under the management of Walter Fritzsch, winning the East German title five times (1971, 1973, 1976, 1977 and 1978) and also two domestic cups, (1971 and 1977). They played in European competition every year during the 1970s, and beat some big teams such as Porto, Juventus and Benfica along the way (they also got thrashed by Liverpool, but we will gloss over that). Dresden also came up against West German opposition for the first time, losing against Bayern Munich 7-6 on aggregate in the last 16 of the 1973/74 European Cup.

It was around this time that Erich Mielke began manipulate the league in favour of Dynamo Berlin, who won the GDR championship 10 years in a row from 1979 to 1988, a European record, amid accusations of dodgy penalties, dodgy time keeping, disallowed goals. Dresden finished runners up six times in this period.

With German reunification in 1990, Dynamo Dresden joined the Bundesliga for the start of the 1991 season but had four seasons of struggle before being relegated in 1995. The club had also accumulated debts of more than 10 million DM, and were denied a license to play in the 2. Bundesliga, and had to drop down to the third tier Regionalliga Nordost. Rolf-Jürgen Otto, the club's president, was jailed for having embezzled around 3 Million DM.

The next few years were spent in the Regional leagues before returning to the 2.Bundesliga in 2004. The club has had it's up and downs since then but are now back in Germany's second tier.

This game was the second of four games in this mini-tournament, with Real Betis beating Werder Bremen 1-0 in the first game, before Everton take on the Spaniards tomorrow prior to the all German game that rounds off the tournament.

Pre-match was spent seeing the sights of Dresden, which is a beautiful city, with some amazing architecture, which has been painstakingly rebuilt after the efforts of Arthur Harris in 1945. The were also a couple of fine Brahaus' which, naturally, had to be visited!

The game was a typical tepid pre-season affair, but there were still some of the errors from Roberto Martinez's reign which new Manager Ronald Koeman has yet to iron out. 

Everton had plenty of chances to see off Dresden but were caught out on the break for the home sides first goal, a tap in scored by Niklas Hauptmann and undone by a super strike from Pascal Testreot midway through the second half.

In between though Gerard Deulofeu side footed home a stunning free kick that found its way into net via the underside of the crossbar.

The 1,000 or so travelling Evertonians were kept in the ground after the game before being escorted back to town where the festivities continued into the wee small hours.

UEFA EURO 2016 (Nice)

Wednesday 22nd June 2016
UEFA Euro 2016 Group B
Stade de Nice
Sweden 0-1 Belgium
Attendance: 34,011

My French adventure came to it's conclusion on the Cote d'azur with a visit to the brand new home of Olympique Gymnaste Club de Nice. After waking up, and opening my window, to stunning views of palm trees and the clean blue water of the Mediterranean Sea, it was a lazy afternoon, mostly drinking Belgian beer in a place called Belgian Attitude, before heading to the ground.

The ground, opened in 2013 and replacing the old Stade Municipal du Rayand, is eco-friendly, drawing more than three times its own energy requirements from more than 4,000 solar panels. The ground has its own geothermal installation for heating and rain water channelled from the roof is used to water the pitch.

To contradict this though, the best way of reaching the ground, which is 13 km outside the city centre, is by car as the train stop for the stadium is yet to be completed. Tonight's match is the penultimate game at this ground, with England v Iceland scheduled here for next Monday before it hosts Rhianna on her world tour on 15th July.

Belgium struggled to overcome Sweden, who at least managed some efforts on target in this game. The game was decided six minutes from time when Radja Nainggolan's stunning 25-yard strike secured Belgium's place in the last 16 of Euro 2016 and eliminated out Sweden. Fabrique Belgique as they say.

As well as being my last game at Euro 2016, it was also the last international game of Zlatan Ibrahimovic as he had announced that this tournament would be his Swedish swansong, no doubt I will be seeing him at Goodison Park next season after Manchester United sign (for) him!

That is my lot for 2015/16, the journey around France was a brilliant way to round off another season of groundhopping, even if the actual football was largely forgettable. Thanks to everyone involved, and indeed over the course of the past 11 months. Hopefully I will see you all soon. Enjoy your summer!

Goodbye, au revoir!

UEFA EURO 2016 (Marseille)

Tuesday 21st June 2016
UEFA Euro 2016 Group C
Stade Velodrome
Ukraine 0-1 Poland
Attendance: 58,874

Of all the grounds I was due to visit on this tour of the Euro's, this was the ground I was looking forward to the most. The Stade Velodrome is one of the most iconic stadiums in European, possibly world, football and it did not disappoint!

The ground was originally built in 1938, complete with a cycling track that gave the stadium its name, but the Stade Velodrome has been extensively redeveloped over the years increasing the capacity to over 67,000. The stadium used to have uncovered ends behind each goal but these have been rebuilt and all sides of the ground are now fully covered, the undulating roofs are an impressive site. One of the guys I was travelling with visited the Velodrome in the 1990's and he says it looks a lot better in its current form,

There must have been at least 35,000 Polish fans inside the ground today and they made some noise, it did make me wonder what the atmosphere would be like for an Olympique Marseille game.

The game itself was effectively a dead rubber as Poland were already through to the knockout stages, whilst Ukraine had already booked their flights home after two defeats, a 2-0 loss to Northern Ireland sealing their fate.

Second half substitute Jakub Blaszczykowski, pictured left whilst warming up, curled in a left-foot shot for the winner after 54 minutes.

Ukraine, perhaps playing with a little more freedom after elimination, had plenty of possession and attempts at goal but in truth Swansea City's Lukas Fabianski in the Polish goal was hardly troubled.

My visit to Marseille was very brief, as it was basically a quick stop off to watch the game en route from Lyon to Nice. I therefore did not get a chance to head into the city where there had been plenty of incident in the lead up to the England v Russia game 10 days previous. This game today was also classed as potentially high risk by the authorities but from what I seen everything was pretty good natured.