671. MSV Duisburg v Rot-Weiss Ahlen

Kick Off / Date 14:00 Sunday 9th. November 2008

Competition Bundesliga 2

Venue - (#259) MSV-Arena

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Admission terracing 9 euros, seats 15-33 euros (we paid 15 euros)
Matchday Magazine Zebra Magazine, 1 euro, 60 pages, A4 full colour.

Also In Attendance Sid

Food Surely that can't be more currywurst?

Drink Konig 3 euros



After comically missing a couple of trains at Koln HBF, followed with signalling problems in the Leverkusen area we arrived in Duisburg HBF pushed for time. Seeing the MSV Arena fly past us too our right as the train slowed to a halt didn't help the mood. With the tourist office closed, and no tickets in hand we had no choice but to grab a cab. It turned out we panicked for no reason, yet again tickets were readily available, even with just 30 minutes to kick off. We chose the 15 euro tickets for the seated RWE Tribune, not knowing until we wandered around the perimeter that there were 9 euro tickets available in the Konig Pilsener Fankurve, the home terracing section. We took the time to browse inside the clubshop, I had to hone some inner strength to resist purchasing the away kit, purple with thin white hoops.(below)

The MSV-Arena was built in 2005, replacing the Wedaustadion which stood on the same site. Behind the RWE Tribune, out of sight from the fans inside the ground stands one last remnant of the old venue, a seventies electronic scoreboard (below). The Arena has a maximum capacity of 31,500.

Twinned with Portsmouth, Duisburg is a steel producing city (pop. 495,000) in the Ruhr area of the North-Rhine-Westphalia. It's an important venue for commerce, due to the proximity of Dusseldorf Airport. Duisburg has the largest inland harbour in Europe. There have been people living here since the first century, both the Romans and the Normans settled here in the past. Duisburg profited during the Industrial Revolution, the city specialising in tobacco and textiles. Duisburg is the German equivalent of Coventry, considered to be the most bombed city by the Allies during World War II. Almost 100,000 people were made homeless and virtually 80% of the city had to be rebuilt from scratch once the fighting was over.

MSV were one of the original members of the Bundesliga (1963). The club were formed in 1902 under the name Meidericher SportVerein. They added the Duisburg part to the name in 1967. The club's best league finish was 2nd. in the Bundesliga, in more recent years they have become a yo-yo team, too good for Liga 2 but not strong enough in the top flight. They hold the record for the best away victory in the Bundesliga, a 9-0 victory away at Tasmania 1900 Berlin. MSV's nickname is the zebras, due to the stripes, not the colours!

MSV fans have 3 chants unique to them, this to my mind was the best one. Before kick-off we were treated to three sides of the ground holding up a red card, we later found out why. As you can see the ground is completely modern, two tiers all the way around, no gaps. At the far end from where we sat is the area of home terracing in the lower tier, and immediately to our right was a small corner of away terracing in the 'Duisport Logport Ecke'.

From the off MSV had a lot of posession but their final attacking play was extremely poor. Ahlen took the lead within six minutes, a fierce strike from #11 Lars Toborg from the edge of the area. With a goal lead Rot-Weiss were happy to sit back and use clever passing to catch the Zebras on the break. Duisburg continued to waste good opportunities and the home fans voiced their displeasure with a loud chorus of boos as the referee blew for half-time.

Under-pressure MSV boss Rudi Bommer brought sub Ibrahim Salou on for the second half, who had a shocker. His touch and passing on the day were atrocious. Duisburg's passing continued to let them down and the crowd were becoming more restless. On 70 minutes a Duisburg player went down injured, but Ahlen refused to put the ball out. This sparked the fury in the Zebra's Gregory Christ, upon winning a free-kick he struck out at the Rot-Weiss player who had tackled him. He received a straight red, pretty much ending Duisburg's interest in this game.

Minutes from the end, a middle-aged man sat in front of us with his family decided it would be a good idea to chuck his pint glass over the border at the away contingent (above). Not content with that he spat over the barrier, to their credit the Ahlen faithful didn't react with anger, just looked at him with a mixture of pity and contempt. What his teenage daughter must of thought of 'the old man' acting a prat who knows? What was even more surprising was that the steward who came over didn't throw him out of the ground, but sat with him and his delinquent son, making sure they didn't get up to anymore low-key hooliganism.

The walk back to the centre of Duisburg took about half an hour. As we left we heard the angry home fans gathered behind the Kurve chanting for the head of trainer Rudi Bommer. They got their wish, the news being announced 3 hours later on the Bundesliga Live channel.

Final Score MSV Duisburg 0 Rot -Weiss Ahlen 1 (Toborg 6)

Attendance 12,027

Colours Duisburg - Blue and white hoops, Ahlen - all black

Links

Europlan - pictures of virtually every German ground. Click on D-Informer for the list.

Diary of Some Groundhopping - the original Wedaustadion.

Diary of Some Groundhopping - and more recently at the MSV-Arena.