Autumn Eurocrankhop - Day 2

Kickers Offenbach v TSV Steinbach, Deutschland Regionalliga Südwest.

Back to the very picturesque Charleroi Sud at twilight.

Inside, the station is less picturesque, being located under a motorway flyover.  Needless to say, our train rolled in 15 minutes late, with no explanation why.

Getting across to Frankfurt, the fastest route was via Luxembourg but I'd chosen to go via Liege and Köln as Dai loves to follow a river on the train, and this route took us by the Meuse and the Rhein.  Needless to say, two minutes after departure, Dai was fast asleep.

We lost further time along the route, meaning a +24 at Liege became a -6, but predictably, the onward train was late so we made it onto Waenkraft.

This took us for the pile of crap that SNCB put on for the short journey over the border to Aachen. 

They have built a high speed line from Liege with Thalys and ICE services.  To make sure everyone travels on these expensive services, the Oostende-Koln IC services have been cut back to Eupen, and the worst trains possible put on for the two hourly connection over the border.  Here the two car SNCB festers at Aachen, next to German, eight carriage, double decker stock, that took us on to Koln.

At Koln, the train down the Rhein Valley was an undetermined amount of time late, so we hopped on a Basel bound ICE direct to Frankfurt.  Dai was awake by now and I'd persuaded him, when he was buying 8 cans of Tuborg at the station, to instead go for some Kolsch.  Here he tucks into his second can as we depart the station, over the Rhein.

In order to get to Offenbach it was a change at Frankfurt Flughafen.  The Leipzig bound ICE was thankfully a cross platform change as the station is split by the airport so some platforms are half a mile away.

Football grounds visible from the railway, the Commerzbank Arena.

After another change at Frankfurt Sud, with some heritage class 111 haulage...

....we were into Offenbach.

As far as I can work out, Offenbach is the shit part of Frankfurt.  It's modern history is based on the leather industry and also typesetting.  The allies bombed the shit out of it during the war, and whilst it has attracted the far eastern car manufacturers (being the European headquarters for Honda, Kia and Hyundai), the leather industry has disappeared, full leather coats for some reason not being as popular as they were in the 1930s.  Despite all that research, the only thing you will remember is when I tell you, as serious as cancer, that Snap! were from Offenbach.

The afternoons entertainment was none other than the German National Ledermuseum. 

We learned about 18th century Iranian shoes...

....the story of 1990s pointless novelty Puma disks.....

....how most cricket pads were made in Offenbach.....

....and the development of the 12 black pentagon/26 white hexagon football.

However, the evolution of the leather military uniform had the 1930s exhibit removed, due to 'pressure from social media'.

Unfortunately, there was no S&M section, so here is the falconry glove exhibit.

Our extended stay at the leather museum, meant disappointingly, we didn't have time for the European Calligraphy Museum.  The Leather museum is so important, it even has its own station, which we used to head into Frankfurt.

Here we visited a required blockhouse, cleared with the obligatory 1.1lb T-bone.

It was then back on the S-Bahn to Bieberbeliever, a village just outside Offenbach, and the nearest station to the ground.

A short walk through an estate, tools us to the woodland where the Spandau Ballet Stadium is located.

Kickers Offenbach 1 v TSV Steinbach 1, Regionalliga Südwest.

Kickers Offenbach were formed in 1901 with the merger of local teams Melitia, Teutonia, Viktoria, Germania and Neptun, a bit like Mole Valley Predators.  They played in regional leagues until reaching the Bundesliga  in 1968, and winning the German cup in 1970.  However, things started to go downhill from then on, as they were the ones who did the initial grassing, when it was found that everyone involved in German football in the 1970s was on the take.  They were relegated, and if things couldn't get any worse, they introduced Rudi Völler to the football world.  They have had a couple of spells back in the Bundesliga, the last in 1984, but since then, have skipped around Bundesliga 2, ligament 3, and the Regionalliga, currently in the South West division of the latter.

If Offenbach are currently on their arses, TSV Steinbach are living the dream.  In 2009 they were at step 10 in the Kreislega B.  Since then they have risen up through the Oberliga, Gruppenliga, Verbandsliga, and Hessenlig to step 4 in the Regionalliga.  Steinbach is located just on the Hesse border, east of Koln/north of Frankfurt.

Offenbach have played on this site since 1926.  Originally it was known as the Bieberer Berg stadion after the suburb it is located in.  However, it was heavily rebuilt in 2012 and was re-christened the Sparda Bank Hessen Stadion. 

On Imp's advice, we had chosen the side terrace.  It is split into three, we located ourselves in the more sedate end.

Behind one goal was a huge seated stand, with huge concrete pillars aka Sheffield United and Brentford.  For some reason, despite it being almost empty, some people chose to sit behind these pillars?

The other end housed the away supporters, with a respectable amount for such a small team for a mid-week fixture some distance from home.  A hardy four had chosen to stand.

The pre-match music was an odd assortment.  We arrived 30 minutes before kick off and were able to enjoy:-

• Cliff Richard - Congratulations,
• A speed garage version of Fast Car
• The most appaling version of Angels ever, sung by the announcer.
• The New Order song that is in Pretty in Pink.
• A club song in German that basically went 'OFC' over and over again.
• You'll never walk alone, in English.
• Then the teams came out to Metallica, Enter Sandman

The away side took the lead half way through the first half.

What then followed was a reassuring display of the worldwide brotherhood of football supporters.  Since Barcelona had their success with tippy-tippy-twatty football under Guardiola, other teams have been trying to replicate it.  This has now sunk down to the low level echelons of football, where instead of intricate passing, rapidly transferring it up the field, instead there are just cumbersome defenders, kicking it to each other sideways.  Any sign of pressure from an opponent and the ball goes backwards, which means it eventually goes back to the keeper, who slices it into touch.

I am increasingly seeing this in the games I go to, but fortunately, this dullness is not acceptable to the supporters, who after about ten minutes of having 90% possession but not leaving their own half, demand it is hoofed forward.

Offenbach were real exponents of this wankness, and after Steinbach scored, the crowd went nuts at them, and demanded in no uncertain terms, to go forward.  My faith in humanity restored.

The team responded, and with the crowd now behind them, a quick ball down the wing, and an early cross, saw a back post header go in for the equaliser.

As followers of @keepers_towels will know, both teams had them.

I was stood next to a bloke who spent the whole game either smoking or spitting.  By the end of the game, he had amassed a veritable puddle of phlegm.

It was reassuring to see the first cut off denim jacket of the trip.

Going into the game, Steinbach were 6th and Offenbach 3rd from bottom.  But in the second half, it was all the home team, but they couldn't convert a number of chances and it finished 1-1, though a very good game for the four thousand odd crowd.

We headed off for the 50 minute walk back into Offenbach.

Leder Learning Times