Woods’ Wanderings No.1 – November 2005
Wed 12 October 2005 - Andorra v Armenia - World Cup Qualifier
Andorra is not an easy place to visit, as there are no airports or trains. So Eddie Cook, Roland Reeve and I travelled from Gatwick to Barcelona, where we then took a Novotel bus for 3 hours from the airport to Andorra 200 Km away. Our main aim was to 'tick off' another country and also to see possibly the lowest ever world cup attendance. I believe Andorra already have the record at 116.
Games against larger nations are switched to the Mini Nou Camp in Barcelona, as the La Vella Comunal stadium in Andorra only holds 1,299. The stadium is very basic and has a main covered stand on one side with a further two rows of covered seating either side of this stand. A further two rows of uncovered seats follow the curve of the running track behind one goal. There are no spectator facilities behind the other goal or opposite the main stand.
The match tickets cost 15 euros and a 8 page newspaper style programme was given away free of charge. Andorra opted for a very disappointing 5-4-1 formation, fortunately Armenia were not so negative and won the game 3-0 in front of a crowd of 250.
Fri 28 October 2005 - Eintracht Braunschweig v Sportfreunde Siegen - German Bundesliga 2
Braunschweig is a small town, about an hour by train from Hanover. In fact it is so small, that we stayed at the same hotel as the Siegen players.
The stadium has a running track and three sides of the stadium are covered, just the smaller terrace behind the goal is uncovered. A pleasant stadium despite the track.
You can reach the stadium by taking tram number 4 from outside the main railway station.
E.Braunschweig won a rather dull game 1-0 in front of a crowd of 17,600. A 36 page A4 programme sold for 1.50 euros
A fully covered arena with lovely leaning floodlights on the roof. To reach the stadium take tram 3 in the direction of Wesser, which takes around 10 minutes.
Werder Bremen won 4-1, in font of a crowd of 41,085. A 64 page A4 programme sold for 1 euro.
A 66 page, A4 programme sold for 1 euro.
From Bielefeld Hauptbahnhof take tram 4 direct to the stadium.
The stadium has now been renamed the Schuco Arena from it's original name of Stadion Alm. The stadium consists of three sides all the same and joined together in a wrap around in the corners. The fourth stand is separate and much smaller and runs along the whole length of the pitch.
Arminia Bielefeld won an excellent game 4-1 in front of a crowd of 24,986.
A 56 page, slightly larger than A5 programme sold for 1 euro.
As Eddie Cook and I had based ourselves in Berlin we travelled the 2 hour journey to Cottbus, by train. Unlike other parts of Germany not many people spoke English, in fact there are two languages, German and Wendish, meaning that signs are in both languages. On leaving the main exit at the station turn left and keep walking and in 20 minutes you will see the stadium on the left hand side. There are two seated stands down either side, one of which has a terrace at the front. The two ends behind the goals are open terraces with trees at the rear. No problems like St.Allbans had here though. A 3km miniature railway passes behind the larger of the two stands and you need to cross the tracks to get to the stadium.
The game was spoilt with endless fouls from both sides. In fact at the end of the game, the referee booked two and sent of a Cottbus player in one incident. This resulted in unrest with the home fans and many objects were thrown onto the pitch which the police had to deal with.
A very dull game ended 0-0, with a crowd of 11,000 present. A 56 page slightly larger than A5 programme was available for 1 euro.
A visit to the stadium where the 2006 world cup final is to take place next July, was next. The stadium has lots of history and it is good to see that the stadium has retained many of its original features. Despite having a blue running track the view from the seats is excellent and a new roof has been added that now covers all of the seats. However at half time the toilets were not sufficient and large queues form, like there used to at the old Wembley stadium soon formed and this was for a game that was only half full.
An entertaining game ended 3-0 in Hertha's favour, in front of a crowd of 36,656. A 100 page slightly larger than A5 programme was available for 1 euro from their club shop in the city, but is priced at 2 euros on the cover, so may have been more expensive at the stadium.
We travelled from Berlin by train to Szczecin in just over 2 hours. I have not seen a game in Poland before, but was warned about crowd trouble at Polish league games. The stadium is around a 40 minute walk from Szczecin Glowny station, or you can take trams 5 or 7 from the centre of the town. We arrived at the stadium around 3 hours before kick-off to purchase our tickets in the safest part of the stadium. There was already a very large police presence, in full riot gear. Our seat tickets, the most expensive cost £6. The cheapest seat tickets were just £2.
Around an hour before kick off we entered the stadium, after two security checks. The stadium is in the form of a horse shoe with nothing behind one goal. The all-seater capacity is 17,783. The only cover looked rather new and only covered around 2 blocks of seats, but could easily be extended in the future. The rest of the seats are open to the elements, which is not good for a climate like Poland's. Our seats were not under the cover, so it was lucky it wasn't raining. Despite this our seats were wet, dirty and had moss growing on the seats. The away fans were marched in from the area behind the empty goal and into their section which was opposite our seats. I was surprised at the number of away fans they had brought and they soon filled their section of around 500. Gdynia is about 5 hours on a direct train from Szczecin. I'm glad to report that there was no trouble at the game and it ended 0-0 in front of 12,000 fans and several thousand police. Flare, fire crackers and smoke bombs were however let off throughout the game.
A 4 page A4 programme was given away free on entry.