Fortuna Dusseldorf vs Dynamo Dresden - November 2011

Its good to be back. A year on since our last venture into the magnificent world of German football we are back in North-Rhine Westphalia for a triple header, three games, three days and lots to look forward to. After landing at Dortmund airport on a remarkably sunny day in November having encountered fellow ground hoppers during our flight (hello if you're reading) the mood was positive as the nights entertainment would involve a clash between Fortuna Dusseldorf and Dynamo Dresden at the Esprit Arena, famed more for its hosting of the Eurovision Song contest than its football, would this mean we'd Abba good time or give the evenings proceedings a total of 'nil point'?


Fortuna Dusseldorf are marching on this season, top of the league and banging in the goals at home, while Dresden languish in mid-table yet coming off the back of thumping Karlsruhe 5-1. As for predictions, we were very much on the fence. Dusseldorf are one of those fantastic clubs that do the free rail pass for fans in and around the VRR area (inclusive of surrounding towns such as Dortmund, Bochum, Duisburg etc) which means that you can travel to and from the match without paying a penny for a train ticket, and with tickets as low as 12 euro's, what's not to like?

We set off for Dusseldorf with the intention of sampling some of the local ale from the famed 'Golden Kessel' and ''Schlossel' breweries that the city has become renowned for. The speciality,other than the home brews, is Alt Bier which can be found everywhere in Dusseldorf which is a dark beer very popular with the locals. As it turned out when we reached the old town it was quite literally heaving with Fortuna's finest and pockets of Dresden fans all being overlooked by the beady eye of the local constabulary.

Fortunately though no trouble whatsoever was witnessed and with around an hour to go before kick off we arrived at the arena. On first glance the Esprit arena simply doesn't resemble a football stadium or sports event arena, more like a conference centre. It's only when you move past the turnstiles that the stadium reveals itself. Modern facilities in the concourse area's as you would expect with merchandise stalls, hot dog and pretzel sellers plus the usual fare of beer's, chips and burgers with yet more sausages.

Taking our seats pre-match we discovered that the club had kindly given us a free flag, how lovely. Until we discovered that every two seats had a flag also, this was to be revealed in a display as the teams walked out on to the pitch making for quite a brilliant sight. The Dresden ultra's had set up in the far corner diagonally opposite and were in fine voice, bouncing up and down with bangers and a display which involved throwing toilet roll onto the pitch, very Latino.

Dusseldorfs ultra's were loud and incredibly drunk, a man sat just behind had the exact same tone as Gerard Butlers famous cry 'SPARTAAAAAAAAA!' in the movie 300, exchange 'Sparta' for 'Fortunaaaaaaaaaaa' and, well, you get the picture. Despite being deafened and involved in some rather brilliant chanting we were about due a goal and it came midway through the first half, Maximillian Beister's deflected effort rolled into the bottom corner and cue mad celebrations and beer throwing antics, get in.

As Dusseldorf attacked a stunned Dresden back line once again, fear grew as the group in the seats behind had returned with fresh full pints of Alt Bier, fearing another soaking we were praying that Dusseldorf didn't find the net again. As it turned out, they didn't, Dresden went up the other end and striker Mickael Pote prodded in the equaliser, time for another beer.

The second half began with the support refreshed and never lacking in voice, Dresdens ultra's were buoyed by the equaliser and were well heard around the arena, still though no one looked like stealing it until Jovanovic took the ball cooly on the thigh and lashed it home in stoppage time to pinch it for Fortuna. An incredible end to a fantastic evening and the lingering thought of just what is a stadium of that quality doing in the second division?

The madness didn't quite stop there for the evening, on the train back to the main station we spotted a Fortuna supporter cradling a pet hedgehog, just when i'd thought i'd seen it all....