The DDR Oberliga, 29.05.2011
Lok Leipzig - A phoenix from the ashes. A place where, “Tradition can’t be bought!”1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig v VfL Halle 96
30. Spieltag, NOFV-Oberliga Süd 29 May 2011
The stadium, like so many others we have seen this year has certainly seen better days but is not in bad condition at all. The bright yellow and blue paintwork on the grandstand gives it the look of an IKEA store but with the exception of one section the terraces look well maintained if not all open. The pitch looked reasonable and the customary gravel running track was there, of course. As Jonners said, “It will be nice when it’s finished”. Brer Jeff’s response of, “It was nice when it was finished,” was probably more accurate.
Most of the crowd were to be found along either touchline and as the Halle side was announced fans competed between shouts of “fussballgott” or “arschloch” depending on which team you were supporting. The home fans then began shouting, “absteiger!” at the Halle fans and after a quick check on Badger’s sexy iPhone we realized that the visitors could actually get relegated if they lost today. So this wasn’t the meaningless game we thought and we were excited by the prospect of another pitch invasion at the end of the game if Halle confirmed their safety. The pre-match music featured such football ground favourites as Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best”, some Queen and even a rendition of “Highway to Hell”. It inspired Badger to comment that it reminded him a bit of Ibrox, “…Just without the sectarianism”. We were surprised that he would have experienced that as we didn’t realize that Aberdeen inspired that kind of treatment from the Rangers faithful.
The stadium was filling up a bit and the home fans were finding their voice, chanting to each other across the pitch. We were listening out for some original chants but were a bit disappointed so Brer Jeff tried to get us to join him in his favourite chant from Wigan which goes, “Meat pie, sausage roll, come on Wigan, give us a goal!” We did chuckle but thought we didn’t need to make a spectacle of ourselves but Stinzi was happy to give the old Tottenham, “Nice one, Cyril” chant an outing if someone scored. Thankfully, after twenty minutes we hadn’t seen an opener and Stinzi forgot all about it. One figures he would have been on his own, anyway.
On twenty-five minutes Halle grabbed the opener and the scorer raced over to the away fans, climbed up onto the fence and really gave it some. Yes indeed, this game certainly meant something alright. The home fans were getting restless and a little unhappy with some of the refereeing and when a Halle player went down a touch easily and was given a serve by the crowd Laurel was moved to comment, “Get up, even my six year old could handle that!”
Ten minutes after conceding, Lokomotive got themselves an equalizer and what a goal it was. The scorer took the ball down about 25 yards out and lashed it first time into the top corner. An absolute screamer! It would take some beating for the Goal of the Year crown. Badger had just left to visit Mother Nature and Jonners had just remarked that seven more goals would give him 200 for the season and so the timing added that extra little something.
On half-time, a terrible back header from a Lokomotive defender dropped off the crossbar into the shocked goalkeeper’s arms which saved the home side the honour of best and worst goals of the season in a single half. Half-time brought refreshment and sunscreen was called for. When Stinzi tried to inspire the rest of the gang with that old Aussie advertising classic jingle, “Slip. Slop. Slap” he was rebuffed by Badger with the comment that, I’m Scottish – I just get burnt.” He then explained that somewhere in his family there is the suspicion that one of his ancestors had got intimate with a Spaniard off the Armada and so he was therefore safe from skin cancer. Laurel quickly added that there is a story in her family that a Spaniard was involved in some of the child production and we only then noticed a slight resemblance. Brer Jeff then started a lively incest-related discussion on the insufficient closure to the Luke Skywalker/Princess Leia kiss at the end of Star Wars.
As half-time scores from around the league were announced, Laurel displayed her understanding of everything football by asking if these were the “raffle numbers” but we can certainly forgive the mistake as some of the team names were less than immediately recognizable and loudspeaker announcements in a foreign language are never easy to understand. Brer Jeff saved her from a ribbing by announcing, in a return to discussing the state of lavatories, that the toilets here reminded him of Bolton. When Badger asked him if that was before the Reebok Stadium was built, he replied, “No, just Bolton.”
The second half commenced again and on the hour mark Lokomotive were ahead. A cracking free kick hit the crossbar and was bundled in to send the home crowd into delirium and the Halle fans into despair. Once the celebrations had subsided, Badger inexplicably spat a mouthful of beer over the guys in front of us. They turned with dirty looks on their faces but were placated when we explained that Badger was Scottish and he would never deliberately throw anything away, let alone beer, and they were satisfied that it was just an unfortunate accident and/or lack of general coordination.
As Halle searched for an equalizer to potentially save their season, the time ticked away and an incredible miss from the home side kept them in the hunt. Out of nothing, in the last seconds, a Halle attacker flicked a ball with the outside of his foot from just outside the box and in it went. Unbelievable! The Halle bench emptied and it was unrestrained joy in the form of a massive pile-up. This might well have saved them from the drop. There was barely a murmur from around us and the final whistle blew very shortly after.
We had to dash to get to the train station but as we left we saw the Halle players sitting on the ground, either waiting for the results from other games to come in or having heard that their last minute goal had not saved them. Although, Halle did finish in the relegation zone they were saved due to the untimely demise of Sachsen Leipzig who went bust and fell to last place in the Oberliga Süd pushing everyone else one place up the league. The loss of Sachsen Leipzig has caused us great stress but their story will have to be told another day.
We made the tram and got to the train station in enough time for Brer Jeff to accidentally smash a beer bottle in the bottle shop and we had to run for the train. Family duties awaiting many of us meant that it was a pretty sedate journey home. Perhaps we were all reflecting on this wonderful season that was. We’ll save those recollections for another blog post…post our end of season dinner.
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