13th April 2008: Berlin AK - Ludwigsfelder FC : 0-0 (approx 120 spectators)
Groundhoppers can be divided into two categories roughly: those who love the big and impressive modern arenas (think Old Trafford, Allianz Arena, Amsterdam ArenA, ...) and the "nostalgics" who prefer old stadiums that still have the look of the old days, the sort of stadiums where time stood still.
I belong to the latter category. Most modern stadiums all look very similar and don't have that authentic feeling, they don't have a soul. While there are exceptions of modern stadiums that actually look good (for example Fenerbahce, Hertha Berlin, Aarhus and Celtic Glasgow, or even -and I admit this against my own will- Anderlecht all have modern stadiums that I still like) most modern stadiums just don't have a lot of soul. And the new trend of stadiums with shopping centers and casino's built in is sort of making me feel like chocking to be honest.
Just give me nice authentic stadiums. Stadiums that haven't changed much during the years and still look like time stood still. For example in my native Belgium my favourite stadium is the one of Union St Gilloise. 110 years old and has hardly changed a bit, it still looks like time stood still and entering the stadium is like taking a step back in time. Another favourite of mine is the Crossingstadium in Schaarbeek (Brussels), another stadium not updated for over 60 years. 3 out of 4 stands have been closed down because they are no longer safe, and high weeds cover what were ones classy stands. This is the sort of stadium I adore! Since having emigrated I saw another couple of really nice old stadiums, such as the ones of Glentoran, Cliftonville and Derry City in Ireland/Northern Ireland.
Today I visited the Poststadion in Berlin. It was on my list for a long time but somehow it never happened yet to visit even though, from pictures I had seen, I just knew this was a stadium I would adore. This weekend I saw that Berlin Ankaraspor played a home game versus Ludwigsfelder in this stadium. A Turkish club playing in Berlin's oldest stadium? That sounded the opportunity I had been waiting for to check out this stadium. The stadium is in the outskirts of my home district Wedding, very close to the Hauptbahnhof (= main train station) so very easy to get to. Off I went to the Poststadion with high expectations.
Sometimes however, expectations are not really realistic. Sometimes what you are about to see is so beautiful you couldn't have imagined it. This was one of those days. The moment I entered the stadium, I was in love. What a fantastic stadium. For fans of old authentic stadiums like me, this stadium was a pure climax. Every single detail was just bliss.
To describe a stadium of such beauty is not easy, in fact you have to see it to believe it. But here is an attempt. The absolute highlight is the old seated stand. I think this stand must be built before the world war and probably has never been renovated since then. It looks incredibly old but beautiful. The seats are all covered and the walls look in very bad state (and unfortunately covered with graffiti), the steps leading to the stand look equally old and still are partially wooden, and the roof of this stand looks so old that it could fall down as soon as a serious storm would hit Berlin. Underneath this old stand was a small "paddock" and the windows of what probably used to be a canteen or dressing room under this stand were closed with bricks. The stand doesn't look safe anymore ... but it looks old, authentic, and a fantastic untouched piece of Berlin football history. Stunning!
Then the other stands, those are unseated. The stands have an oval shape around the field and athletic track, The standing areas all are classic terraces with authentic crash barriers. Beautiful. Here as well, you could see from the stones used to build the stands, that these terraces were really really old. Usually old stadiums have their terraces covered with weeds. Here they were covered with real trees, as if a forest grew on top of the terraces. The height of those plants indicates the terraces have not been used for many years now. But if you look well between those trees you can still see the terraces and the crash barriers. The only thing impossible to see was the actual size of the terraces, the plants covering them were too big for that.
This stadium looks like it has been untouched for over half a century. It is incredibly authentic and nostalgic, and I think it is fantastic that they left it untouched rather than to modernise it. It is an incredibly beautiful remainder of the old football days in Berlin. Hopefully they never ever modernise it (even though there are plans to do it, as TeBe Berlin would like to return here in a few years time). The only modern part of the stadium is also the part where the spectators are allowed: a very small part of terraces have been renovated and seats have been installed there. Uncovered, with no roof, and a maximum of 400 or 500 seats if I counted them right. So apart from that very small area where spectator facilities were installed, they left the terraces and old stand untouched (even though it is not used anymore right now)
Beautiful. And then I am only talking about the actual stadium itself. To make it complete, even the surrounding neighbourhood had that air of nostalgia : old houses and old factories gave the whole area a feeling like time stood still here, the same feeling you get inside th stadium.
Well, with all that groundhopping goodness you'd almost forget a game was played today. Actually, more than 1 was played. Because next to the Poststadion there are a few smaller pitches without any stands, where other clubs have their home. Before the Berlin AK game you could see the players and spectators of those other clubs walk around the complex, which was strange because it gave an impression of a sort of football fan day with multiple games and with more than 2 teams being present. I saw players walk around from at least 3 clubs and 1 ladies team, plus spectators leaving the grounds surrounding the Poststadion. From the signs pointing to those smaller grounds, I noticed Union 06 Berlin (not to be confused with the famous 1.FC Union) has its home here, and another Turkish team apparently also uses those smaller fields for their home games. I saw a lot of girls in football clothing as well, so one of the ladies' teams of the city apparently also uses the complex for their home games.
But forget about those other fields, they're just grass fields with a dressing room and nothing more. The focus today was the real stadium, the Poststadion.
Poststadion used to accomodate over 10000 people back when all stands and terraces were still used. Now, with the seated stand being unsafe and with the terraces covered by weeds and trees, only 400 people can attend games here. Since the professional teams left the Poststadion, the stadium has become home of some of Berlin's many multicultural teams. Mainly Turkish teams obviously, as Turks form the overwhelming majority of the immigrant population in Berlin. The team that used the Poststadion mostly during the last years was SV Yesilyurt. However, this team went bankrupt at the beginning of the season and all games of them have been cancelled.
With the stadium having no home team anymore, the city appointed another club that would make the Poststadion their home. The choice was made to give the stadium to another Turkish club, Berlin AK. Berlin AK is short for Berlin Ankaraspor Külübü. The team has risen out of the ashes of one of the city's oldest clubs, Berlin Athletik Klub. However, about 5 years ago Atletik Klub had financial problems and sought refuge in merging with one of the Turkish teams in the city, trying to attract a new fanbase that way. This never worked and the Atletik Klub officially folded. The remaining people within the club decided to turn the multi-ethnic club into a 100% Turkish club and renamed the club Berlin Ankaraspor Külübü. The name refers to a Turkish top division side Ankaraspor, that sort of sponsors the Berlin club. Ankaraspor hopes to see some of the more talented Turkish players in Germany playing for Berlin AK and then transfer them to Turkey, hence the corporation between Ankaraspor and Berlin-Ankaraspor. Today, not a single German plays for Berlin AK, all players are Turkish immigrants.
For the remaining part of the article I am going to call Berlin AK just Ankaraspor, so whenever I write Ankaraspor now it is refering to the Berlin team playing in the Poststadion.
Ankaraspor (a 4th division team) is having a very bad season and only a few weeks before the end of the season they have not even collected 10 points yet. They lost the vast majority of their games and are on the bottom spot. However, because only 1 team relegates and because Yesilyurt ceased to exist, Yesilyurt is automatically finishing last and this means that not a single team playing the league is relegating. Despite losing almost all its games, Ankaraspor is not relegating thanks to the bankruptcy of Yesilyurt. The opposition of today is Ludwigsfelder FC, a mid-table team playing in yellow-red-green, the colours of my beloved KV Oostende. However, just having similar colours is not enough to win my sympathy and given my passion for Turkey it was an easy choice for me to support Ankaraspor today.
The game kicked off in front of approx. 120 people, of whom at least 40 were Ludwigsfelder fans. The LFC fans were also quite noisy, singing all the time. This was a weird feeling, because in such a big stadium you have a very strange feeling when only 120 people are there, it looks very empty and the singing of the fans is like disappearing into thin air...
The first half was only just started when Ankaraspor got their first chance. One of their players escaped from the LFC defense but, face to face with the goalkeeper, his shot was saved with the foot.
Ludwigsfelder, obviously favourites to win this game given the fact that Berlin Ankaraspor had lost almost all games before, immediately went into counter-attack. A cross from the right reached an LFC player at the second post who only had to head the ball into an empty goal from 1 meter distance. As easy as it seems, he managed to hit the ball completely wrongly and the chance was gone. Another chance for the visitors came when a shot from just outside the penalty box went over the crossbar. Ludwigsfelder also claimed a penalty when one of their players ran after a long ball but ran into a Turkish defender, the referee correctly decided not to award a penalty kick.
Ankaraspor could not cause much danger at this point of the game yet, a shot from 20 meters right at the Ludwigsfelder goalie was the only shot on target for the Turks.
Just afterwards Ludwigsfelder had another great chance to open the score. A long ball reached one of their strikers who, with a header put the ball aside for a fellow striker that had followed and stood face to face with the Ankaraspor goalkeeper. The goalkeeper however blocked the shot very well and was also fast enough to run after the ball and catch it before a Ludwigsfelder player could score the rebound.
Ankaraspor had been lucky to survive so far but then slowly found its way into the game. A nice collective attack resulted in a shot from just outside the penalty box, the ball had a great curve but narrowly missed the upper corner of the goal. Right afterwards an even better chance for a Turkish goal: a great cross from the right reached an Ankaraspor player completely unguarded centrally before the goal, he tipped the ball into the far corner of the goal from very close range but the LFC keeper had a fantastic save and dived the ball into corner kick. Best chance for Ankaraspor so far!
By this time the game became really amusing and entertaining, even though the chances were missed. Right before halftime a deep ball from Ludwigsfelder, one of their players battled for the ball with an Ankaraspor defender and claimed to have been held by the shirt. The referee again ignored the penalty claim while the Turkish goalkeeper picked up the ball. 0-0 at halftime.
The second half started with a Ludwigsfelder chance. A free kick from 20 meters was curved over the wall very well but narrowly missed the upper corner of the goal. Shortly after Ankaraspor got a similar opportunity when two players dribbled their way to the goal but were brought down by the defense. Free kick from inside the "half circle" before the penalty box. A great spot for a free kick but the ball was kicked extremely badly: a low shot right into the wall, a wasted opportunity.
Ankaraspor however smelled its chances and another player came in good shooting position, however the corner was sharp and the goalie blocked the shot with the foot. Ludwigsfelder now had to undergo the game but suddenly got a great scoring opportunity thanks to a mistake in the Turkish defense: a long ball was missed by two defenders who stood in each others way, this left the only Ludwigsfelder player in the area with a great scoring opportunity but his shot from close range bounced centimeters past the far post.
Apart from an Ankaraspor shot that missed the target nothing happened for the next 15 minutes. The Ludwigsfelder supporters, vocally present throughout the whole game, caused some entertainment however when they waived their identity cards in the air while singing "Wir sind Deutsch" (= We are German). Even the Turks in the stadium found it very funny and applauded the fans of the visiting team. Most Ludwigsfelder fans seemed great people constantly encouraging their team, with the sole exception of 2 or 3 people who tried to provocate innocent bystanders on random occassions (their provocations were not responded however). Apart from those few exceptions, most LFC fans brought some nice entertainment with their chants throughout the entire game.
After 15 minutes of boredom finally a new chance when an LFC free kick bounced off an Ankaraspor player and the ball bounced not that far from the post into corner. Ankaraspor was awake again as well, with a player passing a few opponents and then shooting from 20 meters, a hard shot narrowly missing the far corner of the net. One of the Ankaraspor corners also caused mayhem when the ball couldn't get cleared and a new cross from the right almost fell into goal, the LFC goalie could save however.
The biggest chance in the end of the game was for Ankaraspor when a cross from the left was badly cleared by the defense, heading the ball into the feet of an AK player who shot into the low corner of the goal from very close range, only to see the LFC keeper stop the ball on the goal line. A great save again and Ludwigsfelder FC narrowly escaped from defeat.
In the end a draw was a fair result. For Ankaraspor this is the second 0-0 in two weeks time. The team has not scored a goal in many games now and today again they created chances enough but never managed to score a goal. However, for a team that lost the overwhelming majority of its games so far, not losing twice in a row is a good result. The team cannot relegate anyway due to Yesilyurt's bankruptcy so I guess Ankaraspor will just happily accept their very low number of points and be more busy with how to prepare for a new season in which they'll have to do better than this year. The game was entertaining with several chances, but both goalkeepers played very well while the strikers of both teams missed precision in their finishing.
Maybe however, when witnessing a stadium of such beauty, the result of the game is just a detail. This stadium is a true gem and I am definitely coming back here during one of the next Ankaraspor games.
Short PS: the other Turkish team in this 4th division, Türkiyemspor, won 4-0 today and is on its way to promotion to the 3rd division. At least one Turkish team doing well, so I guess I can still use my slogan "En büyük Türkiye" (Turkey is the greatest!)
