Nicht alle Berliner Herzen schlägen für Hertha.
This was the inscription of a t-shirt sold at the merchandise shop of Tennis Borussia Berlin. Indeed, TeBe as the club is usually called, is one of those small Berlin clubs that survive in the shadow of the very popular Hertha. Maybe Union Berlin can still count on a few thousands of loyal fans, but other former "Traditionsvereine" such as Dynamo Berlin (the club from the former Stasi, the DDR police), TeBe Berlin and such have all slipped away to lower leagues and survive now as tiny teams in the shadow of Hertha. But they survive, even when TeBe is now in the Oberliga, the 5th division (comparable with the Conference in England, or the 1st provincial division in Belgium).
Today was one of those rare opportunities for TeBe to be in the spotlights for once again. In the first proper round of the DFB Pokal (the German Cup), TeBe received the visit of Bundesliga team FC Energie Cottbus. For once a team of any fame visited the Mommsenstadion again, and for once TeBe was out of its anonimity even if just for a day. As the Mommsenstadion was the only Berliner stadium where I had not attended a game yet, I of course had to be there.
Tennis Borussia Berlin versus FC Energie Cottbus. The game sounds a bit odd for a football game when you hear those names. The first team almost sounds like a team that has gone lost and ended up in the wrong sports, while the other team sounds like a factory team right from the communist era when most teams were linked to government institutions or companies. A bit of history.
Tennis Borussia Berlin is not named like that by coincidence. The club was founded in 1902 and is one of the oldest clubs in the country. It started off as an omni-sports club where table tennis and tennis played an important role. Throughout the years, the tennis became less and less important while the football branch of the club became the most prominent team. TeBe evolved to become mainly a football team and I am not even sure if there is still a tennis branch within the club. But, to not just forget its history, the club stayed loyal to using the word "tennis" in its club name. The purple-whites have their home in the Mommsenstadion in the Charlottenburg area of Berlin, formerly West Berlin. It is in the outskirts of the city, in a very green zone surrounded by a lot of nature. Despite many relegations and financial problems, the club still survived without ever needing to undergo a merger, unlike many other Berlin clubs existing this long.
Maybe it is interesting to also look how such a club survives and how other clubs do. Hertha is obvious as it was always more or less the biggest club in West Berlin, apart from a few seasons. Hertha is the club for the masses and more or less non-political ever since the second world war was over.
Union Berlin is the second biggest club in Berlin, with attendances varying between 5000 and 15000. The club is from the Köpenick area of Berlin, former East Berlin, and was the club of the working class without ties to any political institution ; the popularity of Union lies herein that they were not connected or funded by the communist government. Their main rivals were Dynamo Berlin who were ruled by the Stasi, the secret police from the East German government, nowadays Dynamo plays in 5th division and attracts a very right-wing audience which is notorious for causing problems and racist issues (although this is a reputation that may not be completely true...).
And then there is Tennis Borussia, the last Traditionsverein to survive. Other older Berlin clubs such as Vörwarts Berlin, Blau-Weiß Berlin and Empor all died or merged. TeBe survived although it attracts a small following. The TeBe fans are known to be a quite alternative football audience: very strongly opposed to hooliganism or provocations and focused on football in a cosy atmosphere. The club also is known to attract some artistically minded people, and is not unpopular amongst politically left-wing people in Berlin. This means the club has a rather alternative following, small in numbers but a bit special. I must say this attracted me as well to attend a game of the club.
In the margins of those traditional clubs, more recent clubs have emerged as well of course, with Türkiyemspor Berlin being the most succesful and mainly attracting a multicultural and immigrant following.
Anyway, then there is the opposition of today. FC Energie Cottbus. Cottbus is about 200 km from Berlin and not too far from the Polish border. Indeed, former East German soil. In the communist times many clubs were linked to companies or institutions. Hence the many clubs named Dynamo (usually linked to the police of their city), Lokomotiv (linked to the state-owned railways), CSKA (army clubs) and more such clubs. I must say however I am not sure where the name Energie comes from, maybe the club was linked to an energy provider in the former GDR but I am not sure of that.
Energie Cottbus never played a role of much importance in the old East German league, dominated by clubs such as Union Berlin, Dynamo Berlin, FC Magdeburg and Dynamo Dresden. However, most of those clubs collapsed after German reunification and all of those former East German giants now play in the third or fourth league of the united Germany. Ironically, FC Energie however began to rise once Germany was unified and, along with Hansa Rostock, became the only club from former East Germany to become a more or less established Bundesliga team. As Rostock relegated last season, Energie Cottbus is this season the ONLY former East German club in the highest league of unified Germany. So we can definitely say the club has become a success story since the unification.
A short subway drive took me to the Mommsenstadion in the outskirts of Charlottenburg. To find the stadium was easy with big floodlights high in the sky and with many football fans drinking crates of beer in the woods between the subway stop and the stadium. You could immediately see TeBe attracts a loyal but small fanbase: even though they were playing at home, there were about twice as many Energie Cottbus fans hanging around the stadium. Also remarkable was a small group of Dynamo Berlin fans coming to the game. Why do Dynamo Berlin fans come to a game between TeBe Berlin and Energie Cottbus? Dynamo has a reputation of causing trouble during away games, so the police took some extra security measurements by putting all Dynamo fans together in the stadium, forming a somewhat bizarre "neutral fans" area. In theory I was a neutral as well, but I opted to stand in the Tennis Borussia end of the stadium.
Tennis Borussia used to play in the second Bundesliga at some point, long before they dropped to the Oberliga (5th division) where they are now. The Mommsenstadion can hold just below 15000 fans and is a memory of how big TeBe used to be. Now, the stadium is often looking very empty as TeBe plays its home games in 5th division for 500 to 1000 fans average. Today however, with some neutrals and many Cottbus fans who made the short travel, something like 3500 fans attended the game (I estimate that, with guests and VIPs included, it were more than 4000). TeBe used this opportunity handy and invited several local companies to have a small information spot in the stadium. Handy way to get some extra cash out of this one game they were receiving a decent crowd.
The stadium has, like many German stadiums, an athletics track around the pitch. I really dislike that. Other than that though, it was OK. A nice big stand with seats with a nice roof and comfortable seats. Underneath a paddock where the TeBe die-hards were standing. Behind the goal were curved terraces, and opposite of the main stand was the big terrace where the Cottbus fans (I estimate at least a small 1000) gathered. The unexpected Dynamo Berlin fans were, surrounded by police, gathering behind the goal. In fact this stadium looks nice really, especially with a nice forest-esque environment surrounding it. The terraces and the main stand are nice, and so is the VIP room where I managed to have a small look. The only bizarrity: none of the terraces have a roof, this privilege is only for those who pay to have a seat on the main stand. Also remarkable: a hypermodern scoreboard displaying the logos of both clubs and pictures of all players ; this may be common in professional teams' stadiums but for a 5th division team this is rather unusual.
So the stadium was nice. And yes, the somewhat alternative image of the TeBe fans is correct to a certain extent. If they are really left-wing is not sure to me, I did not discuss any politics. If artists and alternatives are drawn to TeBe is also not entirely sure to me, but it is likely to be true as I saw several somewhat eccentric people walking around the terraces and the fans all looked very calm. Not very vocally present, but just enjoying a chat and a cosy atmosphere. The non-hooligan and non-provocative image is 100% true and for that alone I respect their fans a lot (I dislike the tribalist terrace culture you often see at bigger clubs). And looking at the few somewhat eccentric fans (not large in numbers but still a few) the artistic image may be true, but I am unsure. I liked the atmosphere though, it was very friendly.
Also, before the game songs such as "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC and "A Love Like Blood" by Killing Joke (a band popular in the goth culture) were played. I never heard that before in a stadium but I loved it! Also, a version of the Ramones' classic "Blitzkrieg Bop" with alternative lyrics about TeBe was played. Yes, the alternative/artistic image of TeBe fans will probably be correct as well.
The fans of Energie Cottbus were more typical football fans: very vocally present and colourful. At some point during the game they even danced the pogo on the stands. Yes, the pogo... :)
All ingredients were there for a nice football evening. The only question was: how would a 5th division team be able to compete with a fully professional Bundesliga team used to play teams like Bayern München, Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen?? TeBe probably had entered the field with little hopes of winning and with the main target to just leave the pitch with the heads up high.
In the first 10 minutes the difference in leagues was not that clear really. Cottbus did play more on the half of TeBe and had more possession, but they were not that dangerous and TeBe did try to counter-attack whenever they had the chance. The first few tiny chances were for Energie, with a few shots from distance that missed the target. TeBe saw a free kick from Fuß (what an appropriate name for a soccer player) easily saved by Energie goalkeeper Tremmel. Another TeBe shot from distance also missed the target.
TeBe comfortably survived at first but almost brought itself in a nasty situation when a long ball from Cottbus was reaching a defender from TeBe who, despite no Cottbus player being near, headed the ball into corner and thereby narrowly missed his own goalpost. With a bit less luck this was one of the most silly own-goals you could imagine, but "die Borussen" got away with it. However, on the 20th minute Cottbus did as expected open the score when Pavicevic's cross from the right was shot into the net from close range by Rangelov at the first post. No chance at all for goalkeeper Stillenmunkes.
TeBe defended well and do receive credit for never giving up, but it was clear that their opposition was a bit too strong. A rare chance for the 5th division team was a free kick for Ahmetcik who shot the ball only narrowly over the Energie goal from 20m.
But only 7 minutes after the opening goal, Energie Cottbus doubled the score. Skela dropped the ball over the entire TeBe defense and saw Branko Jelic, with only the goalkeeper in front of him, volley the ball in the net via the far post. A great goal as the ball came at a difficult height but rather than controlling, Jelic chose a volley and made it a superb goal. 0-2 and in fact the winner was known at that point. The remainder of the first half, apart from a weak header from Cottbus, was not really worth mentioning: Cottbus knew victory was assured and easily controlled the game, while TeBe tried their best but clearly was not good enough.
The second half was basically Energie Cottbus controlling the game, with TeBe just trying to play a decent game. Jelic slipped through the defense after 10 minutes and was brought down in the box, the referee somehow failed to award a penalty kick. Little protest however with the Energie team in nice orange away jerseys, they felt sure of victory anyway.
There was little to see on the pitch, but unfortunately there was a lot to see aside the pitch. The Dynamo fans unfortunately confirmed what people feared: the few Dynamo fans who somehow attended the game, had come to cause trouble. In the zone where the approx 20 or 30 Dynamo fans gathered, suddenly people starting kicking and pushing bystanders, a lot of policemen rushed to that section of the stadium to interfere. Unfortunately this was not the end: some of those "fans" managed to run away into the area of the stadium where the (very well behaving) Cottbus fans were and starting attacking a few Cottbus fans. A very large number of policeman had to come in between to keep the hooligans away from the normal fans and avoid very serious riots, but some kicking and fighting did occur. I am not sure if people got arrested, but the police had to interfere in large numbers to prevent very serious riots. Such a shame that a very peaceful evening is disturbed by a group of hooligans from a club who was not even playing... I know, the majority of Dynamo fans are probably nothing like that, but it is a shame a small group of people were trying to ruin a very peaceful football night. Thankfully the police did their job properly before the riots were getting out of hand, but the things I see (I was luckily far away from the area where it happened) looked quite violent and bad... First time since I live in Germany that I witnessed violence in the stadium, and it is bizarre to see it was caused by people not even supporting the two teams on the pitch.
Once the situation on the stands had calmed down people could focus on the actual game again. An Atan free kick sailed over the crossbar. With 23 minutes to go finally some real excitement: an excellent shot from Angelov into the far corner of the goal was perfectly saved by TeBe goalkeeper Stillenmunkes with a very nice dive. Great save, followed by a rare Tennis Borussia attack resulting in a header from Griesert that missed the goal.
Although in fact it was long clear that Cottbus cruised to an easy win, the scoreline became totally decisive when in the 73rd minute the ball got stuck in the box but the TeBe defense could not clear it, Rangelov suddenly got posession and face-to-face with the goalkeeper he could no longer miss this chance. 0-3 and totally over and out.
Only 1 minute later it should have been 0-4. A rost cross reached Jula, who controlled only a few meters from the goal. This should be as easy as can be to finish off, but somehow he managed to shoot it against the post instead of into the net. A chance the average fan in the stadium would have scored, but with the 0-3 already on the scoreboard it did not really matter anyway.
TeBe never managed to make it Cottbus difficult but, probably also because Cottbus did not play at full speed most of the game, they were never overpowered and in fact deserved a consolidation goal as reward for never giving up. With 6 minutes left to go TeBe came very close to that 1-3 when Griesert's cross from the right reached Fuß in front of goal whose header from close range was only stopped by goalkeeper Tremmer just before the goalline. In fact this was the only big chance for TeBe and the only time Tremmer really had to save a ball. Other than that TeBe had some shots from distance who missed the goal, including a last efford shortly before time that curved past the far post.
0-3... Cottbus has an easy evening and TeBe did not get a very harsh defeat. "Our opponent is 4 leagues higher, but there is only a 3 goals margin", the stadium speaker said. So clearly Tennis Borussia were not uncomfortable with this defeat. The defeat was expected but they did the best they could and with a decent number of spectators they will have had a financially good day. The Mommsenstadion was nice, the TeBe crowd was friendly and cosy, the only downside were the "neutral fans" who tried to ruin it with their fights. When entering the stadium I was wondering why there was a large policeforce present, after seeing what happened I am glad they were there.
A nice evening after all, and next week the big games begin for both teams when Energie Cottbus kick off their Bundesliga season while Tennis Borussia begin their new season in the 5th division. For Cottbus the target is a worryless season in the mid table of the Bundesliga, for TeBe the target is promotion to the 4th division and slowly starting the climb back to their old glorious status.
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