Friday August 30th – match day!
Spieltag!
As always, a healthy breakfast gives you the best chance to survive the day. Protein heaven! Chilling by the Spree, reading a little about the game and preparing for the boat trip through Berlin to “Alte Försterei, Alte Försterei, Alte, Alte, Alte Försterei” was a nice start to the day. I even saw some cool cats, or was it rats?
The boat Viktoria is a holy boat for us Unioner. From Nordufer three boats were sailing on this day. One only for St. Pauli fans and two from Eddyline, Viktoria and Helgard, with mostly Unioner but also St. Pauli fans. Of course we wanted to be on Viktoria and when people saw a Bear insisting on sailing with Viktoria I heard no complaints. I have small ears though.
Rune’s friend, Torsten – with the disco helmet (pretty cool actually) – had organized tickets for a bunch of people including Sven Petter, Nadja, Rune and me.
It was a fantastic trip all the way down to Köpenick, around 3 hours chilling on Spree. Lovely weather, the beer was cold, all the people were friendly, even the St. Pauli fans. I think it was one woman that really liked me on that boat, but firstly she was a St. Pauli fan and second, I am a serious fan, on match day it’s full focus on football and Union. I can control myself.
Then… It was time for my first visit in our Wohnzimmer! Was I excited!? A little bit… Let’s just say it like this, I am glad I have small ears! It was soooo loud in there! Now I am starting to think humans can make just as much sound as a Bear, at least it seemed like that tonight. It is impossible to describe what is going on in our lovely stadium, you have to experience it! Short list of positives:
- steak in bread
- cold beer
- singing our gut out loud
- choreo* with fireworks!!!
- winning (I really, really hope we can return to „Festung Försterei“ this season)
- steak in bread
Negatives:
- nope
And one cool thing, I got to sit beside the captain when we sailed under the Oberbaumbrucke. Ai, ai, sir!
*Choreo
Immer auf Achse bei Tag oder Nacht
(always on the middle line day or night)
Union ist das was uns süchtig macht
(Union is what makes us addicted)
Left of FCU; Müggelturm, Köpenick Castle
Right of FCU; S3 to Erkner, Fernsehturm (TV tower) and probably the old Alianz tower
That the transfer window closed at 8 pm made it a little bit troublesome for our red army because they let Gosens go on loan to AC Fiorentina just around 4 hours before kickoff. A stupid system that allows this after the season has started. If I am not wrong, the Bundesliga started this shit in the 2003/04 season, idiots! Anyway, we have a young blond guy, Tom Rothe, who stepped in on Gosens place and made a very respectable premier I think.
At the end we won 1-0. Most of the players said it was a Dreckiges Arbeitssieg (dirty hard working victory). I must say I agree, this game was no beauty, but three points is exactly the maximum outcome, what more can one want?
Hollerbach scored the only goal, a wonderful torpedo! After the game he said that after he scored the goal “he was happy as a Schnitzel”. It was nice to hear that the Schnitzels are treated well here because I am always happy when I eat them – a win, win situation.
After the game we went to Hauptman, like most of the members in Bamsegjengen usually do. There we met more old friends and drank more beer.
Some of us ended up in a St. Pauli Kneipe in Kreuzberg and as you know by now, what happens in Berlin stays in Berlin.