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Regional Leagues

Verfasst: 30.08.2013 15:52
von oldparish
Can someone explain a couple of things that have been puzzling me about the Regionalliga for a while now. Firstly the two K**n teams Viktoria and Fortuna, how come, all of a sudden, they are pushing for promotion after years of nobody knowing much about them? Secondly, I was reading my Kicker when I came across the dritte Liga. Where have RB Leipzig come from? Who are they? How long have they been around? In my day when I was regularly visiting the DDR it was 1.FC Lok. Leipzig. And they played at the Zentral Stadion. Now they play at the Bruno-Plache-Stadion with a capacity of 7,000 meanwhile RB play at the new Zentral. I watched a "youtube" video of the fans trying their best to get the stadium ready. I felt really sorry for them. They are now my "Second team". Maybe even buy some merchandise(t-shirt or something). :bmg: :bmg:

Re: Regional Leagues

Verfasst: 02.09.2013 20:15
von frank_schleck
Viktoria and Fortuna Köln compete for the second place in Cologne behind the FC.

Fortuna is a very long-standing quite famous club that led the All-Time-2.Bundesliga-table for more than a decade. I can remember Borussia playing against them at the end of the 90's.

Viktoria is the new upcoming club that wants to get the position as nr. 2 in Cologne from Fortuna. They got a quite famous manager for that purpose (Pele Wollitz) and tried to sign some "stars" like Timo Staffeld or Albert Streit who - very "surprisingly" - got suspended last week.

The Regionalliga West a great division with many famous clubs like Rot-Weiss Essen, Alemannia Aachen, Uerdingen or Wattenscheid. Talking about the clubs from Cologne, I think Viktoria should be the stronger side.

Concerning RB Leipzig I can just tell you that it is probably the most hated club in Germany, even more hated than Hoffenheim. 2006, Red Bull owner Matteschitz bought the league license of 5th division team Markränstadt (small town close to Leipzig) and named the club RasenBallsport Leipzig (LawnSports Leipzig - weird name to get the abbreviation RB for Red Bull - sponsors in club names are forbidden in Germany). Red Bulls intention is, to pull the club up to the Bundesliga within about 10-15 years and to win the Champions League one day. Quite a nice plan for a struggling area like Sachsen, but obviously fans all around Germany are aware of the tradition in football and don't want such an artificial club in the Bundesliga. We'd all prefer Lokomotive Leipzig or Sachsen Leipzig and no more sponsored, artificial bullshit like Hoffenheim that nobody needs. Even in Leipzig, the club is very disputed and not really accepted. Every single success, RB Leipzig has had and will have is based on the money, which an Austrian guy earns by selling crazy expensive drinks. That's why I can not like RB Leipzig, although I'd love to have a club from the former GDR in our Bundesliga.

Re: Regional Leagues

Verfasst: 05.09.2013 15:15
von oldparish
Hey Frank, thanks for that. Very interesting information. Would you say that RB are more unpopular than FCB? Do many of you go and watch Gladbach11 in that league. I'm going to watch the results more closely from now on,but I don't want either to be too successful they are, after all, K**N clubs. One other thing is it true that Michael Schumacher had a hand in bringing Poldi back from FCB to FC?

Re: Regional Leagues

Verfasst: 06.09.2013 14:52
von Cormac
Hello Godfrey,

RB and FCB, apples and oranges.
I'd say (from a Borussia supporter's view) Bayern were never a favourite amongst real football fans outside Bayern, simply because they came across very arrogant and snobbish, while Borussia in the 70's were more considered as a people's team.
Bayern's success didn't help much to change that view. :)
RBL are an artificial RedBull francise, with no traditional background. Leipzig was chosen for financial and geographical reasons. The man behind it is in no way related to this area of the country. (Other than Hopp with Hoffenheim, I must give him that)

As Frank rightly pointed out Fortuna Köln has been quite impressive over quite a long period.
I remember attending the season opener @ Bökelberg vs Fortuna Köln (3:1) back in the 73/74 season. They were later relegated on goal difference.
Victoria Köln is one of the few teams in Rhineland that I've never came accross in all them years, but would've no problem with either of them overturn that mickey mouse club. I like the town, but 'not to fond of 'FC'. :evil:
And on 'Schumi' and 'Poldi', sorry, could't care less.

My mate regualary attends U23 matches. I watch the odd game when I'm around.

Will meet Marc-Andre and Amin next monday night, they'll play Ireland with the german U21 in Sligo. It's live on Eurosport Deutschland, not UK, though. :nein:

Re: Regional Leagues

Verfasst: 08.09.2013 21:17
von oldparish
Wow! Pretty envious of you tomorrow night, cormac. Amin is one of my favourite players right now. I think he's got s very bright future , hopefully with us. Marc-Andre is now back to his best. I can get Eurosport Deutschland, so will have look. And Hoffenheim on Sunday thanks to ESPN. Pity about the Sweden result.

Re: Regional Leagues

Verfasst: 09.09.2013 14:51
von Cormac
We just don't have the players right now, don't know why those pundits keep giving out to 'Trap'?
Anyways, the match tonight should be worth watching.
Lookout for the diamond 'die Raute'.

Re: Regional Leagues

Verfasst: 13.09.2013 12:32
von frank_schleck
Concerning Michael Schumacher there is no doubt that he was involved in getting back Podolski to Cologne. There are wild rumours about the amounts he spent in the whole action, but I can tell you for sure that he bought some of the crazy "Poldi-pixels" on their website for an amount of more than 1000 euros which would obviously be peanuts for him and also for the transfer.

And to answer your question to Borussia's second team, I can tell you that unfortunately not many people go to watch their games. They've got an average attendance of 363 at the moment (even lower than Leverkusen's second team) and are ranked 17th in the league's attendance table. I don't know why so few people want to see them. Considering our huge fan base there should be so much more potential. Schalke's second team for instance has over 700 for instance and quite a nice support for their second team. Düsseldorf's second team even has over 1000.

Still nothing against the league's traditional clubs like Essen, Aachen, Oberhausen, Uerdingen, Siegen, Fortuna Köln or Wattenscheid (2500 to 10.000 average)

One last statement to RB Leipzig: I think they are definitely more hated than Bayern, as we Germans are very proud of the traditions and the 50+1-rule. Bayern kind of has a right to be as strong, as they are now because their financial success is based on hard work and success in sports. Leipzig is just about to buy the success and disturbs a more or less fair competition.

Re: Regional Leagues

Verfasst: 15.09.2013 18:02
von oldparish
Hey Frank, that's what I thought about RB Leipzig. How have the DFL alowed it to happen? I don't think Bayer Leverkusen VfL Wolfsburg or Hoffenheim should be allowed to do it either. Talking of Hoffenheim, how bad were we today? So flat, no urgency or movement until the last 15 minutes or so. Raffael does so much good work but in front of goal he hasn't got an idea. Arango looked more like he couldn't care less than usual.And, it's still Brouwers for me at the back.