Alemannia Aachen v Mainz 05: March 4th 2007

For most people one game in a weekend is enough. Yet having seen our team (Barnet) lose at home to lowly Wrexham, myself and John headed off to Germany to watch an obscure game between two teams few had heard of. As you do.

Our journey was aboard the overnight Eurolines coach from London. With a crazy coach driver who joked that our ferry had sunk, we travelled down to Dover Docks. We then discovered that our ferry had in fact sunk (or alternatively just wasn't running) so instead we took the tunnel from Folkestone.

The bus took us to Eindhoven, where we arrived an hour early. With time on our side, we took a short walk around town. Unfortunately Eindhoven at 7am on a Sunday morning wasn't the most happening of places, evidently everyone was sleeping off the previous nights excesses.

A short walk from town took us to the Phillips Stadion, home of PSV.

Having seen Eindhoven, we made our way on to Germany. It was only about seventy miles to Aachen, yet we needed a bus and three trains as we ambled past Weert, Sittard and Heerleen.

After many hours of travelling, we finally made it to Aachen. We had a couple of beers in town before catching the bus up to the ground.

We got to the ground a couple of hours before kick-off, by which time plenty of people were milling around expectedly. The ground was painted in a very pleasing flourescent yellow colour. I think all grounds should look like this.

The posters told us in no uncertain terms that we should go to Cottbus next week. Cottbus is on the far eastern side of Germany, near the Polish border. Aachen to Cottbus is the long trip in the Bundesliga.

This evidently made some impression on John, who decided we must go to Stuttgart. At these prices who could argue? Alas, I thought we might struggle to make the 7:30 bus so we gave it a miss.

The club shop, also painted bright yellow, was our next port of call. Here we bought scarves, badges, old programmes and magazines. John bought a Alexander Kiltzpera replica shirt.


Stocked up, it was time to make our way into the ground. We had tickets in block K of the Wurselener Wall, an open terrace which holds about 7,500. I immediately decided I like the Tivoli, which is what English grounds looked like twenty years ago.

To our left was the AM Tribune, a covered terrace holding some 5,200 supporters. This was where the most vocal of the Aachener's stood. They were assisted during the game by a capo who stood on the fence and conducted the singing.


At the opposite end of the ground was the Aachener Wall. This is the smaller off the two end terraces, and holds about 4,800. It was divided into two, with the Alemannia fans on one side and the visitors, Mainz 05, on the other.

Alemannia fans:
Mainz fans:

The Sparkasse Tribune is the only seated section of the ground and it runs along the length of one side. This photo was taken an hour before kick-off and it makes an interesting contrast with the Wurselener Wall, which is already fairly full.

Unfortunately, at this point my camera died so that is the end of the photos.

But what an exciting game it was. Mainz were first out of the blocks and Zidan (not that one) put them into an early lead. Alemannia came out in the second half and turned the game on its head. First Jan Schlaudruff and then Vedad Ibisevic scored and Tivoli came alive. A missed penalty at both ends and a few more frayed nerves followed, before victory was assured. With it, Aachen had got themselves out of the bottom three.

Sadly the Tivoli is due to be completely rebuilt in the near future. The new ground will be larger and more modern no doubt, but despite the club taking care not to lose the famous atmosphere I can't help feel that in its transformation something will be gone.

If you get the chance, visit it while you still can.