13.04.2017 23rd match day Oberliga NOFV-Süd BSG Chemie Leipzig - FC Carl Zeiss Jena II Alfred-Kunze-Sportpark Result 1:1 (0:1) Attendance: 1,612 (No guests)
A small trip was already waiting for us after we were back from Asia in early April as we decided to travel to Berlin over the Easter weekend with a stopover in Leipzig for three nights. The reason we chose to stop in Leipzig was obvious – football.
Just like last Easter, we did another road trip from the Southwest of Germany to the East. It was much more flexible to drive with car, though more tiring or even stressful for the driver. Luckily there wasn’t much traffic on the highways and we arrived safe in Leipzig after six hours.
On the third day in Leipzig, we spent the early afternoon at the Easter market in the city centre and then went back to our hotel in Leipzig-Großzschocher. From the hotel we had to drive about 30 minutes through some traffic jams to Leipzig-Leutzsch, the area of BSG Chemie Leipzig. After passing the Leutzsch train station, the stadium was then just metres away inside residential where we could park our car on the street for free and then walk towards the Alfred Kunze Sportpark.
We knew we didn’t want to (walk pass a group of Chemie fans and) enter through the main entrance because we knew we wouldn’t want to face any trouble. The Ultras would also have to use the main entrance and walk through the main stand to get to their block behind the goal. Fans from East Germany don’t really like to see people that don’t belong to them.
So we walked past the away block, which was left empty on the day because no Jena fans travelled there to see their second team, and went to the opposite side to the main stand. We paid 9€ each for a “Dammsitz” ticket (actually just meant day ticket) to enter the block next to the away block. Yes, 9€ for fifth league, but it was worth it for this club.
The stadium didn’t look fancy at all and you could probably say a renovation would be needed for the stands, but it was the fans that made this Sportpark great. You could feel the fans’ passion and love to their club through the cold win and rain during the day.
We couldn’t wait for the kick off in vain and cold before kick off so we stayed in the pub (heh, the entrance is at our block!). At the windows of the pub, you could get a really really nice view of the whole ground. The pub was decorated with photos of the team and fans celebrating together, old shirts and posters. You could see how much the club loved their fans.
The club was founded as SV TuRa Leipzig in 1932. Like many other clubs that went through the World War and the GDR era, TuRa went through all the dissolution, renames, and re-branding under different government and reforms. Under the GDR, the club was assigned to government owned business and was renamed as BSG Chemie Leipzig in 1950. BSG was the abbreviation of Betriebssportgemeinschaft in German, which could be translated into “cooperative sports collective”; Chemie meant chemical industry.
Chemie finished as the champions of the Oberliga (top league in GDR) in 1951 and kept on delivering well in the league led by their coach Alfred Kunze. However, they were forced to dissolve in 1954 and had to release their players to their local rival Lokomotiv Leipzig. The club started over again in lower leagues with Kunze, who brought the team back to the top league.
After the German reunification in 1990, Chemie merged with another Leipziger club to form FC Sachsen Leipzig to play in the third league, but the club was forced to dissolve after several financial problem. A new BSG Chemie Leipzig was founded in 1997, who started from the lowest league. And today, they were already very close to winning the Oberliga NOFV-South and could promote to the Regionalliga next season.
Before the game, Chemie were leading the table and had four points more than the second place. Also, from the stadium speaker, we heard that the club had been unbeaten at home for almost two years.
The fans of Chemie Leipzig were the club’s biggest motivation. More than 1,600 fans showed up at half past five on a Thursday. Yeah, we knew there were more fans in the past, but don’t forget, it was a game in fifth league. On a Thursday evening.
The Diablos, ultras of Chemie, were busy hanging their banners up. One interesting banner was a blue banner that was made with scarves stolen from Lok Leipzig fans that said “Gruppo-Anti-Lok”. Between the lower and upper stand, there was a huge banner that said “Chemie Leipzig – Für immer mit dir”, Chemie Leipzig – Always with you. And then they started chanting when the players entered the pitch.
There were some tunes that we hadn’t heard of before, and also some better versions of the tune that we already knew. How amazing it was to have hundreds of people gathered in the fan block to chant for their team in lower league. And they were loud.
For the game, we expected Chemie to dominate because they were the leader of the league, but somehow the game was kind of stuck. Jena even scored first and made us think that “OK, maybe this could be their first defeat in two years.” As the rain approcahed before half time, we went back to the pub to get a warm drink and Bockwurst (some kind of steamed sausage). If you asked me, I would prefer saying in the warm pub than getting out again in the cold.
Chemie started to get better in the second half and created some good chances, and they finally scored the equaliser! Of course everyone in the stadium celebrated, especially for the two guys in front of us who embraced each other so excitedly and fell off the stairs. “Scheiße!” as one of them said. Oops.
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The atmosphere was something we wouldn’t have expected in Oberliga. These people were really amazingly loud and passionate! The game ended with a draw, so Chemie remained unbeaten at home.
After the game we rushed a little bit to our car as we had to try to make it to the next game as fast as possible – the home of Lok Leipzig.