Okay, here the first gameday's results (with attendances): Energie Cottbus - Dynamo Dresden 2:1 – 20.500 FSV Frankfurt - 1. FC Union Berlin 1:1 - 4.151 SpVgg Greuther Fürth - Eintracht Frankfurt 2:3 – 14.200 FC St. Pauli - FC Ingolstadt 04 2:0 – 10.093 Erzgebirge Aue - Alemannia Aachen 1:0 – 9.500 Hansa Rostock - SC Paderborn 07 1:2 – 19.000 Eintracht Braunschweig - TSV 1860 München 3:1 – 22.167 Karlsruher SC - MSV Duisburg 3:2 – 17.087 [FONT="]Fortuna Düsseldorf - VfL Bochum 2:0 – 33.150 Note that, St. Pauli had to play their game away from their actual home as a result of fans' last season misconduct, which explains the lower than usual attendance. Some games were sold out (in Cottbus and Braunschweig, I believe!?). The start of a potentially interesting season with a lot of big, traditional clubs, some of which came down from Bundesliga, others made the promotion from 3. Liga and some still "stuck" in 2. Liga. Also, for the first time in a while the eastern part of Germany is represented well with some of its big clubs. Bring on gameday 2. [/FONT]
Well, let's just say your predictions are somewhat original, compared to the mainstream ones over here . And Fürth on 2? That I believe when I see it. Well, probably not even then. And yeah, I take issue with the Eintracht prediction too
You've been following this league long enough to know that Fuerth will be second... until about March. I wish I could make a prediction, but I didn't follow last year well enough to have any clue about this year.
2nd gameday: VfL Bochum - FSV Frankfurt 1:0 - 12.313 FC Ingolstadt 04 - Erzgebirge Aue 0:0 - 6.043 MSV Duisburg - Energie Cottbus 1:2 - 15.017 TSV 1860 München - Karlsruher SC 2:1 - 26.600 1. FC Union Berlin - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 0:4 - 15.004 Alemannia Aachen - Eintracht Braunschweig 0:2 - 17.541 SC Paderborn 07 - Fortuna Düsseldorf 1:1 - 11.014 Dynamo Dresden - Hansa Rostock 1:1 - 29.189 Eintracht Frankfurt - FC St. Pauli 1:1 - 16.500* *Frankfurt wasn't allowed to let more spectators watch the game due to their misconduct last season.
Mmh, the attend aces are not spectacular so far. That is sad since there are lots of interesting clubs in it.
Aren't many people still on summer holiday?? Most aren't used to having football back this soon, are they??
The average attendance of the first two matchdays has been 16.600. This would be the 3rd highest average in league history (and the 2nd highest is only 16.700, not a huge difference). I'm not sure by which standards this could be called a dissapointment (also: St. Pauli haven't played a real home game yet, and Frankfurt certainly would have gotten better numbers without the cap on attendance - their game wasn't sold out, but I suppose this was because the guest section didn't sell out).
Voted for Sechzig just for the heck of it would also love to see Rostock in the Bundesliga again but their start was mediocre at best. Aachen and Braunschweig will be interesting to watch this season.
By potential. There are lots of teams with tradition and quite large fan bases for 2. BL standard (part wise even good for BL standard) in the league, possible interesting derbies, large stadiums, ... . So I expected the league to break the all-time attendance record this season.
2008 you had Köln and Gladbach in the league, both averaging 40k+. This season you only have Frankfurt who might come close. 2008 you also had pre-shit storm 1860 and Lautern, other than those four no club averaged over 20k then (season average was 18k). This year there's one club that will probably average 30-40k (Frankfurt), maybe 1860, although that's still doubtful. You have 4 other clubs who might average 20-30k (Braunschweig, St. Pauli, Dresden, Düsseldorf). Aachen might also get there with the new stadium, but other than those, it's been very unlikely from the start that any of the other clubs would get over 20k in average attendance. Freiburg are a non-factor, half of the clubs in the league will get more than they would. One other of Nürnberg/Gladbach/Köln etc. would give this season a shot to break the record.
Just read this article on Bild.de :O http://www.bild.de/sport/fussball/eintracht-frankfurt/skandal-um-kriegs-plakat-20180676.bild.html
As are Dynamo fans: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvTgq3PaICY"]SG Dynamo Dresden - Eintracht Frankfurt 26.09.2011 - YouTube[/ame] They should be investigated as well for "Jude Jude Eintracht Frankfurt" and "Ihr seid nur Dönerverkäufer". Still don't understand why racist chants are being constantly ignored but everyone totally freaks out about every little flare. I once wrote an email to the DFB asking about this but never got an answer...
I've asked the DFB about racism issues myself. I think they just turn a blind eye to it because they simply don't wish to deal with it. They're hoping each fan base will do their own housecleaning. They are just wimps.......
Now, I'm sure Zwanziger will tell you that racism is not ok every time he's asked! You can hardly expect him to take more time out of his neverending celebration of himself and his virtues, guy's already quite busy with this.
The DFB actually answered my email! Woohoo! Ok, the answer wasn't long and detailed but they assured me that they have officially initiated proceedings against Dynamo/fans (that wasn't really clear) over the chants. Let's see if anything happens.
Here comes the Lionel Messi of the 2 Bundesliga. Wow, what a solo that was for a defender (LB)... [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olr1IvLvrfU"]Heinrich Schmidtgal wie Messi - YouTube[/ame]
Wow, first season defeat for Eintracht Frankfurt (1:2 in Munich against 1860). Fortuna Düsseldorf to follow on Monday night...
Is there any reason why Eintracht Frankfurt fans generally seem to be thugs? Just trying to understand why that club/city would have fans with such an attitude.
It may be just me, but I don't like the city. It is full of bankers and they somehow are less 'hearty' and welcoming', and more selfish than other people, making their clubs for example either very expensive or crappy (with everybody doing coke etc.) Friends of mine, studying in darmstadt, have confirmed this. It may be a combination with me not liking the fans, as at one of my first football games (when we were in 2nd BL with them) they shot fireworks at wheelchair-users in the stadium. This is of course a generalization, but I am not the only one who made that observation. Also, the conflicts between immigrants and their descendants seem to be worse there than elsewhere: Evereybody there talks about ghettos, and somebody I met from Frankfurt was astonished how 'well integrated' immigrants in Amsterdam were (ie she met muslims who spoke Dutch without noticeable accents). The city seems to draw the most elitist and egoistic persons, and that in turn makes the rest of the population egoistic, too.