My brother is going to have an internship in Dusseldorf during April and May. I've looked fairly rigorously (hoping to see a map of Germany on the net, with little soccer jersey icons on it that shows where all the german clubs are located) and can't find a good way to tell which Bundesliga 1 and 2 clubs are nearest Dusseldorf. Dortmund seemed close, are there any closer? Any help in this would be great, as my brother will enjoy catching games. Thanks! Ivaldo
The region is crowded with Bundesliga and 2.Bundesliga clubs. It's tough to say which one is a bit closer than others. In Bundesliga I'd say Mönchengladbach, Bochum and Schalke are closest, but Dortmund, Köln (careful, giant rivalry between Köln and Düsseldorf, not only in soccer) and Leverkusen aren't far away either. In 2.Bundesliga there are Duisburg and Oberhausen close by, and Aachen also is not too far away.
I think Gladbach is closest . . . but Gladbach is moving to a new stadium and I suspect that tickets will be hard to come by at the last games this season in the old stadium (which is the time period your brother will be there). Take a look at www.seitenwahl.de for ticket information in English as well as an English-language forum. Borussia's website is www.borussia.de but it is entirely in German. I would think that the most likely source of available tickets is Bochum, which is also close. It may be difficult to get tix at Schalke, Dortmund, Leverkusen and Cologne. That being said, some of our posters, in particular jonam (dortmund) and schalkesupporter (schalke) might be able to help you out.
1.Bundesliga 03/04 - map 2.Bundesliga 03/04 - map BVB matches 03./04.04.04 BVB : Vfl Bochum 17./18.04.04 BVB : Bayern München 01./02.05.04 BVB : Hansa Rostock 15.05.04, 15:30h BVB : Mönchengladbach The Hansa match definitely won't be sold out. Bayern won't be easy to get tickets. Bochum and Gladbach should be possible if you're doing this in advance. Personally I think that only the Munich match will be sold out. ticket informations Infos for other teams will be posted by their fans if there are around. jonam
Well, there's Fortuna Duesseldorf, of course! ;-) They're only playing forth league right now, but are quite a traditional club, why not visit them? The Ruhrpott is loaden with teams, it's the region in Germany where soccer is traditionally the most important thing - except for coal-mining and steel, of course. ;-) They're on decline in everyway, but whereever you go there, you'll have a good time i bet. If you want to see the cream of the crop, visit Dortmund, their stadium alone is always worth a visit. Otherwise, I'd recommend Bochum or Schalke.
Thanks guys...I appreciate the wealth of information! From the map you pointed me to, it looks indeed to be a concentrated area of clubs! Thanks again! Ivaldo
I would say Bochum plays the best soccer atm, Dortmund and Schalke have better stadiums and the Schalke fans are more fanatic though I'd say.
If I were you, i'd try to get tickets for Dortmund - Moenchengladbach (of course Dortmund-Bayern would be a lot better but I think getting tickets would be very hard, you can try though, just contact them in time). Schalke have a very nice stadium, worth a visit too (you'd also have to get tickets in advance though, they're always sold out). From the other teams in the region i'd say Cologne or Moenchengladbach are the most interesting at the moment (getting tickets for Leverkusen is very hard). But basically you can't go wrong in this area. The Ruhrpott is full of great clubs. And if you want to make a little bit of a longer trip (can be fun too ), Kaiserslautern, Mainz, Bielefeld, Karlsruhe, Frankfurt and even Stuttgart are possible visits. Actually Fortuna Duesseldorf has some of the most passionate fans in Germany, but they're in div. 4 at the moment so the attendance is obviously a little low (still VERY good for div. 4). So if you really don't have anything to do and a game is on you might as well visit that.
clubs in Dusseldorf area a couple of other clubs in the Dusselfdorf area are Krefeld and Bayer Eurdigen. South of Duss. is Bayer Leverkusen which is near to Cologne. Krefeld and Moenchengladbach are acesssible via the same stretch of rail track about 25 minutes journey. Interesting to read that Monchengladbach are to relocate from their current ground, I found that it is a quite unique stadium, as the pitch appears below "street level" due to the fact the ground is built into a hill. if you want to see some more grounds then just across the border - about 30 minutes and an hour respectively (by train) from Monchengladbach - are VVV Venlo and PSV Eindhoven of the Netherlands, or try some further afield as FC Basel suggests!!
I had a 5 hour layover in Dusseldorf on a flight from Paris back to the US. I was thinking that it would be a total drag, but to my suprise, the airport at Dusseldorf was unreal! Cleanest place I have ever seem and they had a mini-mall inside the place. A great soccer gear store that sold some of the major clubs apparel. I remember asking about the local club supported and at the Bundesliga Level it is Bayer Leverkusen, if I am not mistaken. Have a great time... enjoy the airport!
From the airport Düsseldorf it is only 1.000 (shortest distance between airport and stadium/fair parking lots) to 3.000 meters (distance stadium to airport terminals) to the new 50.000-seats-stadium. In fact it is across the highway. So if you're next time in Düsseldorf and Fortuna have a match in the new stadium (if they promote or for the big matches) use the 5 hours you have wisely and attend a match!
jonam- thanks for the tip. Too bad I hadn't talked to you prior to my leaving. Of course, this was over New Years a couple years back (remember the Euro conversion year? I exchanged all my French money in Dusseldorf airport the next day!), so I don't think any matches were being played due to Holiday. I will remember this for future reference. Off the topic, I cannot wait for 2006! Germany will be a wonderful host and it promises to be an interesting Cup. Do you have any suggestions concerning travel bookings for the event?
I could look it up, but I'm pretty sure you'll know without doing a search: when do they finish the stadium construction in Düsseldorf? Will Fortuna move in there? A "little bit" too much for Ober- and Regionalliga, although IMO it's gonna be the second or third best stadium in 2006... too bad that they were dropped for political reasons. Well, Rhein Fire will use it at least...
about 2006 if you are going to see a game of the Us national, buy the tickets in the US! The US gets more tickets for those games than germany does... so it will be hard to get any tickets in germany at all, because all of the residents are fanataic ;-) I can only speak about Hannover mainly. We have many hotels, a nice nightlife (even though no other German believes so ;-) ) and a good infrastructure in the middle of germany. Because of those many hotel it should be less expensive than Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg and Berlin. The Niedersachsenstasion will be a very nice arena by that, And you might see Mathis and Dolo ;-) I would try to get plane tickets as soon as possible, because they are lkess expensive then too. About half a year or so would make a lot of sense. All I can say..
another cool thing about fortuna duesseldorf (if you would choose to see them) is that you can get a jersey of theirs that sports the logo of the german band "die toten hosen" on it. dunno if you know any german, but if you do they're a pretty cool band (well their old stuff, anyway) and the jersey looks really cool with the dth logo on it!
Die Toten Hosen are from Düsseldorf, and they are HUGE Fortuna fans! They also wrote an anti-Bayern song (was very popular, lol) and they sponsored the Fortuna (that's why they're on the shirt).
The official end of the construction phase and the official opening ceremony will be in December 2004 but there are plans that already on September 10th Fortuna will play a league match at the new venue. As far as I know Fortuna will play some of there Regionalliga matches (there is next to no doubt that they promote) in the Multifunktionsarena (They are still searching for a name sponsor, Henkel are in talks with them). Especially those where lots of fans or rampant ones (like RWE supporters) show up. And yes...also my opinion that this will be a high class football (in both ways) venue! jonam