Aachen 6 - Nürnberg 2

february 19th, 2009

I have never been a die-hard football fan, but I like a good game and have always followed the national and international football games with more than a passing interest. When I was still at primary school in Grimbergen, you had to choose between Anderlecht and Brugge, at that time the two most successful soccer teams in Belgium. I chose Club Brugge and with players like Jan Ceulemans and Raoul Lambert they were quite successful. Lately they have lost a lot of their charm and competitive edge, but I still follow their games on TV.

My wife is from Nürnberg and just like Club Brugge their football team is called "The Club" : 1. FC Nürnberg. This weekend they played against Aachen and since we live there, I went together with my father-in-law and brother-in-law. Unfortunately the "Club" did not play well at all, and we got a 6-2 trashing. It was freezing cold and it even started snowing towards the end.

Standing among the "Ultras" of Nürnberg was quite fun, and even when they were losing the game they kept up the good cheer and shouted abuse at Aachen players and umpire. Whenever the name of an Aachen player was mentioned over the stadium PA system, the Nürnberger Ultras shouted "arschl*ch", which means exactly what you think: A**.

Oh, one nice detail: at the end they announced how many litres alcohol-free Bitburg beer had been sold during the game: 1600 litres.