TeBe Party Army On Tour: Antira Football Tournament, Hamburg, June 2007

The Party Army was back in action after a successful outing (hehe) at the Respect Gaymes last weekend (Hancot was in Spain, hence no match report). This time, we took part again in the Antira St. Pauli Tournament. I was really looking forward to this, as I really enjoyed my first one, 2 years ago at the Antira St. Pauli 2005 (link to my report of that tournament).

We set off mid-Friday afternoon, with two Israelis, Eyal and Oded in tow, who would prove to be among the stars of the tournament, playing it in the true spirit (but with maybe a bit too much skill for the normal participant ;) ), I lost count of the number of teams they played for, and the number of goals they scored (and the number of chances Oded missed :D ) The journey was relaxed as we had to wait for another Israeli, Bilouh the tent-killer, in Hamburg, and we got stuck into the beers and exchanged gestures on the Autobahn with our Babelszwerge friends; the heavy rain en route however was a portent of what was to come...

We got there fairly late, at around 9, to find the party already in full swing and the grounds (St. Pauli's training ground) already well-filled with tents, many more than 2 years ago. As it was still light and not raining too much, we pitched our tents (hehe) and I suddenly realised that the kiddy tent my parents had got me 16 years ago wasn't going to cut the mustard. At all. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it was the smallest and most rubbish tent in the whole place.

Off we headed to the clubhouse to meet old friends, make new ones (a big hello to Sheff U Gareth and the 2 crazy girls from Finland who hitchhiked the whole way 'just for the fun'!) and get drunk on Astra. Some cheesy music was supplied, but I was there for the beer. Then the rain REALLY started coming down. Torrentially, I kid you not. We headed to bed at around 2.30am (I think), Bilouh sleeping chez moi as he'd nowhere else to go, and even in the dark it was clear that pools of water had gathered. He managed to stick it out for 3 hours despite having no sleeping bag and lying on a small stream, then he disappeared. I was soaked and shivered until about 7am, a mop-up with my t-shirt hardly doing any good, then I decided that the clubhouse was a better idea. This guy had the best bed in the house though, on the counter of the outdoor beer stand!



Breakfast of rolls was already being prepared, a few coffees warmed me and woke me up a bit, then i had the misfortune to run into the Sportklub Friedhofstribuene crew (just kidding). Cue rounds of beer and Sekt, and stupid me tried to keep up the drinking pace with Peezn, Wolfi and co, something I'd soon regret...

So, onto the action, to be honest I didn't keep a note of the scores as I usually do, and strangely enough, given my alcohol consumption, I can't even remember a lot of the games, so a big thanks to Endi for providing me with scores:

Saturday:

Group matches:

TeBe Party Army - Herri Norte Taldea / Athletic Bilbao 3:1




Some silky skills on display...


And some poor misses ;)

An astonishing start for the Party Army, a convincing win, something unheard of, good football, ditto, thanks to Matze, Oded, Eyal et moi, although the Bilbaoers were somewhat 'pedestrian'. Z.toni moaned about the substitutions being somewhat chaotic, but he's never happy. We had something like 13 players and at least 4 fans, so I only played for a bit.


TeBe Party Army - VIF Kladen / Valerenga Oslo 2:3

Typical TeBe scene, a mad goalmouth scramble

So we succumbed to the big (drinking) Norwegians, who were weaker than 2 years ago and we could have got a draw if someone had been a bit more clinical (*cough* *Oded*) Their late winning goal had a hint of controversy about it, but as a spectator I saw it going through a hole in the net. Had a good chat with these boys, though one of them later in the Jolly Roger REALLY didn't need to tell me that he'd shit himself during one of the games on the pitch... Oh, and I didn't play this one, wanted some others to play.


TeBe Party Army - Antifa Bergamo / Atalanta Bergamo 2:2

The beautiful slide

The not-so-beautiful slide

We really should have won this, sloppiness causing us to twice throw away a lead. I scored one of the goals of the tournament, if I do say so myself. I ran the length of the pitch down the middle, screaming for Eyal, who had broken through down the right, to knock it into the middle. Cue a cracking cross, a slide from me and a wonderful goal. Cue me being knackered for the rest of the game and substituting myself.


Play-Off:
TeBe Party Army - Schwarze Geier / Eintracht Frankfurt 2:0 ? 3:1?



Don't remember too much about this game, we cruised it, Matze mopped everything up in defence and sent balls to all corners of the grounds, and Bart got a bad injury after a clumsy high tackle, the Nike imprint being left in his thigh.

I also played a few times for the Friedhofstribuene, one of these games unfortunately being a heavy defeat to eventual runners-up, St. Pauli Skinheads.

The rest of the games that day, that were due to take place after a break, were called off due to another torrential downpour, so the drinking began in earnest once more. We wanted to go to a talk by an English antifascist about England during and after WW2, but it was packed out, good to see. It was at this stage that my tent finally died a death, Bilouh managing to rip an unfixable hole in it. I was actually relieved, as we'd found a disused house with veranda just behind us, which was a) dry and, err, b) dry.

Dead tent, even more dead next day when scavengers tore it apart for the groundsheet!


The wonderful dry house

We finally got our act together at about 8ish, and after I'd had a bottle of wine, all headed into the centre (well St. Pauli anyway) for some musical entertainment. Imagine our surprise when our train wouldn't move for 20 minutes, and when we got there, lines of riot police had blocked us going anywhere except through an isolated industrial estate. Apparently there was ademo going on nearby at the same time against a Moevenpick restaurant being built in the nearby Schanzenpark, and the police didn't want us joining in.

Welcome to Hamburg

Fine by us, we just wanted a few beers and to play some table football, so we managed to sneak off and eventually find the Jolly Roger, an FC St. Pauli pub, where the Norwegians kept me entertained. We then took an extended dander round the area, including the Reeperbahn, despite the reluctance of nikita and G. who had been there before and weren't impressed, before we finally got to the Rote Flora, where the 'official' party was taking place. Not my cup of tea when it comes to politics in there, but there were 3 floors, a chilled atmosphere without and within, and some cool drum n bass.



I think we got home at about 6ish/6.30am, it was certainly bright and the sun was shining, but I was well gone by this stage, 36 hours of solid drinking having taken its toll. So it probably wasn't a wise idea to sit down with the Bordeaux boys for a bit of a chat in French, while drinking pastis at the same time. Goodness knows when I went to bed. It must have been around 7.30/8am. Not a good idea when I was supposed to be in the kitchen helping out at 10am. In fact, I finally woke up/was woken up at 12.30pm, having missed much of my kitchen duty (for which I rightly got an earful from z.toni and Endi later) and 2 TeBe matches. I eventually did go in and offer my services, but most stuff was already done, so all I did was help wash up for a bit and chat with the others. Sorry to the Fanladen for being so drunken and crap. As the not-so-good book says, the spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak.

Thus I walked around like a zombie for much of the day, only drinking a beer with Ibrox out of duty, it was no pleasure whatsoever. Conversely, I seemed to play better when in a state of delayed drunkenness... Here's the Sunday round-up, of what I can remember and was told, which ain't much:

Sunday:

2nd Round:

TeBe Party Army - Ultra St.Pauli 3:1

I was in the land of nod, so no report and no photos

Quarter-Final:

TeBe Party Army - Republica Internationale / Leeds 0:2

Land of nod. I dreamt a good game. According to Endi "disastrous performance, especially from me"

Playing For Places (where apparently, we were put in the wrong pot)

TeBe Party Army - Verrückte Köpfe / Wacker Innsbruck 3:0? 4:0?



Hancot was finally aboard again, if only for the last few minutes, and managed to score a goal! Much to the chagrin of big Ibrox, who thought I was going to pass wide when through, only to send the ball trickling past him in the space he'd left anticipating my pass, the eejit. Another convincing performance.


TeBe Party Army - Friedhofstribüne 2:0



Yeah! My favourite game of the tournament, we fixed it so we could play against each other. I'd already played for both, as had Felix, so we decided we'd wear both teams' shirts and swap with one another half way through the game. I started with FHT, and pretty much played the whole match, the organisers blowing the final whistle early even though they'd promised us longer. Eyal scored a good individual goal, I remember, and Endi finished off a lovely team move. As for me, I missed a great chance, putting a 'powerful' header over the bar after a cracking cross from the right. I wasn't happy. But it was great fun.


Match for 5th Place:

...was supposed to be against the Goettinger, but we decided not to play against each other, so we both shared 5th place!

So I wandered off to help the Viennese Friedhofstribuene; and played my best game. I even scored the winning goal! A lucky one, I was dribbling nowhere, when suddenly a small gap in the middle appeared, off I went, and slotted it home at the near post. G. said it was a nice goal anyway, and was peeved off that I scored, so that was praise enough for me!

As for the Party Army goalscorers overall, this is as good as Endi could remember, Eyal and Oded can hopefully help, but they really scored too many to remember:

Eyal und Odet mehrere....
Endi 2 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Marc 2
Tobi 1 oder 2
Matze?
Benni 1



And then all that was left was for the group photo, and prizegiving. The prizegiving is normally an amusing affair, with each team bringing their own prizes to give and each team choosing what they want. This time, for such a high placing, we got a cool glass trophy, donated by Ultras Hapoel Tel-Aviv. Our injured star, hospitalised for much of the day, went up on crutches to get our cup from Pauli's president, Littmann:





We slowly packed up, hung around for a while, said our goodbyes, then hit the road. 2 minutes later and we were in Maccy Ds stuffing our faces. Our Israeli friends were delighted by their Happy Meal prizes and now have an impressive list of German phrases, including

"Ich habs" and

"Ich bin ein Ogre" :D

The journey home was quiet, all the lightweights nodding off in the back; I chatted away with the driver to keep her company, poor German schlager our only other company.

All in all, I thought it was a great tournament: it's certainly the friendliest of any I play, there's a great atmosphere, and the rain didn't stop anyone enjoying themselves. I've one or 2 small criticisms, but now's not the time.

And if you made it this far, well done! Feel free to correct me with regard to any of the scorers, and if you want any photos removed. A massive Thank You to all the people from St. Pauli who worked so hard behind the scenes to make everything such a success, from the organisation, to the food and drink, it really was appreciated. A BIG Thank You to all the Party Army who took part and supported, including the young fraction, you know who you are, hope you enjoyed it! And to the Friedhofstribuene boys and girls, you really are a bad influence on me, but I had a ball!

"Sportklub Here!TeBe There! We Are Drinking Everywhere!"

See you next year!

Another Tournament report on Lila Laune.

TeBe Party Army On Tour: Vienna

Old men get 40 winks

The big Viennese 3rd Division Derby match, Wiener Sport Club - First Vienna, was the occasion for TeBe fans to make a wee trip to Austria and renew old acquaintances with various Vienna friends from tournaments past.

We set off on Thursday evening, got ourselves a compartment to ourselves, picked up z.Toni en route, got a bit of drink in us to help us sleep, then got there late thanks to a 1-hour delay in Nuremberg. Fact: Nuremberg station and environs is dead at 3.30am.

We picked up Roland on the way and made our way to our host's house to drop off our stuff. A breakfast and a doing the tourist thing occupied much of the day, then we headed to the ground early via a typical Viennese restaurant where much schnitzel and goulash was consumed.

Getting there nice and early, just before 6, we were perturbed by the continuous heavy rain, and to hear that the game was in doubt. We decided to drown possible sorrows anyway in the fan club, nicely located at the entrance to the stadium.



The match went ahead, but the weather was awful, possibly the 2nd worst conditions I've ever witnessed at a match after almost getting exposure as a 9-year old in torrential rain.




I was mightily impressed by the ground. 8 Euros in, it was a tight wee ground, the lucky away fans getting a stand with roof, while we were on an uncovered terrace, exposed to the elements. But it was enclosed and lent itself to a cracking atmosphere. Not many photos and unfortunately no films as it was too wet, we were literally all soaked to the skin and freezing.

The Wiener Sportklub fans were great. They sang non-stop, at least in the centre of the terracing where I was, and had a wide wide repetoire, most of which was in English, including their versions of 'Amazing Grace' and the Superman theme.



TeBe fans were well represented, with at least 8 fans there. They even get a mention and the flag is shown on this video:

WSC - First Vienna 23.03.07



Onto the match itself. The awful weather conditions made good football difficult, and especially by the touchlines, and in the boxes, the water was sitting, but I thought it was an entertaining game. Tbh, and I said it to the Sport Club fans later, I thought Vienna were better, certainly in the first half, and at the time deserved to take the lead, despite the goal looking blatantly offside. I kinda missed Sport Club's equaliser, having gone to get beer and being too small at the back to see, but it was a cracking shot from 20 yards. WSC came much more into it in the second half, but no team really looked like scoring the winner, and to be honest, a draw was probably a fair result on balance.

After the game, we were soaked, so we piled into the fan club along with hundreds of others. We soon dried off and got stuck into the beer again (including our two teetotalers, tut tut), chatted away with fans of both teams, who mixed freely, but most of us avoided the cheesy disco, and we headed home earlyish...

Saturday, hangovers, big plate of cold meats for breakfast, then a trip to the Prater, Vienna's year-round fairground. Except it was still pouring down, there was no-one there and so most of the rides were shut. We found a video arcade for some driving and biking, then a wee go-cart track, where Jim Alonso showed his skills, Roland impressed and z.Toni didn't :) We headed back home, and wired up the Playstation2, where Hancot ruled supreme in the music quiz game Buzz!, much to the chagrin and rage of 3000-album-possessing Endi!



Then it was time for our second football match of the weekend, Austria- Ghana in a friendly. Wolfi, WSC fan extraordinaire, organised places for us on a FairPlay (a group supporting anti-racist initiatives) bus, which turned out to be full of Ghanians. As such, let's say the journey was a lively affair, with drums and songs aplenty! 'Billy Bop' is still echoing through my head... The bus (2 hrs to Graz) plus ticket cost 20 EUR, bargain.

We got there in good time, and headed to a wee pub for a bite to eat - 2 schnitzel burgers and 2 beers, to be precise, mmm. It was still freezing, so we left it late before entering the stadium.

Ghana fans in full voice

Linfield here, Linfield there...

UPC Arena, Graz, Euro 2008 Stadium

Plenty of colour from the Ghana fans, but it was drums and songs in a chaotic fashion all over the place. The stadium was only half full (I think), it's one of the Euro 2008 grounds and was a nice wee stadium, if a little lego-esque. Some bad things were 1. that you had to pay to have a pee, and 2. only one entrance/exit to the away end, a bit dangerous.

The teams line up

The game itself was a leisurely affair, a big shame that Essien and Appiah didn't play. Ghana played some lovely passing football, and Austria seemed to let them do it. The press were surprisingly optimistic about Austria's performance the next day, but I don't see why, they were bereft of ideas, gave Ghana far too much time and space and didn't seem to pressurise as a home team should.

Austria on a rare attack

Austria took the lead during one of their few periods of pressure near the start of the second half, but their defence looked shaky throughout, and it was no wonder that a defensive mistake let in Ghana for the equaliser:



The celebrations were entertaining too (both my own work, I hasten to add! :) )

Players salute fans after the final whistle

We got back into Vienna late, then headed off to meet the others in a 'club' that I can only describe as a village disco in the city, complete with eclectic cheesy music, Scooter, No Unlimited, schlager, et al. And I loved it. VERY young crowd, I felt old, but such a variety of people, from pretty underage girls in fancy dress to shirtless beer boys, to lads in dresses, from the cool crowd, to randoms like us. It was nearly light by the time we got back, and a Singstar karaoke session ensued, where some hidden talents were revealed! Then Music Maestro Hancot saw off the plucky Austrian girls and old man Endi in Buzz. Endi was raging that I was some kind of modern pop guru, while showing how poor my taste in music is by not knowing the name of The Clash's album... Endi and Tobi wanted to then go to 2 more football games, but I was tired and wanted some proper sleep, so to bed. Late up, an all-you-can-eat meat feast at an Austro-Croat restaurant, then off to the station and the long journey home.

Great weekend, and a nice first trip to Austria for me. Thanks to the lads who educated me and entertained me, to Petra for putting us up, and for Wolfi for being a star. No thanks to the controllers who scooped me RIGHT as I got off at my stop in Berlin. Grr.