My first Bundesliga experience

Before I came to Germany, I of course knew that Soccer was extremely popular. However, there is no way that I could have imagined the insanity of an actual game. My host father and I got going early to beat the traffic and arrived at the field an hour before the game. We stopped after we parked the car for Bratwursts, Senf, and Bier. We continued our trek through the sea of Van der Vaart and Adler Trikots until we used these nifty little season-pass credit-card-looking-things to get in. However, we could not simply proceed to our seats, we had to make a detour. Why? Because I didn’t have a HSV scarf. My Gastschwester was kind enough to lend me her jersey but the scarf is actually the most important part of fan gear (as I was soon to learn).

My host family has pretty much the best seats possible. There are two different floors of seats in the stadium and in the second floor there are two sections. We sat in the first row of the third level next to the fan curve (but not in because that is a little too crazy for anyone but the moderately intoxicated hardcore fans). It’s awesome. You can see perfectly, you’re close to the crazy, intense fans, and the roof, overhang thing shelters you from the weather. Although I did not have the foresight to lookup/learn any of the HSV cheers or songs, when the singer (who is coveted but will only sing for HSV games) was raised up on the little platform to sing the Club’s song I got to wave my scarf with the best.

I could tell you more about the club’s history or give a play-by-play of my first Bundesliga game but that stuff you can look up yourself on the Internet and read the facts for yourself. What I want to talk about is fans.

The second half was well underway when I heard yelling. Yes, people were shouting and singing all around me, but this voice cut through the homogeneous roar of the crowd with a different, intense, angry tone. I looked to my left at the group of people gathered tightly together in the curve of the stadium. I had never been so close to a fight, let alone a fight not between silly, scared boys in school or wherever but rather between two grown men (primarily two men --others became involved but they were just bandwagoners) who believe wholeheartedly in their side. Security was called and a team of six Stewards separated the men and led them out. (Quick disclaimer: this like NEVER happens, so don’t be all freaked out. A real fight is a total fluke.)

It was weird, I thought, that an away fan would come all the way from the away section in the absolute farthest point of the stadium to antagonize the losing HSV fans. Turns out, that I was right, that is much to far for an away fan to trek just to be obnoxious. It was, in fact, two HSV fans fighting. At this point, I was shocked by how the electric camaraderie that permeated the stadium’s atmosphere in the beginning of the game and has struck me so much had turned to the scary violence I’d just witnessed.

What I saw at work was the conflict between two types of fan. I’m only going to approach the soccer aspect of the conflict, although it is not really so simple. There are five major types of fans in the stadium at a game. The lowest level of fans is the Dragged-along-fans. These are the girlfriends, dates, and friends that are only there because someone in the group they are there with love soccer and they are being supportive. The next level is the Just-‘cause-fans. These are the people who don’t really care about the team but like soccer, or at least the experience of going to a soccer game and buy a ticket just ‘cause. The middle level is the Once-in-a-lifetime-fans. These are the individuals that honestly really like the club but just don’t have the time or means to go to all the games. Their tickets were given to them as presents or purchased as a special treat. Level one and two are the most intense fans and to the untrained eye seems to be indistinguishable. They both follow every single game and know all about the history of the team. They go to every game they can and could talk for hours about the minutia of their team. They are entirely tricked out in their team’s gear. However, they are not the same. Somewhere, amongst all their Fußball passion, their motivations don’t line up. The best name I can think of for the level two fan is the Die-hard-commercial fan and the level one fan is the Die-hard-tradition fan. The distinguishing feature between the two is that level two appreciates soccer as a business while the level one fans undyingly love their club. Within this distinction the tension lies. Let me try to elucidate the conflict with my experience as the second half of the game became sadder and sadder for the HSV.

The first half ends with the hopeful score of 1-1 and as the team leaves the field for the Pause, the fans eagerly await the newly energized team after a talking to from the coach. However, when they return and the second half gets underway, there is no positive change noted in the HSV. Pass by pass, shot by shot, lost challenge by lost challenge the game slips away from the HSV. As the away team attains total control of the game, the level two fans bemoan the money they wasted on a team that isn’t even there to play and when the ball hits the back of the net again for the wrong team, these fans don’t boo, they cheer. Frustrated with their team they cheer for the opposing team. At this point, the level twoers were cheering for the team that makes the game interesting. When the HSV has clearly lost, level three through five flood out of stadium to beat traffic. They are followed by depressed and angry level two fans. Who is left in the stadium? Livid level oners. These individuals launch garbage, including full cups of beer, from their seats toward the field. This is the only time where I was sitting was not ideal. As the first beer splashed down in the aisle next to me my host father suggested we relocate.

So, the conclusion I have come to is that the fight I witnessed arose out of this misunderstanding between these two types of soccer fans. It was a crazy day but super fun and I can’t wait till my next chance to see a game, although my next game could definitely be a St. Pauli game.