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The Bundesliga Thread


Troglodyte

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Basically, I was always good at German at school, but I never really used it after leaving. It's coming up to three years since I did my A-levels and last really studied the language, and I'd like to pick it back up before I forget everything in a haze of alcohol and schmokies.

So, as well as looking for language learning stuff on the internet etc, I would like to start following a German football team and possibly read their messageboards etc (and post when I get the confidence).

However, I'm finding it really difficult to choose 'my' team. It's not really a 'natural' way of choosing a team, but I'd like to support one with a good fanbase, and ideally a team I'd be able to pick up tickets for if I did go and see them play. It'd also be good if the town/city they play in were somewhere worth visiting. Preferably, the club would be fairly stable (I read that Dortmund have had quite a bit of financial difficulty) but not a massive team (...I don't want to follow Bayern).

A nice kit would also be a bonus :lol:

I suppose the best way would be to start watching the Bundesliga next year and see who I'm drawn to, but I'd like to get a sense of some clubs, their histories etc. So, any German VTers or German football fans have any suggestions for me?

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Easiest one to support is obviously Bayern. Massive club , global brand. You'll be a glory hunter though :P

Or if you want to support a really traditional club with a huge fanbase but big underachievers , look no further than Hamburger SV or Borussia Dortmund.

If you like shit cars and stiff women , support VFL Wolfsburg. ;)

If you are frequently unwell and use a lot of medicines and like quiet family atmosphere type stadiums , Bayer(its NOT Bayern) Leverkusen is your club. :P

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Well I've been to Berlin and the stadium there and did like it, although the running track made me imagine the atmosphere wouldn't be all that great. I'm not sure if I want to support the capital city's biggest club though?

I'm not interested in Bayern, they're the 'big' club and I don't want to be a glory-hunter type fan.

Gladbach and Hamburg both had some level of appeal to me. They both seem fairly similar to Villa, would that be an accurate (if fairly vague) statement?

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Gladbach and Hamburg both had some level of appeal to me. They both seem fairly similar to Villa, would that be an accurate (if fairly vague) statement?

Hamburg are comparable more to Liverpool with their base and history. Although recent history wise , they are comparable to Villa in terms of the league but they've done lot more in Europe.

Gladbach were very successful for a decade or so competing directly with Bayern , their fierce rivals. Not so successful in recent years but had a decent 09-10 season, comfortably mid table.

Schalke 04 have the toughest fans in the league though. Another option.

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Toughest as in hardest? Not really bothered about any kind of macho-fan image.

Dortmund do appeal to me, but are they in financial trouble? And would it be considered an easy option, seeing as they're one of the bigger teams? Their stadium does look awesome though. What's Dortmund like as a city, anyone know?

Just noticed that Hertha Berlin will finish bottom in the Bundesliga this season :shock:

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I have a soft spot for Eintracht Frankfurt and Hertha Berlin, thanks to generally not disliking the Frankfurt Galaxy and Berlin Thunder who groundshared back in the days of NFL Europe.

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Dortmund is like Brum only they speak German there, big industrial place, but also a nice place to be. westfalhen (spelling?) park, where the stadium is is cool, the stadium itself is spot on, and the women in Linear Strasse will do anything for money, Wenkers, opposite the newspaper bar in the city centre just up from Leeds Strasse sells some cracking beer, the damaged church in the centre has war piccys up in it as a museum kinda thing, the trams run every two to three mins and are always on time, there used to be an outdoor swimming pool with a really high diving board where you could spend all day for a couple of bucks, and next to that was the nudist area where you could just walk around and get an eyefull, the jerrys like to let it all hang out, its only a few miles from the Mohne See, where you can go and run around doing the aeroplane while humming the dambusters theme tune, much to the annoyance of the boxheads, all in all Dortmund is the bollocks

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My German team is Wolfsburg. I'm not clinging onto their every result but I favour them in the matches of theirs I really look at. Looked out for them in that way for a few seasons now, even when they were pretty poor. Mostly comes from the family's like of VWs to be honest.

I had a history teacher in school who used to be something to do with the RAF/Army IIRC and had spent some time in Germany, reckoned either Dortmund or Gladbach (can't remember which) had a lot of British servicemen support them because they were the nearest big club to a barracks, which might make it a bit easier to get into the community of whichever club it was.

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Hamburg.

Though I generally don't 'choose' my teams as such, I let them pick me. I just watched a few seasons as a neutral (though I kept an eye on Stuttgart because of Hitzlsperger) and eventually grew a fondness for Hamburg.

If you're going to pick I'd just say don't pick Bayern because it's gloryhunting, but don't pick a bad side either so you won't lose interest. The likes of Leverkusen, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Schalke, Bremen are all (or have been recetly) decent sides who'll get into Europe and win a decent amount of games

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Borussia Mönchengladbach.

This. Although the reason behind myself having a soft spot for them is that I lived there for six years of my life. Not a supporter of them, however I keep an eye out for their results. Plus I used to go to watch them when I got the chance, and still do when possible. The only downside is that they share a link with Liverpool FC. Oh, plus they aren't very good these days...

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