Freiburg 3-0 Augsburg
(Kübler 6′, Höler 25′, Grifo pen 34′)
Dreisamstadion
Nestled in the valley of the River Dreisam just east of Freiburg city center, the Dreisamstadion is many things to many people.
Picturesque with its spectacular location in the Black Forest, old school with its ageing terraces and steep stands, freezing cold in winter, beautifully warm in summer, a bogey ground for Bundesliga giants – and commonly considered the “worst away end in Germany” for visiting supporters.
But for 67 years, it’s been home for Sport-Club Freiburg.
In the almost seven decades since it was opened on September 1, 1954, the stadium has played host to Freiburg games in each of Germany’s top three divisions, plus UEFA Cup games, men’s and women’s internationals and even the Dutch national team, who trained there during the 2006 World Cup.
On Sunday, it hosted men’s Bundesliga football for the 360th and final time, with head coach Christian Streich impressing upon his players the need to strike the right balance between the emotion of the occasion and the job to be done on the pitch against Augsburg.
He needn’t have worried. Lukas Kübler, Lucas Höler and Vincenzo Grifo (penalty) scored the Dreisamstadion‘s 997th, 998th and 999th Bundesliga goals to end the game as a contest by halftime.
Freiburg’s Dreisamstadion: one of Germany’s most iconic football grounds
Christian Streich: Dreisamstadion personified
The 14,000 Freiburg supporters were free to enjoy the final 45 minutes inside a stadium which reflects its tenants more than any other in professional German football. SC Freiburg and the Dreisamstadion: bywords for tradition, beauty, friendliness, sustainable financial management and good, honest football.
And if there is a single Freiburger who personifies those values himself, then it’s Streich. A former Freiburg player, the 56-year-old is now the Bundesliga’s longest-serving coach having taken charge of 363 games since 2011.
At full-time, with tears in his eyes, Streich climbed into the north stand behind the goal, took a megaphone from the ultras and led the stadium in song: “Im Dreisamstadion, hier sind wir zuhaus” – this is where we are at home.
“I don’t belong on the terraces,” he then admitted. “But I think a few people would have been disappointed today if I hadn’t gone. It’s been 25 years. A long time. Working here every day, innumerable matches, thousands of training sessions. Now I can enjoy it.”
A pitch too short and one goal lower than the other
And yet no-one could have envisaged that the plot of land in the valley to the east of town would come to have such meaning for the people of Freiburg when the Sport-Club first moved there in 1954. The team had been without a home since the end of the Second World War, after their old ground had been commissioned for use by the Luftwaffe in 1936.
In 1970, a stand with 480 covered seats was added. A further expansion followed in 1978 and, by 1980, a new main stand and expanded standing terrace increased capacity to 15,000. Flood lights were finally added after the club’s first ever promotion to the Bundesliga in 1993, with the capacity reaching 18,000.
The stadium reached its current 24,000 capacity in 1999, making it the third smallest Bundesliga stadium this season after Union Berlin’s Stadion an der Alten Försterei and Greuther Fürth’s Sportpark Ronhof.
Since Freiburg’s arrival in the top-flight, the Dreisamstadion has been a unique location in German football – not least due to its pitch which is technically five meters too short and one goal which is 98 centimeters lower than the other, the pitch sloping south to north.
Only special dispensation from the German Football League (DFL) allows Freiburg to play there, and it has proven a notoriously difficult place to go for visiting teams.
In the nineties, it took Bayern Munich five attempts to finally win in Freiburg for the first time, even suffering a 5-1 thrashing in August 1994. Even Pep Guardiola lost in Freiburg, a 2-1 defeat in May 2015.
In total, Bayern only won on 11 of their 21 trips to the Black Forest, their last game there last season also ended in a 2-2 draw.
Similarly, Borussia Dortmund have only won in Freiburg on 10 occasions, losing on their last two visits. Borussia Mönchengladbach have the worst record at the Dreisamstadion, winning only once.
“Goodbye, Dreisamstadion!” Even the traveling Augsburg supporters said their farewells
Flying golf balls and the worst away end in Germany
But there will also a few negative memories for Freiburg. The visit of Bayern on April 12, 2000, remains deeply etched in the memory. In the final stages of a 2-1 win, goalkeeper Oliver Kahn was struck by a golf ball thrown by a 16-year-old Freiburg fan behind his goal, drawing blood and earning Freiburg a fine of 75,000 deutschmarks.
And on November 10, 2019, coach Streich was brutally bodychecked by Eintracht Frankfurt’s David Abraham, sending him sprawling to the ground. Abraham was sent off and, in the melee that followed, so was Vincenzo Grifo.
The traveling Augsburg supporters in the south-east corner might not have seen Grifo’s goal; the away section in Freiburg is commonly considered the worst in Germany by away fans – low down and hidden behind fences, netting and pillars, but iconic nonetheless.
All of that is now history. In October, Freiburg will move to the new, modern “Europa-Park-Stadion” just north of the city center, built at a total cost of just over €130 million ($152m). It will be officially opened with a friendly against second division side FC St. Pauli on October 7, before the Bundesliga visit of RB Leipzig on October 16.
“When something is beautiful, it’s difficult to let go, but all things come to an end,” Streich had said pre-match. “But I can’t pretend that we’ve all been thinking ‘oh no!’ Something new is coming, something positive, a great new stadium which we have all worked towards. Nobody has gifted it to us.
“So it’s farewell, but it’s also a new start.”
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/farewell-and-a-new-start-freiburg-say-goodbye-to-historic-dreisamstadion/a-59319306?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf