Meet the team

In the absence of any European Football Weekends until we go to Istanbul, Turkey in a couple of weeks time - I thought I'd introduce a 'meet the team' feature. So here are a few questions that some of the EFW regulars have answered. Feel free to ask us a question yourself:

Name – Danny Last

Nickname - Chops

Who do you support?

Brighton & Hove Albion

What do you like about European Football Weekends?

I love the fact that most fans abroad treat every game like a cup final. I find you are almost guaranteed a good atmosphere and what’s more it only costs a fraction of the price of an English game to get in. At home, I don’t sing at matches anymore whereas abroad I sing along in another language for the full 90 minutes. I also love sitting in a pub afterwards talking all kinds of rubbish to all kinds of people.

What's been your favourite EFW?

Two weeks of football with eight of my best mates at Euro 2004 in Portugal will take some beating. Five games, genuinely friendly locals, nice food, beautiful beaches and cold beers. What was not to like!?

Also being in the away end as Borussia Dortmund beat their local and hated rivals Schalke 04 for the first time in umpty thrumpty years will live long in the Gordon memory Banks. What’s more, it was my stag do and all of my mates had come along for the ride.

Best City visited?

Madrid is my favourite City for the food, beer, football and culture. Cologne has never let us down as a great base for German football.

Best stadium visited?

From the outside the Allianz Arena (Munich) looks stunning. It also has a proper beer hall inside with actual glasses (no plastic nonsense) and beer to die for. Inside it’s just like any other new stadium of the same size. Give me some old skool floodlights and couple of terraces any day. To that end places like Alemmania Aachen and Kickers Offenbach fit the bill very nicely thankyou.

Favourite country for watching football?

Germany – we keep trying to go to new countries for football but Germany ticks every box every time.

Have you any allegiance to a foreign team(s)?

Borussia Dormund. Their fans have always been great to us and I’m still in contact with quite a few of them. Aside from them I am able to switch my allegiance at the drop of a hat depending on where we are and whom we meet.

Any EFW stinkers?

We once went to see Belgium v Bulgaria in Brussels. Nobody had catered for there being a Belgian beer festival in the middle of the city. After spending the afternoon there drinking unbelievably nice beers everything became a bit of a blur. We did try and get to the game but the trams were not working properly, there was an issue with tickets and in the end we gave up and returned to the beer festival.

Where would you most like to visit on a future EFW?

There is nowhere I wouldn’t consider. I'd like to see some games in a few new countries.

Most memorable EFW night out?

The aforementioned stag night in Germany. Singing with a Rod Stewart look-alike German landlord in Munich. One Portuguese landlord stuffing three of us in the boot of his car to give us a lift home. My mate Binsy entertaining a pub full of Portuguese/Czechs by playing a tune with his flip flops on the table. The Borussia Dortmund ultras party and lots more.

Best fans you have met on your travels?

So many - I've been helped out along the way by fans of Alemannia Aachen, Real Mallorca, Heracles Almelo, Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Monchengladbach, Eintracht Frankfurt and more. In terms of atmosphere - the two times I have seen Napoli (away at Inter Milan & Empoli) their fans have been amazing & frightening at the same time.

Best game you have seen!?

The game between Holland and the Czech Republic (3-2) at Euro 2004 was astonishing in terms of quality entertainment, skill and goals. England v Portgual (2-3) at Euro 2000 was great and Real Madrid v Valencia (2-3) deserves a mention. Basically any game that finishes 3-2 by the looks of things!

Name -Lee Deacon

Nickname - Deaks or Big Deaks

Who do you support?

Brighton & Hove Albion

What do you like about European Football Weekends?

What's not to like ? The main thing to like is the friendly welcome we get from 99.9% of foreign fans. You never know what you are going to see at some of these places and they always come up with something different.

What's been your favourite EFW?

Difficult to say but probably the ones with 3 games in 3 days, They were tiring but very enjoyable. Dortmund was probably my favourite as the Unity Ultras Party was fantastic.

Best City visited?

Madrid or Munich. Madrid is visually pleasing but Munich quenches the thirst better. Cologne is up there.

Best stadium visited?

Impossible to answer. Barca, Real Madrid and also SpVgg Unterhaching in the lower divisions as they have a great set up. For old skool it has to be Alemannia Aachen or Kickers Offenbach.

Favourite country for watching football?

Germany by a mile.

Have you any allegiance to a foreign team(s)?

A bit for Dortmund as they do a lot for us when we go.

Any EFW stinkers?

Only when there is no toilet on the train and you have been on the Weiss Bier all day.

Where would you most like to visit on a future EFW?

I would like to try a few different countries, maybe Sweden & Denmark. I need to go to Bayer Leverkusen as I have been past it on the train a hundred times.

Most memorable EFW night out?

Either the night after Schalke 1 Dortmund 2 or the Unity Party again. Both were classics. Saturday night in Munich was not bad.

Best fans you have met on your travels?

Loads to choose from, I would say Dortmund, Borrusia Monchengladbach, Aachen and Heracles.

Best game you have seen?

Barcelona 4 Udinese 1 , Ronaldinho got a hatrick in this champions league game. Denmark 2 Sweden 2 for comedy value (Euro 2004).

Any funny stories from a EFW?

When we went to stay in Cologne and didn't realise there was a massive annual fancy dress party celebrating the end of World War II. We got stuck in the middle of it and saw someone dressed as a football pitch.

The five hour train journey from Bucharest to Constanta for Romania v Holland. It pissed down all day and then we had to get back on the train at 4am. Thanks to the man selling cheap beers on the train, he was a hero.

The players fight between Longford and Brighton, all the fans just laughed about it and sank several Guinness after.

Also being called the big man by a huge Rangers fan. He was about 7 foot tall and wide and I am 6'3 (and wide).

Name - Nick Waterhouse

Nickname - Nicko

Who do you support?

Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.

What do you like about European Football Weekends?

Football with no bother, meeting new fans, watching the fans, high scoring games, laughing about low scoring games, beers on the terrace, football quiz, bars on trains (Germany), terraces, new floodlights.

What's been your favourite EFW?

That's a tricky one. Probably the weekend where we went to two games in a day - one in Germany and the other in Holland (Rot-Weiss Oberhausen & VVV Venlo).

Best City visited?

Cologne, heaven.

Best stadium visited?

From the outside Munich, from the inside Real Madrid.

Favourite country for watching football?

Germany

Have you any allegiance to a foreign team(s)?

I have a real bias for whatever end of the ground I am in.

Any EFW stinkers?

Only when I cant go on a trip. Not getting into Belgium v Bulgaria was annoying, a bit like not getting into Anderlecht v Ghent - lighten up Belgium! Glasgow Rangers not having adequate drainage resulting in the game being off.

Where would you most like to visit on a future EFW?

Italy - cant believe I have not seen a game there!

Most memorable EFW night out?

Too many to mention, meeting Rod Stewart (lookalike) and seeing the World Cup (lookalike) in Munich takes some beating though.

Best fans you have met on your travels?

Borussia Monchengladbach

Best game you have seen?

Holland v Czech Republic, Euro 2004. Anyone that does not put this game that was at this game is telling porkies.

There you have it folks - I will add some more answers from some of the other chaps in time. Again, if you want any questions answering then feel free to drop us a line and we'll do our best to answer. Roll on the next European Football Weekend.

Past EFW Classics Part 8

VfLBochum 2-0 Borussia Dortmund (10:03:07)
Kickers Offenbach 1-1 Hansa Rostock (11:03:07)

The 'march' of Dortmund fans from Bochum station to the ground.

Rewirpower Stadion home to VfL Bochum.

6,000 Dortmund fans in 'You'll Never Walk Alone' mode.

And you thought the opening ceremony in Beijing was impressive!?

Give us a 'Bbbbbbb'

The wall of the pub inside the Bieberer Berg Stadion - Kickers Offenbach.

Enormous flag + Old Skool floodlight + terracing = happy days.

We appear to be in with the ultras yet again.

Hansa Rostock fans to the left - good effort for a Sunday afternoon lads.

The Waldemar Klein Tribune at Kickers Offenbach.

Another German European Football Weekend and another one whereby we used our unofficial EFW office in Cologne as a base. We arrived on Friday evening, checked into our hotel opposite the Barbarossaplatz tram station and not before too long we were saying hello to Mr Beer.

There is a fantastic pub crawl we have sort of made our own in Cologne - it starts opposite our hotel taking in 6 or 7 pubs down one road - then leads back along another road back to our hotel taking in a further 6 or 7 more pubs. It's an above average way to spend a Friday evening!

The next morning we took the one hour train journey from Cologne to Bochum for the local derby match between VfL Bochum and Borussia Dortmund. Upon our arrival in Bochum we made an early beeline towards the 'Bermuda Triangle' area of the city known for its pubage. I was with Big Deaks and Nick on this trip but we were about to be joined by 6,000 of our friends from Borussia Dortmund.

After a couple of early morning 'liveners' we got the call to meet up at Bochum station. Every time Dortmund play away at Bochum, the fans gather together en mass at the station and march towards the stadium as one. There was a wall of noise on the march, together with the sound of smashing bottles (both sets of fans), smoke bombs, flares and an enormous police presence because as we only know to well - crime won't crack itself.

Things got a little bit lively outside the Haus Frein near to the stadium which is where the majority of the Bochum 'fans' had gathered to 'welcome' the away fans. We later heard that there had been multiple arrests but I didn't really see anything major. There is a video here which pretty much sums up what it was like outside the ground before and after.

Bochum is only ten minutes away by train from Dortmund and as such it didn't take too much effort to sell the 6,000 away tickets. Yet again our friends from The Unity helped us out by getting us ours for the princely sum of 12 Euros! The atmosphere inside the ground was incredible - loud as you like from both sets of fans.

As it was Dortmund played like a bunch of clowns - their very own Muppet Show. It was a disgrace - all that fantastic support behind them and they couldn't string two passes together. Bochums Greek star Theotanis Gekas scored a brace for the home side. Both goals resulted in three quarters of the stadium jumping up and down doing the Greek Zorba's Dance which was pumped out from the PA system. I was finding hard not to swing a fast shoe myself as it was really catchy and looked mightily impressive.

At the final whistle I looked around me and saw how much Borussia Dortmund meant to the members of The Unity. All the colour had been drained from their faces and they were angry. I am able to cast off the effects of defeat within 20 seconds these days but to those chaps it meant the world and their week had officially ended.

To the tune of more bottles being smashed around our ears we made our way back to the station and let the others get on with having a pop at each other. Once back in Dortmund we headed to our favourite brewery; the Hovels Hausbrauerei for some quality food washed down with the obligatory German beer(s) to die for.

After all that we were invited back to a bar in town where some of The Unity members had gathered to down their sorrows. After the initial disappointment had died down some hours later the songs started coming out again. As usual in Germany we ended up singing all night and generally having the time of our lives.

It was a struggle the next morning to get up but before we knew it we were on the train to Offenbach for our second match of the weekend. We got the train to Frankfurt which took just over an hour from Cologne and then a regional train from there to Offenbach which didn't take too long.

In saying it didn't take that long - the previous night had caught up with me and I was in dire need of an emergency No.2. Every second on the train (no toilets) seemed to take an age. There was nothing at the station for the ground either and after twenty painful minutes walking to the pub nearest to the ground, I burst in, pushed the local Kickers hooligans to one side and sat on the bog for five of the most enjoyable minutes known to mankind.

With that trauma behind me everything seemed rosy. The beer started to flow again both outside the ground in the aforementioned pub full of hoolies and inside in a wonderfully run clubhouse type bar resplendent with murals daubed all over the walls celebrating Kickers Offenbach's previous triumphs.

Our tickets had been sorted so we were in with the Offenbach ultras in Block 2B. A sea of red and white greeted the teams as they trotted out and to our right 1,500 or so Hansa Rostock fans were backing their team. Just to put that into perspective -this was a Division 2 game, it was a Sunday afternoon and Rostock is over seven hours away by train from Offenbach. German football fans eh!? You just have to love them!

The game itself was ok. It finished 1-1 and Hansa Rostock missed a penalty late on which added to the entertainment. The ground was magnificent if you are into your old skool stadiums. It might not look much to the Johnny-come-lately Premiership fan but for an old(ish) timer like myself it had everything. Terracing (tick), large floodlights (tick), ding dong atmosphere (tick), beers (tick) four banks of similar coloured seating (untick).

That was it then. A few cans of beer accompanied our train back to Cologne where upon on arrival we sat down and sunk a few more beers and patted ourselves on the back for another European Football Weekend with no bother. England and Germany may have their differences but here in the EFW office I can safely say 'WE HEART GERMANY'.

Emirates Cup

Hamburg 3-0 Juventus (03:08:08)
Arsenal 1-0 Real Madrid (03:08:08)


Our pre-match venue - The Gunners Pub.

Highbury - or what's left of it.

Who is it sponsored by again?

Welcome to the cheap seats.

What happens next?

Football is back.

Did it ever go away?

That's enough pictures of the ground - Ed.

Initially I was somewhat reluctant to post up reports of any games I attend here in England. However, with Arsenal arranging what was essentially a European Football Weekend in the space of four hours, ninety minutes from EFW headquarters – this seemed a fair opportunity to include one.

Any football fan will tell you that pre-season friendlies are about as turgid as it gets in terms of entertainment. It did not stop 60,000 punters turning up for this fun-fest though did it?

Unless you are an Arsenal fan (not guilty) or fancy seeing Bruce Springsteen play (marginally better option), then it’s actually quite difficult to get into the Emirates Stadium. That’s unless you want to sign up for some cock and bull membership scheme or gain entrance in the away end if a team does not take up their full allocation.

With this being a friendly….sorry the all important Emirates Cup, it was fairly easy to obtain tickets in advance. Big Deaks and I parted with £40 (plus booking fee) to witness these two kick abouts.

I’d been to Highbury a few times before but this was my debut at the Emirates. Jesus H.Christ – Emirates, Emirates and thrice Emirates – I’m going to bill them for advertising after this. We got the train from Brighton to London Victoria and then jumped on the tube to Finsbury Park. Deciding that a pre-match drink would be most welcome we popped into the Gunners Pub on Blackstock Road. This pub featured on the film Fever Pitch and is bedecked head to toe in Arsenal memorabilia. £3 a pint if you're interested and non-stop Arsenal songs pumping out at full volume. Big Deaks and I were the only ones not in replica shirts.

From there we made our way nostalgically past the old Highbury ground which is now being redeveloped and converted into apartments, in a project known as 'Highbury Square'. Probably the greatest day in the history of Highbury occurred in 1983 when Brighton beat Sheffield Wednesday in an FA Cup semi final. I got a bit misty eyed reminiscing as we strolled around there but then I'd just consumed some early morning beer.

From Highbury we then skipped merrily along past Arsenal tube station, over a bridge and literally a few hundred yards from the old ground to the Emirates Stadium. So what's it like!? Well, it's alright. It just about saves itself from looking like every other new stadium as the upper tier is contoured to leave an open space in the corners of the ground. The enormous roof is canted inwards and if you sit in the cheap seats at the top, it almost looks as if it's all indoors. I award them 5 FIFA stars for the seats though - they are padded and the size of a bus - marvellous.

Inside, Deaks and I cast aside the temptation of a dry, cardboard slice of pizza and a warm bottle of Carlsberg and settled on a £4 chicken balti pie. Pleasingly, I was able to extract a smidgen of moisture from it and as such I would only claim it to be 100% overpriced - not too bad.

So to the games then - first up was Hamburg v Juventus. Hamburg were 'up for the cup' as it were and at one stage I'm almost certain that one of the players had a bead of sweat that had to be mopped from his forehead. Juve on the other hand couldn't have given a monkeys about the match and were there just to pick up their considerable fee just for bothering to show up.

Hamburg had two players that I will be signing for Brighton next week. Bastian Reinhardt who is a 6ft 4 centre back. I think the cliche goes something along the lines of he was 'commanding at the back'. The other chap is the Egyptian striker Mohamed Zidan, not to be *snigger* confused with *ho ho* Zinedine Zidane - oh stop it you are killing me, bestow my aching sides. Anyway, he was fleet footed, agile and had lots of tricks in his locker - thanks for coming.

The Hamburg fans treated it like a cup final which is not a criticism of German fans – in fact exactly the reverse – they treat every game like a cup final which is why I’m so taken with them. As Ivica Olic smashed in two goals in injury time to effectively clinch the Emirates Cup for Hamburg their fans wheeled away in transports of delight across the stands - good luck to them.

Half an hour after Hamburg had easily seen off Juventus (like a pack of small puppies) it was time for Arsenal and Real Madrid to put on a show. Arsenal played the first team and had 60,000 fans to impress whereas Real Madrid - tired from collecting money from friendlies in all four corners of the globe - were poor. It was good to see a lad called Jack Wilshire come on for Arsenal - he is going to be a star and no mistake. He is English (!), only 16 and looks like some prospect.

To be honest the Arsenal fans got on my nerves. They booed Robben (for having the temerity of playing for Chelsea), Rudd Van Nistelbus (because they have heard of him), Heinze (played for Man Utd) and gave Adebayor some "jeers of disappointed love". Their one song was 'stand up if you hate Tottenham' - well done everybody. I also overheard lots of anti Ashley Cole banter (get over it lads) and spits of anger in the pub when Jermaine Jenas appeared on the box. Maybe I'm getting old but whatever happened to exerting a bit of energy in backing your own team?

Adebayor scored the winning goal by smashing a penalty into the roof of the net. Comically he then ran to the crowd and kissed the Arsenal badge twice. The fans who'd been booing him for wanting to move to Barca instantly changed their tune and suddenly he was king of The Arsenal again. He got a standing ovation when he became the 456th substitution of the day. Nowt so fickle as folk.

After the game and purely to let the crowd die down (honest) Deaks and I engaged in a pub crawl along the Blackstock Road back to Finsbury Park tube station. We ticked off the Arsenal Tavern, Kings Head, The Blackstock, The Twelve Pins and The Gas Light. Clearly after watching two games of football in a single afternoon we'd built up quite a thirst. A good day out then aside from some whinging, moaning, boring, nincompoop Arsenal fans.

So in the unlikely event that anyone is still reading this, what do you think about further reports from English matches I attend? Shall I start adding the odd one to this blog, shall I keep it strictly for European games or do you not give a rats arse either way? Does the backlash start here? Let me know by leaving a comment below or emailing me at dannylast@hotmail.com