Ground: Commerzbank Arena (Waldstadion)

Visits: 1

Date: 13th June 2006

Match: South Korea - Togo  2-1  (FIFA World Cup 2006)

Attendance: 48 000

 

My third match of this tournamant was in Frankfurt meaning after two days in Leipzig it was time for another train journey. An English friend of mine, Neil, had set up camp in Erfurt and when I had a spare ticket for Korea-Togo I offered it to him. Erfurt was on the route from Leipzig to Frankfurt and shortly after leaving Leipzig I met up with Neil at Erfurt station. It was a bit strange for me to sit to the left and not be driving but I guess it was even more strange for Neil to drive on the right side. Anyway, after a couple of hours we were in Frankfurt where we parked at a temporary parking place next to the motorway. The stadium in Frankfurt used to be called Waldstadion (Wald=Forest) and after walking through a wooden area to the ground I knew where the name came from. Waldstadion was used for matches in the 1974 World Cup as well but with running tracks it was far from an ideal football stadium. It was therefore decided the ageing stadium had to be rebuilt and Waldstadion was completely rebuilt for the 2006 World Cup. Nowdays it is a modern stadium with an all-seated capacity of 48 000 (52 000 for domestic matches). As we approached the stadium I was searched and I lost contact with Neil for a while. When I passed the ticket control I discovered him again. He was accompanied by a guard and lead away from the stadium. Neil went to 10 matches in this World Cup and for 9 of them he had a ticket with his name on it. He was not ID-checked at either game. This was the only game with another name on the ticket and of course they checked his ID for this one. I had a bad concious for getting him into trouble but 15 minutes before kick-off he showed up, to me huge relief. The organisers had checked his ID towards the hooligan register and when they found out he wasn´t on it they simply made him a new ticket, which actually was against their own guidelines. Well done to the German organisers!

The game itself was quite good. South Korea had a massive support from their very vocal supporters and won the game by 2-1. When Neil dropped me off at the airport, 30 minutes after the final whistle (German organisation!), I wished him and England good luck for the rest of the tournament (apart from the Sweden game of course). I could look back on some very memorable days in Germany myself, 3 World Cup matches in four days, and was looking forward to my return later in the tournament.

 

WALDstadion

 

Koreans outside the ground

 

West Stand

 

Kick-off

 

National anthems

 

Koreans celebrating

 

Korea, Korea