Nürnberg 2-1 Borussia Mönchengladbach
Easy Credit Stadium (Att 37,793)
3 February 2013
Some things you can't explain, they just work
The Easy Credit Stadium (known locally as the Max-Morlock-Stadion), is the 48k home of 1FC Nürnberg. It hosted 5 games of the World Cup in 2006, 6 in 1972 and the 1967 European Cup Winners Cup Final. To be honest, prior to 2006, I knew nothing about the stadium and I must admit to being very surprised to see pictures of it in a WC brochure. After all, there are surely better in Germany that weren't chosen? It is an odd shape, not very big and has the dreaded running track.
Well, as I found out, looks can be deceiving. The unique octagonal shape and the distance the stands stand from the pitch means that it actually holds a lot more than it looks, particularly from the outside. And to be honest, from the top tier at least, it works. Sure the players entrance to the pitch is a little odd, the pitch has had to be lowered over a meter to improve the view at pitch level and the facilites provide an indication as to the age of the place (it was originally built in 1928), but, despite the running track, it is definately a football stadium. And certainly not a boring bowl! Miss NAC's viiew...it looks like a big saucer!!
The lower tier of the home north end and half the lower away south end are rail seats, while the rest of the stadium has well spaced traditional seats. The roof comprises two sections, the first extending from the back of the stand forward and upwards for about 10m, the second stretching from this section downwards towards the pitch covering all seats. I assume this was built in two phases. However, there is one small problem, the two sections don't meet which means it acts as a wind funnel down onto the seats below. And boy did the north wind blow!!!
One note on the parking. We parked at the conference centre (I think this is primarily for away fans...costs 3 Euro) an easy 5 mins walk to the south end where we had tickets. After the game we were out of the car park and on the Autobahn without barely touching the brakes. Absolute quality!
As for the game, well 2-0 down at half time the Borussia fans could console themselves in the fact it wasn't more, much more. I'm not sure what was going one, but they simply couldn't defend corners from their left. A penalty after 4 mins came from one such corners and two subsequent ones caused total panic in the vistor's defence. However, after the break they made a game of it, scored a teriffic goal (which at least meant we could see how many away fans there were in the home end) and set up a far more exciting end to the game than we thought we would have had at half time.
Well, as I found out, looks can be deceiving. The unique octagonal shape and the distance the stands stand from the pitch means that it actually holds a lot more than it looks, particularly from the outside. And to be honest, from the top tier at least, it works. Sure the players entrance to the pitch is a little odd, the pitch has had to be lowered over a meter to improve the view at pitch level and the facilites provide an indication as to the age of the place (it was originally built in 1928), but, despite the running track, it is definately a football stadium. And certainly not a boring bowl! Miss NAC's viiew...it looks like a big saucer!!
The lower tier of the home north end and half the lower away south end are rail seats, while the rest of the stadium has well spaced traditional seats. The roof comprises two sections, the first extending from the back of the stand forward and upwards for about 10m, the second stretching from this section downwards towards the pitch covering all seats. I assume this was built in two phases. However, there is one small problem, the two sections don't meet which means it acts as a wind funnel down onto the seats below. And boy did the north wind blow!!!
One note on the parking. We parked at the conference centre (I think this is primarily for away fans...costs 3 Euro) an easy 5 mins walk to the south end where we had tickets. After the game we were out of the car park and on the Autobahn without barely touching the brakes. Absolute quality!
As for the game, well 2-0 down at half time the Borussia fans could console themselves in the fact it wasn't more, much more. I'm not sure what was going one, but they simply couldn't defend corners from their left. A penalty after 4 mins came from one such corners and two subsequent ones caused total panic in the vistor's defence. However, after the break they made a game of it, scored a teriffic goal (which at least meant we could see how many away fans there were in the home end) and set up a far more exciting end to the game than we thought we would have had at half time.