On my Bundesliga travels these past few weeks while jostling at railway station newsagents with Weihnachtsmarktbesucher (Christmas market visitors), I kept catching sight of a particular Sonderheft, a special edition of the highly regarded football magazine, Kicker.
This one is entitled “50 Jahre 2. Bundesliga,” 50 years of the German second division, and the subheadline made me smile: “The name, the sliding tackles. This league has always had something about it and today it’s booming like never before.”
Of course I picked it up and it has become comforting bedtime reading in recent weeks.
Rights-holding broadcasters in Germany have often described recent 2. Bundesliga campaigns as die beste 2. Liga aller Zeiten, the best second division of all time, and I don’t think they’re far wrong.
What has given an already competitive, raw, passionate division an extra spicy kick has been the regular presence of huge Traditionsvereine, clubs with tradition at their very core. Think former European Cup winners Hamburger SV, now stuck in the 2. Bundesliga for a seventh successive year, as well as (in no particular order) Schalke, Nürnberg, Hertha Berlin, Kaiserslautern, Hannover and Fortuna Düsseldorf. This season, original Bundesliga champions Cologne, after the club’s seventh Abstieg (demotion), joined the throng.
More on Cologne to come as they represent a personal Herzensangelegenheit (matter of the heart), and the weekend exploits of Effzeh serve to underscore just how wonderfully madcap the 2. Bundesliga is.
But the bigger point is the 2. Bundesliga’s average attendances last term outdid those of LaLiga in Spain, for example. And why do fans go? Because they feel themselves to be a wider extension of true community. You don’t decide to attend a 2. Bundesliga game to see a single star player. The star is the club, the stadium, the city, the history, the vibe, the feeling of being part of something much bigger than you in good times as well as bad.
Schalke, the club from Gelsenkirchen in the former coal and steel heartlands of Germany, ranked ninth in average attendance for all of Europe last term, despite their return to the Unterhaus (lower house) of German football. This season, die Königsblauen (the Royal Blues) are just four points clear of the relegation zone, but good luck getting a ticket. Once again, just under 62,000 pour in for every home game at the Veltins-Arena.
For anyone who does the bidding of self-interested billionaires and for some bizarre reason wants to do away with promotion and relegation in favour of an American-style franchise system (I don’t actually know anyone of this view here in Germany though), this must make eye-watering reading. Attendances of 56,000 in Hamburg, 50,000 in Cologne, 48,000 at the vast Berliner Olympiastadion and 46,000 in Kaiserslautern — which is not in itself a massive urban area — all to watch second-division football.
The next time someone tells you with confidence that no second tier in world football can light a candle to the Championship in England, give them a friendly reminder about the 2. Bundesliga.
A few months ago, an acquaintance at a Premier League club called me to ask for advice about potentially sending an academy player on loan to Germany, and he couldn’t quite comprehend that crowds were as large as they are for the 2. Bundesliga. He admitted he previously thought nothing could be bigger or more pressure packed than the Championship in terms of second tiers.
The other appealing factor is that virtually every game is played auf Augenhöhe (on an even basis.) Tradition and huge supports don’t confer an unassailable advantage on the best-followed clubs. In the past two years alone, unfashionable Heidenheim and Holstein Kiel — both with small stadia of around 15,000 or so — beat the Traditionsvereine to the punch, thanks to clever squad building and coaching plus perhaps a more nimble decision-making process. Sometimes, it is argued, the sheer size and unwieldy nature of Hamburg, Schalke & Co. can be a hindrance given all the committees who have to agree before anything meaningful gets done.
So predicting the outcome of matches in the 2. Bundesliga is not to be recommended.
This brings us to Cologne, whose home game against Nürnberg I attended on Sunday. At the start of Matchday 16, die Geissböcke (the Billy Goats) were in sixth place, but by the time kickoff rolled around had dropped down to eighth.
Yet remarkably, Cologne, the preseason favourites of many to win the 2. Bundesliga, had the chance to jump all the way up to top spot. That’s how tight it was and seemingly always is.
As you may have guessed, I am no stranger to Cologne games. There is a personal connection, I concede, but I was determined to soak it all again: from the Karneval oldies but goodies played over the PA before the game, to the introduction of real life Geissbock mascot, Hennes IX.
Cologne could be competing in the fourth or fifth tier and it would still feel special. Stadium announcer Michael Trippel reminds everyone in his clipped tone that we’re “in der schönsten Stadt Deutschlands” (in the most beautiful city in Germany) and all is right with the world as the evocative “Mer stonn zo dir” (“we stand with you”) is sung with gusto as the teams walk out.
I chose a good day to be in Müngersdorf as Cologne, with their Gegenpressing approach under Austrian coach Gerhard Struber, got it spot on.
Damion Downs, a young German who also technically qualifies for the United States, gave Effzeh a sixth-minute lead with a meandering run and powerful shot, before being brought down by Ondrej Karafiat inside the box 10 minutes later. Florian Kainz converted and “Denn wenn et Trömmelche jeht,” the Cologne Torhymne (goal anthem), with its distinctive Kölsch sound, rang gloriously around Müngersdorf for a second time.
The impressive Downs was also the architect of Denis Huseinbasic‘s third goal, a well-timed dash and finish through the middle.
Cologne had not only built up a sizeable half-time lead, but had in fact jumped into first place on the Blitztabelle (live table). However, this being the 2. Bundesliga, not everything went completely according to plan.
Nürnberg bit back after the break thanks to a Flatterball (a ball moving in the air) from Jens Castrop deceiving keeper Marvin Schwäbe.
It didn’t impact the outcome of the game, but at around the same time, news came through that Elversberg had forged ahead in Braunschweig and went on to record a 3-0 win. Little Elversberg from the Saarland, and not Cologne, therefore topped this madcap division at the end of Sunday business.
The fact is “business” is probably the wrong word. It doesn’t feel like business because fans still stand at the hub of what makes the 2. Bundesliga tick. Without them, there would be no heart or soul, just an event missing context. Fans are active participants in the drama, not customers filling in two hours of their lives and dancing to the tune of the wealthy and their whims.
All game long, the Cologne fans in the Südkurve and their counterparts in the visiting Nürnberger-Block generated booming noise but never insulted each other, knowing they are not the respective enemy, but similar members of society who happen to follow a different club.
Frequently, as a commentator on German football, I get asked on social media how one gets tickets to games. The answer is, it’s far from straightforward. Memberships and season ticket bases remain colossal, and tickets are kept at a fair price so as to preserve the spirit of community intrinic to football up and down the Bundesrepublik.
All I can say is, if you are planning a German football trip, try as hard as you can to attend a home match involving one of the many 2. Bundesliga Traditionsvereine. You’ll come out of it better versed in why a German football atmosphere is distinct from the norms in other countries. Why political issues — local, national, international — are not to be shunned.
Also, ESPN+ offers viewers two games from the 2. Liga every week, which is two more than many rights-holding broadcasters worldwide show.
Die beste 2. Liga Europas (the best second division in Europe) is not stretching things if we’re looking for a new headline description for a league that personifies on-pitch chaos.