With the drama of seeing an incredible three red card's the previous evening at Unterhaching we were hoping a trip to Bundesliga bottom side Augsburg was going to produce as much excitement given that giants Borussia Dortmund were coming to town. It's not been the best of seasons thus far for Augsburg, bottom of the league with just six points in comparison to Borussia Dortmund currently fourth and enjoying trips to the Bernabeu.
We hopped onto the RE-Bahn at Munich central which amusingly was named the 'Fugger express' after that little beauty raised a titter we soon learned that Augsburg is famous for the 'Fugger' family, a prominent group of bankers within Germany. Furthermore the team's nickname is 'Fuggerstadters' (fugger-towners) which lead me to wonder if the youth team would be named 'little fuggers'.
Augsburg is relatively close to Munich and after only 40 minutes on the train we arrived in the central station, after a walk to town it became clear that money has indeed been spent wisely in Augsburg with a delightful town square, upmarket shops and a first-rate market. Pockets of yellow and black began to filter into the town as the Borussia fan's made themselves heard in the town square with rendition's of their classic terrace chants.
Catching the tram up to the SGL Arena was easy enough with fan's in good spirits and mixing without any problems at all. The stadium is situated to the south of the city right beside the terminus of the tram which makes arriving and leaving easy enough. After a nosey in the club shop and purchasing a 'north stand' scarf we made our way to the entrance, which was to be an eventful experience.
At nearly every german ground we have visited there have been stewards searching supporters before entry, given that this was a high profile game with a near sell-out crowd made the decision to have two male stewards and one female steward at each of the four corners of the ground a rather strange one. Augsburg could do with re-thinking this given that it took the best part of an hour to get in.
Once inside the ground we were met with more frustration as I went to purchase a beer only to be told 'nein zir, you must hev' 'fen-card' bloody fan cards! Whoever thought up this idea needs sitting down and slapping. If you are unfamiliar with a fan-card, here's the general idea, instead of paying money like a normal person and taking all of two seconds to be handed your product and change, where applicable, you have to queue up to purchase a credit card which you give your money to the vendor for anyway to gain a balance which you then have to queue up again for to get your beer/bratwurst/pretzel by using this card. To make it even more inconvenient you have to recoup unused money after the game, supposedly its a faster way of doing things, I happen to disagree.
Frustration soon lifted as we took our place on the terrace in the ultra's block M. A truly amazing sight as the stand was jam-packed with the fugger army all in fine voice. The stadium is of similar design to the Richoh Arena in Coventry in its steepness of stands and enclosed feel, just minus the awful 'Richoh' wall put there for no apparent reason. The Unity of Dortmund were perched in the far corner and making a good old racket as the team's came out.
Two guy's at the front of the stand conducted the front while two further up did the rest which produced a deafening atmosphere. Augsburg began well testing out the reflexes of Roman Weidenfeller in the Dortmund net and putting together some passing moves not associated with basement sides. All that soon changed as Dortmund won a free kick on the edge of the area and despite the tight angle, Marco Reus went for the far post, found it and put Dortmund 1-0 up.
Augsburg to their credit kept pressing and created numerous chances that a decent centre-forward would have buried yet striker Torsten Oehl was having a day to forget. Robert Lewandowski had been relatively quiet up to now until early into the second half the big polish striker found himself in on goal after a flick-on from Reus and cooly finished under 'keeper Simon Jentszch, further mistakes in the Augsburg defence let Blaczykowski in but his shot was well saved by Jentszch only to fall to Lewandowski to seal the game for Dortmund.
Just as all hope was fading for Augsburg a cross from the left found the head of substitute Sascha Molders which gave the loudest cheer of the day around the ground, scant conciliation for the home side who went down to yet another defeat.
Getting away from the ground was easy enough and we made our way back to Munich. In summary Augsburg is very much a town worth taking time to visit and although they might be struggling this season this has done little to dampen the spirits of the supporters, plus you will most likely pay half the price you would at Bayern Munich.
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