Adventures in Football #110: Stadt Meerbusch (FC Buderich 02 e.V.) 

 

NOVEMBER 15, 2024 

 

FC BUDERICH vs. SSVG VELBERT (Oberliga Niederrhein) 

 

Hello and welcome to the fifth tier of the German football pyramid. After the Gladbach test match myself and my German cohort, the Big Dohmi, headed to Buderich for some regional German football.  

After making the smart play of parking on the road (the whole weekend was a triumph for road parking) we take a pleasant stroll to Buderich’s ground. Passing along the way, a cigarette vending machine. I’m told it needs your ID to work but why can’t a youngster just ‘borrow’ his dad’s ID and score some smokes?  

Next is some confusion over the name. I originally typed it exactly as it appears on Futbology but that’s “BZA Am Eisenbrand Platz 3” and frankly, I prefer Stadt Meerbusch. The whole sports complex here has five pitches. The old main pitch had a running track around it, and I could see the grandstand behind a hedge while we were walking to the pitch they played on. That’s #1. There was another pitch through some trees. That’s #2. We’re playing on #3, hence the name, which is plastic.  

And it looks like this. There’s a “kiosk” on one side, behind the dugouts. Kiosk is a great German word, which means you can buy stuff there. Sometimes a kiosk is a convenience store. In this case it’s bratwurst and beer (I sense a theme developing). All three new pitches are in use tonight. With a youth team on one and a five-a-side on another.  

This is the five-a-side, which provided tremendous entertainment at half time. Especially as one lad missed an open goal by hitting the post and the follow up hit the other post with the goal still open. Dohmi tells me he played here in a 5-1 loss to Buderich when he was a goalkeeper. I asked him if he was at fault for any of the goals and he said no. Well, that’s a goalkeeper for you. Another interesting note is that we’re on the flight path out of Dusseldorf airport and every few minutes a plane roars overhead. Some of them quite low down!  

The game starts very fast with the visitors, Velbert in white, cooking. They spend the whole game running ruthlessly at the backline and it pays off for them. Yasin Kaya opens the scoring with a curling shot after breaking through the defence with a mazy run. 17’ played. 0-1. It looks like it’ll be a long night for Buderich after a belting shot from the edge of the box makes the corner of the net. Andri Buzolli. 20’ 0-2. The threatened deluge of goals never quite arrives, and Velbert miss chance after chance.  

The second half continued as the first half ended with continued running at the back line from Velbert. This is sixth vs fourth in the table but a huge mismatch on the field of play. A few minutes played in the second half and another tidy move and finish sees David Glavas get in on the scoring. 0-3. An interesting fact about my groundhopping with Dohmi is we see at least four goals every game. One away from the quota and it arrives on 55’. Another good move is finished by former Oberhausen midfielder Manuel Schiebener across the keeper. 0-4. Quota achieved. 

 

The misery doens’t end there for Buderich as Tristan Duschke converts with a near post header from a corner. 0-5. Only 63’ played. In all honesty, it could have been more. Velbert missed some great chances to add to their tally. On 72’ Daud Gergery gives Buderich some hope by scoring. 1-5. In my notes it reads “the comeback is on”. Buderich play quite well in the remaining 18’ minutes and are unlucky to not score again. However, Velbert were the better team overall by a country fucking mile.  

 

FINAL SCORE: BUDERICH 1 VELBERT 5  

 

As we’re walking back to the car Dohmi reminisces about his 5-1 defeat here. “I have had my revenge”. Let’s go to the scores! 

 

ATMOSPHERE 

In a word, no. There wasn’t one. It’s the kind of game where play is interrupted by an errant pass on another pitch making it onto the field of play. Most people around the pitch are barely paying attention. * 

 

COST 

Another ten Euros here and considering how good the game was, it’s a bargain. Physical ticket too! **** 

 

QUALITY 

The game of the weekend, courtesy of exceptional attacking play from Velbert. It’s a shame Buderich didn’t turn up until late in the day. If they’d consistently played as well as they did in the last 15, we might have had an end-to-end corker. Even so, Velbert were so good it is worth a four-star rating. **** 

 

EASE OF ACCESS 

In the middle of nowhere, just off a suburb of Buderich, it’s not the most fan friendly destination. The road down to the ground was positively littered with parked cars. ** 

 

MISC 

We lose a point for the plastic pitch, and I can’t help wonder what the original Buderich pitch (with the running track) looked like. I was greatly entertained by watching two games at once. **½  

 

OVERALL: 13.5  

The score is bolstered by a fine game of football. Buderich won’t make your list of ‘grounds to go to’ before you die or anything. The plastic pitch set up reminded me of dozens of non-league English grounds that have gone the same way with multiple pitches. It was only missing the black cage of doom that you get in the UK. That all said, this was a better game of football than I’ve ever seen at the same level in UK football.