Saturday, July 30, 2011

Hansa Rostock

DKB-Arena (Capacity: 29.000)

Hansa Rostock - VfL Bochum (2:2, 3:5p) (DFB Pokal, 1st Rd)
1:0 Janicke (36.), 1:1 Aydin (52.), 2:1 Kostal (55.), 2:2 Ginczek (72.)

Attendence: 12.700
Cost: 17 Euro
Programme: Kogge (1 Euro)

Lining up for ticktes
 
Not what you'd call an orderly line-up for food & drinks
 
The 2 inches of rain prior to the match wasn't enough
 
Kick-off time
 
Any sign of advertising was removed
 
The away fans
 
Time for a show of scarves
 
There was plenty of rain during the match!
 
Bochum celebrating the win after the penalty shootout
 
Plenty of merch available
 
Stadium looks good at night

CLUB HISTORY: (wiki)
F.C. Hansa Rostock is a German association football club based in the city of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. They have emerged as one of the most successful clubs from the former East Germany and have made several appearances in the 1. Bundesliga. Rostock currently compete in the 2. Bundesliga after finishing 2nd in the 3. Liga during the 2010–11 3rd Liga season, earning promotion.
The club was established on 1 November 1954 as the multi-sport Sportclub Empor Rostock. The football squad, however, couldn't be recruited from local Betriebssportgemeinschaften like the squad of the handball section, so a transfer of BSG Empor Lauter's squad from Lauter to Rostock was considered. The area around Lauter, near the Czech border, was well-represented in East German football by competitive sides including Wismut Aue, Fortschritt Meerane and Motor Zwickau, so politician Karl Mewis ordered the re-assignment of the footballers of Empor Lauter, over the futile protests of the team's local supporters, to Rostock. This was not an uncommon occurrence in East German football, as clubs were regularly re-named, re-structured, dismantled, or shuffled from city to city at the direction of well-placed communist officials.

The wholesale transfer of the Lauterers to Rostock part way through the 1954–55 season led to the disappearance of that association from play. A new club was formed in 1956 as BSG Motor Lauter and on 1 August 1990 it took up the tradition of the original side to play as Lauterer Sportverein Viktoria 1913.
Newly formed SC Empor Rostock took the place of the former Lauter-based club in first division play in November 1954. They finished second the next season, but in 1956 plunged to 14th place and were relegated. They quickly bounced back, rejoining the DDR-Oberliga in 1958, before going on to become a very competitive side with a series of three vice-championships to their credit from 1962–1964, as well as several appearances in the final of the FDGB Pokal. The re-organization of East German sports in 1965 led to the association's football department becoming independent as Fußball Club Hansa Rostock, which was designated as one of the country's 11 football clubs, "focus clubs" intended to groom talent for the development of a strong East German national side. The new club's name acknowledged Rostock's history as one of the major trading centres of northern Europe's Hanseatic League.

By the 1970s the club was consistently finishing in the lower half of the league table and was relegated to the second division DDR-Liga for a single season on three different occasions late in the decade. They returned to form in the 80s and as the football leagues of the two Germanys were merged in 1991 after the re-unification of the country, Rostock won its first national championship in the last ever season of East German football, played out in the transitional NOFV Oberliga Nordost. They would also capture the last ever East German Cup with a 1:0 win over FC Stahl Eisenhüttenstadt.

The club's timely success earned them a place in the Bundesliga alongside Dynamo Dresden when the league was briefly expanded from 18 to 20 teams for the 1991–92 season to accommodate two former East German teams. Hansa was unable to stay up and was relegated after falling just a single point shy of the club ahead of them. Three seasons of tempering in the 2. Bundesliga would return the club to the top flight for the 1995–96 season. In ten years spent in the Bundesliga the team's best results were a pair of sixth place finishes. In spite of frequent placings in the bottom half of the league table, they would persist as the only former East German side able to consistently challenge the well-heeled clubs of the west. On 1 December 2002 Rostock became the first club to field six foreigners from the same country in a Bundesliga match (Prica, Lantz, Wibran, Jakobsson, Arvidsson and Persson – all Swedes).

Rostock had a very poor first half in the 2004–05 season, earning only a single win and five draws in 17 matches. They were unable to recover despite the late arrival of Finnish striker Jari Litmanen and at season's end were relegated, leaving the former DDR without a club in the top flight for the first time since re-unification. Like other East German teams they were the victims of a harsh economic reality as the wealthier, well-established western sides bought up the most talented eastern footballers as their clubs struggled to survive financially: Rostock's Stefan Beinlich, Oliver Neuville and Victor Agali were just three players sent west for cash. After two years in the 2. Bundesliga the club returned to the top flight for the 2007–08 season, but was again relegated.

The club's poor form continued in 2009–10 and they finished third last. With this season, a new promotion/relegation format accompanied the introduction of the 3. Liga and Rostock found itself in a playoff versus the third place third division club FC Ingolstadt. Hansa lost both legs of the contest and was sent down to the 3. Liga, while Ingolstadt won promotion to the 2. Bundesliga alongside the top two third tier teams which advanced automatically by virtue of their finishes. Their stay in the 3. Liga, however, was a short one as they earned promotion back to the 2nd Bundesliga at the first attempt in 2010/11.

HONOURS:
East German champions: 1991
East German vice-champions: 1955, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1968
East German Cup: 1991
East German Cup finalists: 1955, 1957, 1960, 1967, 1987
2. Bundesliga champions: 1995
German Indoor champions: 1998
German Under 17 championship runners-up: 2005

STADIUM HISTORY: (wiki)
The DKB-Arena is located in the German city of Rostock in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Within Rostock, it is situated not far from the city centre in the Hansaviertel part of town near several hospitals of the University of Rostock and a small forest called Barnstorfer Wald'. Moreover, an icehockey stadium as well as several training pitches of Hansa Rostock are just adjacent to the Ostseestadion.
Rostock's DKB-Arena can be reached easily from all parts of Rostock by public transport, using buses (stop Ostseestadion) or the S-Bahn (stop Holbeinplatz). Public transport is free with a valid ticket for a home match three hours before and two hours after the actual match.
The stadium was newly built in 2001 on the site of a former stadium built in 1954. At the end of the 1960s a new 700 lux lighting system was added, which is still in use today.
The total capacity of 29,000 places includes 1000 "business seats" as well as a standing capacity of 9,000. During international matches the 9,000 standing places can be turned into 5,000 seats thus allowing for an audience of 25,000. Moreover, there are 26 business lounges for premium partners and sponsors.


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