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Wednesday 3 July 2024
Played at Stadion Ratingen
Ground Tick #493
German Beer Ticks #125
Fuck Schalke. For years, some of the Carrier Bag Firm have had a meme going about the German football team Schalke. When we discuss German football, particularly Bundesliga 2. football (sniggering), and someone mentions Schalke. One or other responds with…
“Fuck Schalke”
Bizarre. We don't even remember where the ritual comes from. We remember a boisterous conversation with some Schalke fans in Buer the day England got knocked out of the 2006 World Cup. They'd been in the bar all night, and we rocked up the next morning. Maybe we took against them then.
We know Schalke are a famous, old, and previously successful club who eventually over reached. And have fallen on hard times recently. Maybe we uncharitably and ungraciously took against them because of that..
There are some fellas on the Sheffield United Sensible Beer Bus who travel to support arch Schalke rivals Borussia Dortmund. Maybe we took against Schalke in solidarity. We don't know. Anyway.
“Fuck Schalke”
I have to admit, I'm very conflicted on that now. On my trip to the EUROs, I've now spent six nights on the eleventh floor of the hotel which overlooks the Schalke complex. Academy and community kids games all the time. The Schalke first team kicking up their pre season conditioning. And historic parts of the old Parkstadion left in place and still used for reserves and age group games.
I quite like the South Yorkshireesque mixture of greenery and trees and industrial landscape of that part of Germany. Some of that industrial landscape now redundant. But preserved in a nod to the importance of this part of the world in days gone. Some of that industrial landscape clearly flourishing. With that joyously modern phenomenon of - even though I've read the sign on the side, I've no fucking idea what they're making in there.
People in Gelsenkirchen. Schalke fans. Just trying to get by and live their lives. Still…
“Fuck Schalke. Just maybe not as hard as before.”
The Carrier Bag Firm are being very opportunistic in finding these pre season games and ground ticks. What is becoming apparent in this emerging to us German model is - one team play another on someone else's ground.
This go around, it's SSVg Velbert. Who were relegated from Tier 4 Regionalliga West last season. Playing FC Schalke 04. Who finished mid table in Bundesliga 2. last season. Played at Stadion Ratingen. My 493rd Ground Tick. Home of Ratingen 04/19. They play in the Tier 5 Oberliga Niederrhein. Four v Two @ Five.
There was Sausage. There was Beer. That Beer was a Tick. Schalke? What's not to like?
Privatbrauerei Jacob Stauder, Stauder Pils on Keg at 4.8%
On our trip out to Ratingen, we'd been in;
Ratinger Brauhaus
Bahnstraße 15, 40878 Ratingen
That opened at 4pm. But, it was one of those places which left you thinking;
“Why the fuck are you waiting until four?”
They weren't exactly queuing to get in. But, they were timing their runs to PERFECTION. Must have been a dozen in at 4:03pm. We were clearly sitting (at the bar) in someone's seats. When we left, an elderly couple had shuffled over to the stools we left before we got to the door.
Ratinger Brauhaus, Ratinger Alt at 4.8%
A lovely game. Played at pace. With some intensity. New signing Moussa Sylla scored 17 minutes into his debut, having come on a HT. He bagged another four minutes later. Schalke cruised it.
“Fuck ‘em”
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