Kiev’s Republican Stadium

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Of the five different arenas used in conjunction with the football tournament of the Games of the XXII Olympiad hosted by Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the impressive REPUBLICAN STADIUM in the Ukrainian S.S.R.’s capital city of KIEV was, beyond all comparison, the sporting venue of the 1980 Summer Olympics that had undergone the most numerous changes to its name over the course of its history.
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For the no fewer than the seventh time since the RED STADIUM of TROTSKY first opened fifty-seven years earlier, the football field situated on the slopes of the Cherepanov Hill in the Ukrainian capital city of KIEV was re-christened to celebrate the arrival of the Summer Olympic Games in 1980. The moniker “Central Stadium”, which had been in use since 1962, was jettisoned by the powers that be in favor of a return to traditional roots. The site had first been designated as the REPUBLICAN STADIUM in 1936, the very same year that saw local tenant Dynamo Kiev finish second in the first-ever all-U.S.S.R. league football championship.

Work on increasing the capacity to 50,000 spectators at the ground was begun in the late 1930s and, in 1941, the facility was finished and now re-titled the Republican Stadium of Khrushchev in honor of the contemporary leader of the Ukrainian communist party (Nikita) who would, one day, become the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as well as Premier of the entire U.S.S.R., itself. But not before the Great Patriotic War and the Nazi occupation both had arrived in the summer of 1941, after which time the home field of Dynamo Kiev was abruptly re-named the All-Ukrainian Stadium. Of course, that would be rescinded in early 1944 after victory was achieved on the battlefield the previous fall.

Almost needless to say, the liberated Republican Stadium of Khrushchev had suffered extensive damage during the Second World War and required major repair work, which would come in the years to follow.

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The main facade of the REPLUBLICAN STADIUM OF KHRUSHCHEV was completed in 1954, as were the iconic columns (not pictured here) in the courtyard outside the football ground of Dynamo Kiev (white shirts, dark shorts running out onto the pitch); a more modernized scoreboard, featuring a contemporary-styled stadium clock and electric lights, would not arrive for another two years.
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A shot of what was then still known as the REPUBLICAN STADIUM of KHRUSHCHEV in Kiev taken in 1961 — the same year that the Ukrainian capital city club, DYNAMO KIEV, won the very first of what would ultimately be a total of 13 league championships in the U.S.S.R.’s top flight.
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The CENTRAL STADIUM of KIEV underwent a major renovation in 1967 with the addition of a second tier and, in doing so, increased the arena’s capacity to an official figure of 100,000 spectators; this development left the home ground of Dynamo Kiev in the Ukrainian capital city amongst the largest football stadiums in all Europe — just behind the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium in Moscow while level with Leipzig’s humongous Zentralstadion in the Deutsche Demokratische Republik.
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Kiev became only the third city (after Leningrad and Tbilisi) in the U.S.S.R., up to that point in history, other than Moscow to ever host the national team of the Soviet Union when the Central Stadium staged its first full international match in mid-October of 1969. A noteworthy crowd of 71,115 spectators dutifully turned out to see the home side dispatch visiting Turkey 3-0 in a World Cup qualifying match, then. After Dynamo Kiev boss VALERY LOBANOVSKY was appointed trainer of the national team in the mid-1970s, the U.S.S.R. hosted all four of its qualification matches for the 1976 UEFA European Championships at the Central Stadium in Kiev.

Prior to the 1980 Summer Olympic Games, the record attendance of for a Soviet Union national team match at the Central Stadium in the Ukranian capital city had been the total of 84,480 speactators who saw the U.S.S.R., on the strength of goals from Dynamo Kiev players OLEG BLOKHIN and VIKTOR KOLOTOV, upend the incoming Republic of Ireland 2-1 in a European Championships qualifier in May of 1975.

In 1977, the Central Stadium was actually closed for a spell as the facility underwent yet another major renovation, this time in advance of the Summer Olympic Games to be held in the Soviet Union. The drainage system for the field playing surface was completely overhauled and a new pitch laid while four new lightning poles, each 82 meters high, were installed, as well. In 1980, the Central Stadium name was shelved in Kiev and subsequently replaced with the historical “Republican Stadium” label.

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A shot taken during the 1980 Summer Olympic Games hosted by the U.S.S.R. shows the recently-installed, towering light fixtures as well as the iconic columns that great visitors to the massive REPUBLICAN STADIUM in the Ukrainian capital city of Kiev; the Olympic football program at the Republican Stadium included six round-robin matches (three games each in Groups C and D) as well as one quarterfinal contest (featuring the defending Olympic gold medalists from East Germany).

Moscow’s Dynamo Stadium

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The U.S.S.R.’s capital of MOSCOW was, itself, home to no fewer than five different football clubs who were all competing in the Soviet first division (comprised of eighteen teams) when the Summer Olympic Games arrived in the middle of the 1980 domestic season. Four of these five clubs (CSKA, Dynamo, Lokomotiv, Spartak and Torpedo) all had, by the 1960s, ground to call their very own within the city’s limits, as well. None of these four stadia, though, could even begin to compare in terms of spectator capacity with the massive Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium, which never had an official club team tenant but often hosted important intra-city derbies as well as many European matches involving the Moscow city club sides.

On the other hand, not even the great national stadium on the banks of the Moskva River could stack up with the historical DYNAMO STADIUM in Moscow’s Petrovsky Park for its length of service, though.

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The venerable Dynamo Stadium had been built in 1928 to serve as the home of the team with direct ties to what is respected as the very first football club in Russian history. The descendent of Morozovtsi Orekhovo-Zuevo Moskva, which was originally founded as a factory club in 1887, was quickly taken over by the fledgling Soviet Ministry of the Interior after the Russian Revolution broke out three decades later. DYNAMO MOSCOW, who quickly became despised by other intra-city rivals as a result of their direct association with the notorious Chekha secret police, later went on to win the inaugural all-U.S.S.R. domestic championship in 1936 and reclaimed that honor the next year, as well.

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A photo of the famous bronze statue of legendary Soviet footballer LEV YASIN, the highly-acclaimed Dynamo Moscow goalkeeper who won the 1956 Olympic gold medal and the 1960 UEFA European Championships title with the U.S.S.R. national team, outside the Dynamo Stadium in Petrovsky Park.
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It was Dynamo Stadium that actually was the site of the very first post-Stalin international football match ever hosted by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics when Sweden came to visit the capital city in early September of 1954. NIKITA SIMONYAN of hometown Spartak Moscow, who later would be let go as trainer of the national team roughly a year ahead of the 1980 Summer Olympic Games, scored the very first goal for the U.S.S.R. at the Dynamo Stadium, then, as the Soviets romped to an easy 7-0 triumph over their Scandanavian guests. As would be the case for the national side’s first three matches in Petrovsky Park, the Dynamo Stadium was packed to the maximum of 54,000 spectators for the landmark meeting with the Swedes.

Six of the U.S.S.R. national team’s seven home matches at the Dynamo Stadium, the last of these being the Soviets’ 5-0 shutout of Israel in July of 1956, had drawn the capacity crowd before the Lenin Stadium was opened in another part of Moscow at the end of September later that year.

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Like all the different facilities in the Soviet Union that were used in conjunction with the 1980 Summer Games, the Dynamo Stadium underwent a thorough renovation in advance. By now officially known as the Grand Arena of the Dynamo Central Stadium as other sports installations had been added to the site, the 52-year-old venue — which saw its official capacity shrink slightly to 50,000 spectators in order to accomodate additional VIP boxes — hosted six different matches during the Olympic football tournament. The program in Petrovsky Park included four round-robin contests as well as one quarterfinal (which featured the U.S.S.R.) and one semifinal match, each.

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The venerable Dynamo Stadium was closed permanently for the purposes of demolition in 2008 to make way for the currently-planned VTB Arena, which is scheduled to be finished in conjunction with the occasion of Russia hosting the final tournament of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Grand Arena Of The Central Lenin Stadium At The Luzhniki Olympic Sports Complex

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Although five different stadiums in the whole of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics would host football matches during the 1980 Summer Olympic Games, there could never be any doubt as to which one would host the tournament final — as a matter of fact, as the very name of the facility, itself, would elaborately suggest, the massive GRAND ARENA of the CENTRAL LENIN STADIUM at the centralized LUZHNIKI OLYMPIC COMPLEX in the capital city of MOSCOW was built with the very purpose of a major global athletic competition specifically in mind.

The Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium had been, by the time of the Moscow Summer Games, expanded to accomodate an official capacity crowd of 103,000 seated spectators — this increase pushed the Lenin Stadium past the German Democratic Republic’s enormous Zentralstadion in Leipzig, which had actually opened in the exact same year as the Lenin Stadium in 1956, for the honor of largest football ground in all of Europe.

The Luzhniki Olympic Complex, itself, was among the largest of its kind in all the world. According to THE GREAT SOVIET ENCYCLOPEDIA (1979), this de facto athletic city included roughly 140 separate facilities for the pursuit of a multitude of sports. In addition to the the humongous Grand Arena, itself, the facility in the Khamovniki district of Moscow also featured the famed Palace of Sport ice hockey arena with its capacity for 13,700 spectators as well as the Olympic Pool of the Central Lenin Stadium, which seated another 10,500 people.

And then, of course, there was the Minor Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium (8,700 capacity) and the tiny Druzhba Mutlipurpose Arena (3,500 capacity) …

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A panoramic shot of the distinctive Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium during the Opening Ceremony of the Games of the XXII Olympiad, which was held in the crown jewel of the extraordinary Luzhniki complex on the banks of the Moskva River in the Soviet capital city on July 19, 1980.
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The national team of the SOVIET UNION made its international debut at the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium in front of a reported audience of 102,000 spectators on September 23, 1956. The opponent for this historic match in the U.S.S.R. happened to be none other than HUNGARY, the defending gold medalist from the 1952 Summer Olympic Games and runner-up to champion West Germany at the 1954 FIFA World Cup. The Magic Magyars would prevail over the Soviets 1-0 in Moscow thanks to a goal by ZOLTAN CZIBOR but, a month later, the Hungarian Revolution suddenly errupted and that result would eventually see the Hungary footballers withdraw from the approaching 1956 Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia.

Despite the inaugural setback, the Soviet national team would continue to stage virtually all of its home matches in the spacious confines of the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium until the mid-1970s. And this scenic riverside location soon became a nightmare for incoming visitors to Moscow, particularly in FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championships qualification contests. In fact, the U.S.S.R. won 19 consecutive qualifiers at the Lenin Stadium on the trot until Chile finally posted a fateful draw in late September, 1973.

The Soviet Union began holding internationals in other places, most notably the Republican Stadium in the Ukranian city of Kiev, following the ’74 World Cup debacle. Only after experienced Spartak Moscow boss KONSTANTIN BESKOV was re-appointed as the national team trainer did the Soviets return to the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium in earnest. Nevertheless, the unbeaten streak in tournament play for the U.S.S.R. national team at the impressive site along the Moskva River near the so-called Luzhnetskaya Embankment was still intact when the Games of the XXII Olympiad arrived in the summer of 1980.

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An aerial photograph of the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium at the Luzhniki Olympic Complex in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics’ capital city of Moscow that was obviously taken in the era of the 1950s or not long afterwards, certainly well before the floodlights were first installed in the 1960s.

Leipzig’s Red Bull Arena

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If anyone out there reading this article knows of any other athletic facility anywhere else in the world where a football stadium which was constructed, quite literally, right inside of another, larger football stadium — then by all means, please feel free to name the club and country in the comments section below because this blog, for one, and perhaps a few of the other readers, as well, would like to be made aware of that!

In any case, the relatively new RED BULL ARENA, which sets beautifully right inside the old ZENTRALSTADION at the LEIPZIG SPORTFORUM along the picturesque Elsterbrecken in the central eastern German state of Saxony, is certainly one of a kind as far as football stadia in Deutschland go.

Although the old Zentralstadion was the ‘big match’ home for the national team during the time of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, the first football stadium in all of Europe to have the capacity for 100,000 spectators never really did have a tenant in terms of a club team. East German Oberliga club FC Lokomotive Leipzig did stage many big matches at the Zentralstadion against teams such as Benfica Libson (Portugal), Fortuna Duesseldorf (West Germany), FC Girondins Bordeaux (France) and SSC Napoli (Italy) while drawing crowds in the neighborhood of 80,000 over the years. And the re-named Vfb Leipzig had a few seasons in the mid-1990s at the Zentralstadion due to work being done at their traditional home ground, the Bruno Plache Stadium, but eventually the draining cost of maintaining the massive Sport Forum complex in Leipzig became too much of a financial burden for local municipal officials.

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Bundesliga club SCHALKE 04 GELSENKIRCHEN (blue shirts, blue shorts) defend against a set piece taken by host RASEN BALLSPORT LEIPZIG (white shirt, red shorts) during a pre-season Testspiel played at the Red Bull Arena in Leipzig on July 24, 2010.
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Ultimately, it was decided by city officials to build a much-smaller, football-only arena at the site of the old Zentralstadion. The contract for the renovation and operation of the new stadium was given to the real estate equity company, EMKA GMBH, headed by entrepreneur MICHAEL KOELMEL. Construction of the new Zentralstadion in Leipzig began in December of 2000 but would not be completed until March of 2004.

The total cost for the project in the end was reportedly 116.0 million Euros altogether with the German Federal Government having contributed 51.0 million Euros towards that end. No doubt, Germany hosting the 2006 FIFA World Cup final tournament had at least a little something to do with that. The FIFA Confederations Cup, a tournament run every four years by the world’s organizing body that involves all the planet’s different continental champions, also kicked in another 12.0 million Euros towards the project in Leipzig.

The very first competitive football match played at the newly-renovated Zentralstadion (official capacity : 44,345 spectators) featured FC Sachsen Leipzig facing the reserve side of Borussia Dortmund on March 7, 2004, during the Regionalliga Nord campaign. The official opening of the new stadium took place later that summer in conjunction with an international tournament that July featuring Bundesliga club Werder Bremen, Belgian side Club Brugge and Serbian outfit FK Red Star Belgrade. The first full international contest saw Germany defeat visiting Cameroon 3-0 after two goals from Miroslav Klose and another by Kevin Kuranyi on November 17, 2004.

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The new Zentralstadion in Leipzig was the only football stadium from the former Deutsche Demokratische Republik to stage matches (four group-stage games and one Round of 16 contest) when Germany hosted the final tournament of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. A year earlier, the site had also staged matches in conjuction with the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup of Germany, which was meant to serve as a warm-up for the main event to follow. Koelmel was on the verge of a deal with businessman Gerald Wagener to unload the new Zentralstadion entirely but negotiations were broken off, as German magazine der Spiegel reported in April of 2005, a few months prior to the Confederations Cup.

The project actually came in 26.0 million over the original budget, partly as a result of compliance with FIFA security regulations, but the city of Leipzig municipal government agreed to absorb only a third of this cost and left the real estate investor to shoulder the rest of the unexpected tab — this on top of the 27.0 million or so Euros that Koelmel had already poured in upon getting involved.

FC Sachsen Leipzig continued to play a few matches here and there at the new Zentralstadion up until 2007, but the facility that in former times would hold in excess of 100,000 people for football matches of the East German national team once upon a time remained without a cash-paying tenant long after the 2006 FIFA World Cup came and went.

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Believe it or not, but this particular spot pictured above once played host to the SPORTFORUM LEIPZIG’s facilities for Olympic swimming. The old bleachers remain but the pool, itself, has been filled in and appears to now serve as a parking lot. In the background, one can easily observe the modern RED BULL ARENA built inside of the old ZENTRALSTADION.
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Koelmel finally caught the break he had been looking for when the well-known Austrian energy drink manufacturer RED BULL GMBH took over tiny, little SSV Makranstaedt, a club playing in the Nordostdeutscher Fussballverband Oberliga Sued (fifth-highest level in Germany) in May of 2009 and announced a goal of Bundesliga football within ten years. Of course, the successful Austrian company already operate FC Red Bull Salzburg, who celebrated the Austrian Bundesliga title this season for the third time in the last four years, as well as the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer in the United States. And then there is Red Bull Brasil of Campanis, a team that competes in the lower divisions of Brazilian professional football, as well as the African club Red Bull Ghana of Sogakope in the Ghanaian first division.

Under its new moniker of RASEN BALLSPORT LEIPZIG, the former SSV Makranstaedt club romped to promotion by claiming the NOFV-Oberliga Sued title for the 2009/10 season. In March of 2010, the Austrian energy drink manufacturer entered into a stadium-naming rights agreement with Koelmel for the old Zentralstadion. The very next campaign saw the renamed Red Bull Arena host revamped RB Leipzig, whose rent will be in adjusted according to the level of football the club are playing, in the Regionalliga Nord for the very first time.

On the very last day of May in 2012, a sold-out crowd of 43,231 spectators turned out at the Red Bull Arena to watch the national team of Germany contest an international friendly with its counterpart from Israel.

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Flashback From Leipzig – Zentralstadion In Disrepair

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At the time of its completion in 1956, the mammoth ZENTRALSTADION at the SPORTFORUM LEIPZIG was the largest in all of Europe. The “central stadium” and adjoining facilities served as not only ‘home’ ground for the official football team of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik but also operated as an epicenter for other disciplines in the East German national sports program, such as track and field, as well. After the symbolic fall of the Berlin Wall in November of 1989 and the subsequent reunification of Germany in the following year, the enormous athletic complex in Leipzig had fallen into a depolorable state of disrepair by the late 1990s.
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The photos for the following exhibition are courtesy this curiousity-filled Canadian blogger and his brother, Matthias, who were visiting German relatives in Leipzig back in 2000 and stumbled across the massive Zentralstadion complex; the rest of that interesting story can be found at the following web address — http://wandel.ca/homepage/zentralstadion/index.html
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The photos of the Zentralstadion presented here, which were snapped by the curious Canadian blogger pictured climbing the stairs and his ‘partner in crime’, are said to have been taken in the year 2000, a full decade after the complete disappearance of the old Deutsche Demokratische Republik.
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The enclosed Press / VIP box that communist state-controlled writers and important government bureaucrats shared alike to watch the national football team of the D.D.R. compete in front of overflow crowds in excess of 100,000 spectators for significant athletic triumph and the greater glory of the German Democratic Republic, in general.
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The East German national team played 48 international matches at the imposing Zentralstadion in Leipzig, incluing three Olympic qualification games. The very first Laenderspiel ever staged at the Zentralstadion involved the Deutsche Demokratische Republik and visiting Wales in a FIFA World Cup qualification match that drew an official crowd of 100,000 although some sources claim another eight thousand people or so were present on May 19, 1957. The East Germans came from behind to win that historic contest 2-1 on goals from Guenther Wirth of FC Vorwaerts Berlin as well as Willy Troeger of SC Wismut Karl Marx Stadt and would continue to have Leipzig host most of the nation’s important football matches from there on out.
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EAST GERMANY attendance at ZENTRALSTADION
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110,000 … 10/27/1957 …… vs Czechoslovakia
105,000 … 05/23/1965 …… vs Hungary
100,000 … 05/19/1957 …… vs Wales
100,000 … 05/09/1971 …… vs Yugoslavia
100,000 … 05/29/1974 …… vs England

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95,000 … 10/21/1965 …… Austria
95,000 … 09/26/1973 …… Romania
95,000 … 08/28/1977 …… Soviet Union
95,000 … 10/12/1977 ……. Austria
92,000 … 11/29/1979 ……. Holland
90,000 … 08/12/1959 …… Czechoslovakia
90,000 … 06/02/1963 …… England
90,000 … 07/24/1969 …… Soviet Union

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85,000 … 10/10/1981 ……. Poland
80,000 … 05/31/1964 …… Soviet Union
78,000 … 09/11/1985 ……. France
75,000 … 03/30/1983 …… Belgium
71,000 … 07/28/1987 ……. Hungary
70,000 … 08/17/1960 ……. Soviet Union
70,000 … 05/14/1961 ……. Holland
70,000 … 07/26/1983 ……. Soviet Union

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EAST GERMANY record at ZENTRALSTADION
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48 matches … 22 wins, 14 draws, 12 losses … 75-57 goals for/against

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Perhaps foreshadowing what was in store for both the massive football stadium in Leipzig as well as the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, itself, the East German national team would only win just one more time in its last nine games ever contested at the Zentralstadion following a 1-0 victory over soon-to-be FIFA World Cup champion Italy in the spring of 1982. Although the 2-0 defeat of reigning UEFA European Championships titlist France in a World Cup qualifier in September of 1985 was noteworthy, the other results were not so positive. Furthermore, East Germany scored exactly one goal in its last five games at the Zentralstadion in Leipzig after that last triumph over the French.

Leipzig’s Zentralstadion – Glory Days

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“RUHM DER D.D.R. (Deutsche Demokratische Republik)” — “Glory Of The (German Democratic Republic)”

For the East German government officials desperate to demonstrate the superiority of state socialism over the capitalist class enemy in every aspect of life at all times, athletics notwithstanding, it was a vertiable crown jewel that vistiors were intended to behold and be impressed with. When officially inauguarated in Leipzig on August 4, 1956, for the second-ever German Gymnastics and Sports Festival event held in the D.D.R., the capacity for 100,000 spectators was something that no other stadium in all of Europe could proclaim. As the name would suggest, the ZENTRALSTADION at the SPORTFORUM LEIPZIG was meant to be the showpiece arena as well as the symbolic home ground of the national sports program in the German Democratic Republic.

This, of course, was to include football.

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In 1948, it was decided by East German planners in Soviet-occupied Leipzig that the abundant rubble on hand as a result of World War II should be used to construct a sports stadium in the city. An Olympic swimming facility was first completed in 1952 at the site along the artificially-created Elster river basin that would become the Sportforum Leipzig and construction work on the main athletic stadium began two years later under the direction of Karl Souradny. In the end, roughly 1.5 million cubic meters of Kriegstruemmern (war rubble) went into the building of the massive walls surronding the enormous Zentralstadion.

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October 22, 1957 — Hard-working groundskeeper HANS RICHTER mows the grass on the pitch at the Zentralstadion five days ahead of East Germany’s scheduled FIFA World Cup qualification match with visiting Czechoslovakia to be played in Leipzig. Despite the fact that neighboring Federal Republic of Germany had not only entered but already won its first World Cup tournament by 1954, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik did not succeed with its very first attempt to reach the final tournament of a major international competition. Although Richter could not have possibly realized such in advance, an official attendance record at the Zentralstadion which would never be broken was set but Czechoslovakia scored three goals in the first half on the way to a 4-1 defeat of East Germany.
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The World Cup qualification match between visiting Czechoslovakia and the German Democratic Republic contested on October 27 in 1957 at the sold-out Zentralstadion in Leipzig is considered by researchers to have been the football match with the highest attendance ever to have been staged in the history of the now-defunct nation. The official figure is listed at 110,000 spectators while some accounts attest that the overflowing arena actually held as many as another ten thousand people that historic day. It is documented that roughly 640,000 ticket orders were received prior to the match.

Almost one month later, on November 24 of that same year, another official crowd of 110,000 was recorded at the Zentralstadion when Poland and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics staged a one-game, neutral site playoff in Leipzig to determine who would qualify for the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden after finishing level on points in Group 6.

Capacity crowds for football matches at the Zentralstadion were commonplace in the 1950s. In the stadium’s first month of operation in August of 1956 alone, two-sellout crowds of 100,000 were reported when D.D.R. Oberliga champion SC Wismut Karl Marx Stadt played the powerful Hungarian army club SE Honved Budapest and a Leipzig City Select side hosted the Romanian team Dinamo Orasul Stalin from Brasov. The very next month, a domestic record in the Oberliga was established for all time in the Deutsche Demokratische Republik when SC Lokomotive Leipzig downed intra-city rival SC Rotation Leipzig 2-1 in a derby match on September 9.

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(photo dated April 4, 1978)
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In October of 1956, the Zentralstadion in Leipzig bore witness to a very famous match when reigning East German champion SC Wismut Karl Marx Stadt hosted visiting West German side 1.FC Kaiserslautern including legendary national team striker Fritz Walter. Many sources list 110,000 as the number of people who showed up to see the former Soviet Prisoner-of-War and captain of West Germany’s 1954 World Cup title-winning squad score the memorable “Hackentor von Leipzig”. Walter intentionally fell forward and then propelled the ball forward over his head with his heel into the upper right hand corner of the net to astonish the crowd as 1.FC Kaiserslautern triumphed 5-3; well-known D.D.R. sports reporter Wolfgang Hempel immediately annointed Walter’s strike as the Goal of the Century (Tor des Jahrhunderts).

Another West German club on a trip across the border, FC Schalke 04 Gelsenkirchen, and local SC Lokomotive Leipzig also attracted an audience of 100,000 football fans to the Zentralstadion in late November of 1956, as well.

The six-figure crowds in Leipzig slowly began to become a thing of the past through the years, though, as the East German national team repeatedly failed to qualify for the final tournament of major international events. The final time official attendance was recorded in excess of capacity at the Zentralstadion occured in late May of 1965 when the G.D.R. could only finish 1-1 with Hungary in a World Cup qualification match. The very last officially-logged audience of 100,000 spectators at the stadium by the Elsterbrecken arrived the very same day that prolific striker Joachim Streich of FC Hansa Rostock neatly curled the ball around FC Liverpool’s highly-accomplished goalkeeper Ray Clemence as the Deutsche Demokratische Republik battled to a 1-1 draw with visiting England on May 29, 1974.

Altogether, the East German national team was credited with having drawn a crowd of 100,000 or more to the Zentralstadion a total of five times.

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The national team of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik line-up prior to the start of a UEFA European Championships qualfication match with Poland in front of an official crowd of 55,000 spectators at the monstrous Zentralstadion in Leipzig on April 18, 1979 … East Germany rallied to defeat Poland 2-1 on the strength of second half goals scored four minutes apart by Streich and Lindemann, respectively … Seven players from the D.D.R. Startelf to face the Poles here were also in the starting line-up for the German Democratic Republic almost three years earlier when East Germany defeated favored Poland in the Final of the Olympic tournament at the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal, Canada.

D.D.R. left to right ……… captain Hans-Juergen DOERNER (SG Dynamo Dresden / 96 caps, 8 go), goalkeeper Hans-Ullrich GRAPENTHIN (FC Carl Zeiss Jena / 21 caps), Hans-Juergen RIEDIGER (FC Dynamo Berlin / 39 caps, 6 go), Hartmut SCHADE (SG Dynamo Dresden / 28 caps, 4 go), Gerd WEBER (SG Dynamo Dresden / 33 caps, 5 go), Reinhard HAEFNER (SG Dynamo Dresden / 54 caps, 4 go), Konrad WEISE (FC Carl Zeiss Jena / 78 caps, 1 go), Gerd KISCHE (FC Hansa Rostock / 59 caps, 0 go), Lutz LINDEMANN (FC Carl Zeiss Jena / 21 caps, 2 go), Joachim STREICH (FC Magdeburg / 98 caps, 53 go), Martin HOFFMANN (FC Magdeburg / 62 caps, 15 go)
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From the time the football facility was first built in 1956 up until the time that the country, itself, formally ceased to exist in 1990, the national team of the German Democratic Republic played a total of 45 full international matches in addition to three Olympic qualification contests at the Zentralstadion at the Sportforum Leipzig. Almost half of these full internationals (21 of 45) were qualification matches for either the FIFA World Cup or UEFA European Championships but the results for East Germany in those are not overwhelming (nine wins, six draws, six losses). This helps to explain why the D.D.R. qualified for exactly one final tournament (ironically enough, the 1974 FIFA World Cup hosted by ultimate class enemy West Germany) in its entire 41 years of existance.

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(photo dated July 31, 1987) — this aerial shot taken just a couple of years before the symbolic fall of the Berlin Wall provides an excellent view of the Elsterbrecken in the background setting alongside the massive sports arena that was the old Zentralstadion in Leipzig during the time of the since-departed Deutsche Demokratische Republik.

Herzlich Willkommen Bei Uns … PPL Park

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Dass ist der neue PPL PARK, der nahe bei dem DELAWARE FLUSS in suedosten Pennsylvania liegt. In dem Hintergrund ist die beruehmte COMMODORE BARRY BRUECKE, die fuer einen wichtigen Marineoffizier genannt wird. Das Stadion gibt 18.500 Sitzplaetzen und PHILADELPHIA UNION von Major League Soccer spielt hier.
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Der Trainer von PHILADELPHIA UNION ist ehemalige polnischer Laenderspieler PIOTR NOWAK, der frueher in der Bundesliga fuenf Jahre mit Dynamo Dresden und TSV 1860 Muenchen gespielt hat.

Der Torhueter von Philadelphia Union war letzte Saison der alte kolumbianische Laenderspieler FARYD MONDRAGON, der von 1.FC Koeln in dem Winter angekommen hatte … aber Mondragon ist jetzt nach Deportivo Cali in der erste kolumbianische Liga gegangen und es gibt keine anderen Spieler dieses Jahr mit Bundesliga Erfahrung.

Ich folge mich Major League Soccer nie. Es ist vielleicht nur dritte oder vierte Ligafussball fuer Deutschland. Aber wir besuchen das Profifussballstadion in meinem Heimstaat zusammen und doch noch viel Spass haben koennen.

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In dem Hintergrund ist die Stadt von Chester, das ungefaehr 13 Meilen Sueden von Philadelphia ist. “PPL” ist ein Energiefirma, die erste als “Pennsylania Power & Light” benannt wuerde. Die Hauptsitze der Firma ist auf den Norden in Allentown und dass ist auch meinem Heimstadt.

Das Stadion An Dresden

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November 7, 1973 — the former RUDOLF HARBIG STADION, the venerable site now officially known at this point in time as the Dynamo Stadion, and its distinctive “Giraffen Flutlichter” in the city of Dresden played host to the historical second leg of the famous European Cup fixture featuring Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich from the Federal Republic of Germany and Oberligameister Dynamo Dresden of the German Democratic Republic.
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The “Giraffe Floodlights”, so nicknamed for their impact upon the local skyline, first arrived on the scene at the still-named Rudolf Harbig Stadion in early September of 1969 for a match between Dyanmo Dresden and a D.D.R. national select side after having been built that summer by the PGH Elektrobau Dresden. Design credit for the lighting system at a sports facility with no roof was given to Manfred Mortensen with the assistance of architect Guenter Schoeneberg and engineer Friedrich Schmidt. The four steel towers, which altogether weighed 60.5 tons, each stood 62 Meters high while leaning at the angle of 20 degrees and originally produced a brightness of 570 Lux, which easily exceeded Union of European Football Association requirements of the 450 Lux minimum needed to host night matches.
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This particular ground in Saxony had been the site of athletic events starting in the late 19th century before the ILGENKAMPFBAHN, financed by successful pharmaceutical businessman Hermann Ilgen, was constructed and first opened in May of 1923 with a capacity for 24,000 spectators. Although the cultural center was nicknamed “Elbflorenz” (Florence of the Elbe), Dresden was just one of many cities in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany which suffered severe damage from Allied bombing during the thorough and complete tragedy which was the Second World War. The Ilgenkampfbahn was largely destroyed and remained that way in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany for roughly six years after the war ended.
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March 6, 1951 — two socialist workers of the German Democratic Republic repair the stands at the largely-destroyed Ilgenkampfbahn football stadium in the city of Dresden. Six months on in late September of that year, the facility was officially re-opened as the Rudolf Harbig Stadion in honor of the Dresden native who was, perhaps, most recognized for his world record in the 800 meters at Milan in 1939. Harbig, who also established world records in the 400 and 1,000 meters and is the only track and field athlete in history to ever hold these three marks at one time, was later drafted into the paratroopers and rose to the rank of sergeant before being killed in action on March 5, 1944, near Kirovograd in the Ukraine.
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One particular facet of the history of football during the time of the former East Germany was that things were prone to change radically without warning. Clubs changed names often and, occasionally, were ordered off to another city altogether; as this blog has already noted, the entire first team of Dynamo Dresden had been abruptly re-assigned to Dynamo Berlin in January of 1955. In the summer of 1971, it was decided by the political leadership in the D.D.R. that, upon further reflection, the biography of Sergeant Rudolf Harbig did not pass Socialist/Marxist ideological muster so the facility was officially re-named the DYNAMO STADION and was properly designated as such until the disappearance of the German Democratic Republic once and for all in 1990.
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The old Giraffen Flutlichter at the Rudolf Harbig Stadion in Dresden are, like the former Dynamo stars such as HANS-JUERGEN KREISCHE, HANS-JUERGEN DOERNER, TORSTEN GUETSCHOW, ULF KIRSTEN and MATTHIAS SAMMER just to name a few, no longer to be found at the football field in this particular east German region of Saxony today.
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Construction was begun in late December of 2007 to bring the Rudolf Harbig Stadion up to speed with more modern amenities, most notably covering for the spectators. Two years later the work was finally completed, but not before the facility had been chosen by FIFA as one of the venues for the 2011 Women’s World Cup final tournament to be hosted by Germany. In December of 2010, the naming rights to the stadium were sold to GLUECKGAS, a Bavarian energy company.

Portugal’s Football Quarry

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Carved into the face of the adjacent MONTE CARLO QUARRY, the impressive spectacle of A PEDREIRA (The Quarry) serves as home ground for local Portuguese side SPORTING CLUBE DE BRAGA and easily stands out as one of the most picturesque football stadia in all the world.
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The Monte Carlo Quarry overlooks the historical city of Braga in the northwest of Portugal. Although now only the seventh-largest municipality in the country by population, Braga is, in fact, the oldest city in Portugal and once — then known as Bracara Augusta — served as the capital of Gallaecia in the old Roman Empire. Braga is also recognized as one of the oldest Christian cities in all the world.
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The monumental task of excavating and moving solid rock, not suprisingly, contributed rather heavily to the stadium’s final overall construction tab of 83.1 million Euros. The ESTADIO MUNICIPAL DE BRAGA was the fourth-most expensive of the ten new stadia built as Portugal prepared to host the UEFA European Championships final tournament in the summer of 2004. The architect for the project was the award-winning EDUARDO SUOTO DE MOURA of Porto.
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With one of the two main stands of A Pedreira serving as a backdrop for the photo, the yellow-clad traveling team of FC Liverpool engage in training just prior to the UEFA Europa League match with the local club at the Estadio Municipal de Braga in the northwest of Portugal.
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The Estadio Municipal de Braga is an all-seater venue with an official capacity of 30,154. The two main stands are each covered with a canopy-style roof and are connected to each other by dozens of steel ropes stretching over the pitch — a design reportedly inspired by ancient Inca bridges from South America. Once inside the stadium, moving from one stand to the other is done by accessing a 5,000 square meter plaza which runs underneath the playing surface.
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City Cannot Cope With Greek Mystique

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Argentine striker RAUL BOBADILLA (22) of FC Aris Thessaloniki, recently arrived on loan from struggling German Bundesliga club Borussia Moenchengladbach, eyes the ball in front of the goal with a massive mural hanging behind at the always-decorative Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium in Greece. (Giorgos Nissiotis/AP)
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The compact KLEANTHIS VIKELIDIS STADIUM, home ground of Greek Superleague club FC ARIS THESSALONIKI, is more than three times smaller than world-renowned Old Trafford in England, where Manchester City just battled with intra-city, arch-rival Manchester United over this past weekend.

Still, the charged-atmosphere and resulting electricity once again served to power THEOS TOU POLEMOU (God Of War), who continued the home unbeaten run in all European competiton which now encompasses 26 games over 43 years.

Since the start of the 1969-70 football season, many have tried to topple FC Aris Thessaloniki at the Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium in Greece. All have failed. Money-bags MANCHESTER CITY, in spite of all the millions of English pounds spent, must now add the club name to the list :

Cagliari Calcio — Italy
FC Chelsea — England
SK Rapid Vienna — Austria
SL Benfica Lisbon — Portgual
Perugia Calcio — Italy — (twice)
AS St. Etienne — France
FC Ipswich Town — England
Sliema Wanderers — Malta
KSC Lokeren — Belgium
FC Hapoel Be’er Sheva — Israel
GKS Katowice — Poland
FC Servette Geneva — Switzerland
RC Celta de Vigo — Spain
FC Zimbru Chisinau — Romania
AS Roma — Italy
Real Zaragoza — Spain
Red Star Belgrade — Serbia
Sporting Braga — Portugal
NK Slaven Belupo — Croatia
Jagillonia Bialystok — Poland
FK Austria Vienna — Austria
Atletico Madrid — Spain
Bayer Leverkusen — Germany
BK Rosenborg Trondheim — Norway
Manchester City — England