Archive for August 21, 2018
An Expedition into the Unknown
The header of my first monthly column in August was: “Your Nightmare Returns”, chosen with the paradoxical intention to prevent West Ham from bowing out of the Europa League being beaten by the same team as last year. Unfortunately, as we all know, that kind of psychotherapeutic intervention (asking for something in order to achieve the opposite result) didn’t work in this case. Astra Giurgiu won the second leg in our new home, and with an aggregated score of 1-2 the Hammers just “nearly reached” the group stage of the Europa League. One month later we have all but bigger problems than missing out on European football though.
Nevertheless the fact that West Ham United is not to play in the Europa League anymore makes me sad especially because play-off winners Astra were drawn into the same group as Austria Vienna, the arch rivals of my hometown club Rapid. Assuming that it had been West Ham instead of Astra playing in Group E, it would have been something special to cheer for West Ham in the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna against Austria in that fixture this autumn.
But as I said before, the lack of more European football in West Ham’s new London Stadium is a minor problem. To be honest we should be all but relieved that there won’t be any more distractions from abroad for an unsettled team with a lot of injuries which now has to concentrate on finding form and momentum in the domestic competitions. By the time I am writing this post the Sunday games of round 5 have not been played yet, but by the end of this weekend West Ham could be in a relegation spot.
Could we have seen that coming?
Well, we have to admit that the start to the Premier League this year has not been great with two defeats and one win in our first three games. But we had also gained just three points by this stage last season, and what a glorious season it had been! It also seemed that West Ham had done good business in the transfer window and so, by the end of August, regardless of being unlucky again with injuries to some key players, we all were still dreaming dreams and scheming schemes of an other famous season “in our stunning new home”. It was going to kick-start after the international break in September, we thought. We could not have been more wrong.
To make the bursting of the bubble even worse the first game after the international break looked bright for forty minutes with a 2-0 lead in the London Stadium against Watford. But the game ended in disappointment with a 2-4 defeat, and one week later we now have to settle with another 2-4 defeat at West Brom. Shipping eight goals in two games suggests that West Ham’s problem is not the lack of a “20 goals a season striker” (as the board and many supporters may have thought), but there are evident problems at our back four and with the defensive work of the whole team.
Also the hype about the new “almost 60,000” stadium has worn off a little with all the problems with crowd management, permanent standing and supporters dissatisfied with ticket allocation and the seats they have bought. It’s no surprise that a transition as big as this one with an increase of more than 20,000 supporters per game and a lot of new stewards in surroundings unfamiliar to everybody is far from easy.
And – having started this article on a psychological note – we should not forget that we all, the club, the players and the supporters, are in a difficult emotional state right now. Well, a football fan and especially one who is supporting the mighty Irons is never far from disappointment and despair: “The natural state of the football fan is bitter disappointment, no matter what the score”, a famous quote from Arsenal fan Nick Hornby’s “Fever Pitch” goes. But for West Ham, this is not a “natural state” of football feelings this time.
Just imagine you have decided to leave your old home, move to a new house, face all the problems with building or renovating it, not to mention removing all the furniture and other belongings and shipping them to the new place at last, just to find that in the new home a lot of things don’t work as they should. That’s not what you had expected and at least everything is very different from the familiar surroundings you were used to. That is not only the typical uncertainty factor and misfortune we have been used to as West Ham supporters, just having beaten the likes of Arsenal or almost won the FA Cup and losing to minnows or fighting relegation the other day (season). We have been able to cope with that for decades, using sardonic humour and other remedies, and blowing bubbles again at our good old Boleyn Ground the next Saturday. But the situation club and supporters are in right now is very different from that.
Even for all who have been in favour of the move, almost everything we have been used to (including the crest) has changed, and the atmosphere as a whole seems to be much different from Upton Park. It will take a lot of time until the feel-at-home-factor will be here to stay again. This should not influence the performance of the team; a squad of highly paid professionals should be able to play their game on any pitch … but I fear it does anyway.
Though I have not been to the Olympic Stadium since its transition for West Ham (hoping to be able to come in December) I know what I am speaking of. Not only that my family moved several times, also my home town club Rapid has just got a “stunning new home” by the beginning of this season. And although the so-called “Allianz Stadion” has been built at the same place as the old ground and Rapid has qualified for the Europa League and has won more games than lost in the new ground, my feelings are quite ambiguous and I am really struggling to feel at home on the new terraces.
“Every game and every season is like an expedition into an unknown territory”, German author Axel Hacke wrote in his book “Football Feelings” (“Fußballgefuehle”, p. 16). For West Ham this season is more than that, I would compare our journey to a space mission, as our old song goes: “They fly so high …” Now I hope the club, the manager, the squad and we, the supporters, are going to show that we are equipped well for this task. I, for one, will be happy this season with a safe landing of our claret and blue starship in mid-table security.
Come on you Irons!
Your nightmare returns
Good times for Austrian West Ham supporters: the season has not started yet, but in Austria we have already been able to watch four games of our beloved Hammers without having to travel the 900 miles or so to England. I am going to contribute to “West Ham Till I Die” with a monthly column from now on, reflecting an Austrian West Ham fan’s point of view, after having written a first blog post a year ago ( click here ).
Three pre-season friendlies were played in the Austrian provinces of Styria and Burgenland where West Ham held their training camp at Bad Tatzmannsdorf. And the Europa League qualifier against NK Domzale took place just 60 miles from the Austrian border in Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana.
Hence the members of the supporters club “Austrian Irons” and quite a few other West Ham supporters from Austria were able to watch our heroes live at these matches last month. Now we are looking forward to travel to our first games in the London Stadium – though the start of the season on Monday is going to be celebrated in a Vienna pub called “The Tube Station”, run by Barry, an Essex born lifelong West Ham supporter.
I seized the opportunity to watch the Hammers in the neat, fairly new Stozice Stadium in Ljubljana against NK Domzale, combining the game with a business trip to the Wörthersee Stadium in Klagenfurt in Southern Austria. The upper tier of the Klagenfurt Euro stadium was meant to be disassembled (like the London Olympic Stadium) after the Euro ’08, but (like the London Olympic Stadium) that decision was overturned, resulting in long lasting administrative procedures in which I have been involved over the past years, to make the 30,000 stadium permanent.
I linked up for the trip to Slovenia with guys from the “Austrian Irons” and an Austria based fan from Indonesia. And I really can prove that we were there – the “Austrian Irons” banner could be seen on TV every time a corner was taken from our end!
Unfortunately the Hammers played well only in the first half; from the second half hardly an attacking move from the Hammers can be reported. We saw a lot of action though, and it was Andy Carroll who got on all the headers in the box in front of the away end – albeit it was the West Ham box, and in the end we were on the losing end and had to overcome a 1-2 deficit in the second leg (which we convincingly did, as we all know!).
Now in the Europa League play-off West Ham was drawn again, like last season, against Romanian side Astra Giurgiu. I hope Astra Giurgiu will not be able to do the same feat that my home town club SK Rapid Vienna did against an other club in claret and blue in 2009 and 2010: Aston Villa was eliminated twice in two consecutive years by the green-whites, their fans bringing a banner with them stating: “Your nightmare returns”.
But in fact Rapid Vienna bears more resemblance to West Ham United than to Astra. Though I know that not all Austrian West Ham fans will be happy with that (because a lot of them will support a different club at home), having chosen the username “rapidhammer”, I have to tell you that there are a lot of similarities between the Hammers and the Greens from Vienna: Both of these clubs are very well know and respected for their passionate support. And both clubs have moved with the start of this season to their new grounds, and interestingly Rapid played its first game in their new “Allianz Stadium” against Chelsea FC, West Ham’s opponent on Monday. Let’s hope West Ham will achieve a similar result: Rapid beat Chelsea 2-0.
Also in their history the clubs from Vienna and London have a lot in common: Rapid Vienna was founded in 1898 as “1. Wiener Arbeiter Fussball-Club” (First Vienna Workers FC) while West Ham was founded as “Thames Ironworks FC”. The clubs initially played in colours which are different from today’s kits (Rapid’s original colours were red and blue – unfortunately not claret and blue). Both clubs have played in two European Cup Winners’ Cup Finals; West Ham won the Cup in 1965 and lost the final in 1976, SK Rapid played in the finals 1985 and 1996 and unfortunately lost out on both ocasions. West Ham and Rapid both lost their finals in Brussels in 1976 and 1996 respectively.
But that’s enough of Rapid Vienna for now, because I don’t want to risk what happened in a pub in Graz some years ago when West Ham also held a training camp in Austria. I joined fans from east London and Styria singing “Bubbles” there, but when I mentioned “Rapid” one of the other Austrian guys rose in front of me stating: “Rapid – we’ll kill you!” But I was lucky, a fan from London saved me, saying “But he’s West Ham”, and all ended up with another round of the fantastic Styrian beer.
I promise not to mention the club from Vienna in this column in the next time – bar if West Ham and Rapid are drawn into the same Europa League group, of course! But first West Ham has to overcome Astra and also make a good start into the new PL season against Chelsea on Monday. The Austrian Hammers are optimistic and looking very much forward to the start of the season. Especially the game which has been played in Kapfenberg against Karlsruher SC was a great opportunity to get in touch with the West Ham players, and that’s what many Austrian fans did. Of course not being able to have a season ticket at West Ham’s new ground, we are a little unsure if we will be able to get tickets for games this season as they are expected to sell out quickly. Having to book flights and accommodation not too late and being unsure if we are going to be allocated with tickets will cost a lot of nerves, I think. But anyway, having managed to get to a lot of West Ham games at the Boleyn in the past, we will come over to London E20 too in the future!
I will report back in September with an other column, having got on board some wins and points by then, and hopefully not having to write about the “return of a nightmare” when Astra have been back to London.
Come on you Irons!
Slaven Bilic and I: our first defeat in Vienna
23 Jun 2015
Guest Post for West Ham Till I Die
I have seen West Ham’s new manager Slaven Bilic “live” once, in the EURO 08 quarter final game at the “Ernst Happel Stadium” in Vienna, when Croatia was knocked out of the tournament by Turkey on penalties. As a West Ham fan, aware of Bilic`s history with the Hammers, I had supported the Croation team, and the manner in which Croatia lost the match all but reminded me of West Ham. So Slaven Bilic and I have already gone through our first “West Ham moments”, together, albeit seven years ago.
It was a sold-out game back in June 2008, for which I had got tickets by chance just an hour before the game. I had not been able to get home before the game to put on a West Ham shirt, but there were some fans dressed in claret and blue on the terraces. The atmosphere in the city of Vienna had been tense and overwhelming the whole day before the game. Both nationalities are represented quite strong in Austria, and the Croation fans as well as the Turkish supporters had been celebrating all day in the centre of Vienna, especially the Croatians having brought music bands and all kinds of flags and banners with them.
And it really was a thrilling and exciting game going into extra time, the score being 0-0 after 90 minutes. Croatia thought they had won it when Ivan Klasnic headed in Luka Modric’s cross with a minute of the overtime period to play. The Croatian players and Bilic, their coach, were all over the place, celebrating on the pitch with Bilic who had also run onto the lawn. It was a very emotional moment, but the final whistle had not been blown yet.
And for the third game running in this tournament, Turkey sensationally hit back at the death to level scores when Semih Senturk scored, with the aid of a deflection, from just inside the area. It was heart-break for Bilic and Croatia, falling from highest joy to utter dispair within one minute, and it was no surprise that Bilic’s team lost 1-3 on penalties and Turkey went through to the semi-finals to play Germany.
Well I’m sure you remember, West Ham also lost 1-3 on penalties to Liverpool in the FA Cup final 2006 after Steven Gerrard had levelled just seconds before the final whistle. And you remember that it’s an old habit of our beloved Hammers to concede a goal quite a short time after having scored themselves…
Hence I have already tasted my first defeat together with our new manager in a very emotional way, on June 21st, 2008 in Vienna.
I never will forget the moments when the “Ernst Happel” exploded after Croatia’s 1-0, with Bilic running unto the pitch with his arms in the air, and all the supporters of Croatia celebrating on the terraces around me, only to have to witness Turkey levelling just a minute later with the last kick of the game.
These are the emotions and moments we love football for, don’t we?
Welcome back, Slaven, to West Ham!
EXTRA TIME 
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