Karlsruhe, Gunther and Beer

Sometimes you'll see something and not notice it. It'll be staring right at you, yet you'll miss it. This weekend, on account of the surfeit of Internationals and complete lack of top level club footie, I looked at the various National league tables, as is my wont every other morning or so. However, I failed to notice, that in the Bundesliga, behind Bayern (every one is behind Bayern), ahead of the various other top clubs whom I tipped for top 4 finishes was mighty Karlsruhe. It completely slipped me by. I knew they were doing well (I watched the Schalke game), but I was singularly unware that they were in second place. And this bring me to a story about Karlsruhe SC.

When I was in University, I found myself having a drink with a German exchange student. A quiet sort, he seemed unable to handle the fact that the beers in Canada were so much less bitter than their German counterparts. Or that there were usually four other sports prioritised over football on the local sports channels (5 on NASCAR weekends). Nevertheless, I resolved to talk to him, and soon he opened up a bit, no doubt encouraged by my conversational slant towards football. We'll call him Gunther, although he could have been Harald, Ralf or Mattheus. I have to sheepishly admit, I don't remember at all.

Now, as I normally do with all football fans, I asked him what team he supported. Almost apologetically, Gunther replied, "Karlsruhe". So, having heard of them, I said "Oh yeah I've heard of them, they're a decent club." - reminded as I was of their stint in the top flight in the nineties (it actually started in 1987, turns out) - a short while before this conversation took place. And a short while before Karlsruhe had been relegated back to Division 2 or the 2nd Bundesliga as they call it in Germany. And I remembered them being a half decent side who lingered in my memory from the Euro football wrap-up that was shown weekly on TV when I was a kid.

I remembered them, and for some reason Eintracht Frankfurt (who won the league one year I think), along with the more conventional Bayerns, Borussias, and Stuttgarts from the nineties. This I told him. Much to my amazement, the lad went delirious. He was ecstatic, that in this land of football heathens (as he considered Canadians to mostly be) there was someone who had not only heard of his team but thought they were all right. He became quite garrulous, friendly even, while we went on to share many a pint while discussing various recent high points of German football. The Italia '90 win, unmerited, I jostled him. Dortmund's Champions' League triumph, bought, he insisted. Steffen Effenberg's middle finger salute at USA '94, brilliant, we agreed.

I never saw Gunther again.

Still, I like to believe I did not imagine him. And I'm certainly not hallucinating Karlsruhe's lofty league position.

They've started well, still unbeaten, having comprehensively beaten Schalke away, handing the Ruhr team their first loss, while shutting out Stuttgart and thrashing Dortmund. Their team is a good admixture of Germans with the usual sprinkling of Eastern Europeans and the odd African. I did some research and Wikipedia tells me that Oliver Kahn came through their youth ranks and that they once thrashed Valencia 7-0 while reaching the UEFA Cup semifinals. So they have a decent amount of pedigree too. And I was obviously paying attention to that European Football review show.