Erdinger water games: the match in the mud and the swamp man

“We'll be touching concrete at the back.” This is what coaches like to threaten if they want to wall up a 0-0.

At the BSG Taufkirchen these days, concrete unfortunately has a different, much more concrete meaning.

It is the hardened mud that the volunteers scraped from the squares after Monday's flood. Fortunately, the BSG will have away games for the next few weeks. On the other hand: This means that those mud battles that remain unforgettable become rarer. For example, it has been 20 years since Sepp Heilmeier was a youngster who played sometimes in the first and sometimes in the second at SV Walpertskirchen. And sometimes twice. At that time he played in the reserve against Berglern. “It had rained for days before and we were standing ankle-deep in the dirt,” he says. The game was also very special because his father Georg celebrated his comeback. Libero. At the age of 51. As mayor. “And my brother Flo was there too - three Heilmeiers in one team. And then we surprisingly got a 1: 1 as the last stick ",Sepp Heilmeier remembers.

He couldn't celebrate it, however, because he was supposed to go to Fraunberg to play for the first.

“I should be there before kick-off.

So I just changed quickly and drove off completely filthy, ”says today's SVW coach.

"I looked like a little swamp man." Of course, the following weighed even more heavily: "We lost too."

Wartenberg's old soccer field was right next to the Strogen.

“It was flooded with every flood.

The same is true of our side square, where a small ditch led past on the south side, ”says Thomas Rademacher.

His teammate Rainer Schmidmüller slid into the full ditch with a tackle.

"We were then very curious for two or three seconds whether he would appear again."

Another time the Wartenbergers had just finished playing when the water came. “Within ten minutes, the space and the parking lot were flooded, says groundskeeper Christian Hamberger. "We are then through with the rubber dinghy and have cleaned up."

Sebastian Held is also familiar with adverse spatial conditions. It doesn't always have to have something to do with nature. As the coach of 1860 youth teams, at away games it depended on whether the groundskeeper was a Bayern or Löwen fan. “Then there was the chance fifty / fifty that you could play on the Munich district sports facilities on a super lawn or on red sand or a cow meadow. He will also remember the away games with Altenerdings U17 at SV Waldeck / Obermenzing. “There is an artificial turf that doesn't deserve the name and that hockey is actually played on.” The people of Waldeck had a special tactic. “They watered the side of the field that they attacked to make the pitch faster - they even did that at halftime.” Held says that with a grin, “because we still always won”.

Benji Tas, on the other hand, had to pass first. Playing on bad ground, he can't think of anything special, says the player-coach from FC Türkgücü Erding. We also know why: Because his team has to train on the worst lawn in the district. “The Aldi soccer field is even better,” he says. “If you feel like injuring yourself, you are welcome to train with us on Tuesday and Thursday.” But then Tas gets serious: “I think that's a shame. Our association was founded in 1988 and still has no home. We play in a league with Altenerding. The SpVgg has professional conditions, we don't even have a cabin. ”The only consolation are the Sunday games in the stadium.

But back to the poor space conditions and back to 2012, when the D-Juniors of JFG Sempt drove to Ingolstadt to play football in 20 centimeters of fresh snow, while all games in the men's area were canceled. Despite the 6-0 victory, the parents said at the time: "No, it wouldn't have needed it."

Sometimes game cancellations are more appealing, and we come back to the Wartenbergers, who instead held a watt tournament with SC Kirchasch. Or they went to the pub and had the only connection to football that they drank several so-called boots. Once a regulars' table brother Goaß Maßn promised "if you drink from my boot". Clear! So the man went to his car - and got his rubber boots. It was washed out for half an hour, says Willi Pöppel. And then there was drinking. Pöppel: "I will never forget how we got to the sole and fought to the end."

Back to the BSG.

Respect, how the community stands together (this also applies to TSV Dorfen, see above), removes the water and does not cry out for help because the fire brigade is already busy enough.

What we wish the BSG: that in the future something will be flushed into the till and not - as happened on Monday - the entire box office will be flooded.

DIETER PRIGLMEIR