Karlsruher SC Preview: What is a Fanfreundschaft Anyway?

By: Abby | November 22nd, 2007

After a somewhat endless (if exciting at the end) international break, we’re now back to the regular sort of football. In the Bundesliga’s endless wisdom, the Friday game this week is our away match to Karlsruhe. Also, in the endless wisdom of GolTV, this is one of the games they’re not showing, so it’s another match preview for a game I can’t watch.

Karlsruher SC, from the southwest of Germany near the French border, are the surprise of the beginning of this season. They were the 2. Liga champions this season and are currently occupying 4th place, recording wins over Schalke and Borussia Dortmund. They’ve been less impressive in their past few games (losing to Bremen and Wolfsburg, although they did beat Duisburg) but are still dangerous to underestimate.

They also have the benefit of a lack of players gone during this international break. While we’ve had several core players out (and some not coming back yet), their players have mostly benefited from some time off. However, Jan says that several Karlsruher players have been struck with the flu, so maybe there’s a balance. We’ve also got Marko Pantelic back, as Portugal’s point in Finland makes the game against Kazakhstan a moot point. Other than the missing Brazilians, we’re at full (if probably tired) strength. Karlsruher are missing a few through injury and possibly the flu that Jan mentioned.

What makes the game with Karlsruher interesting is the Fanfreundschaft (fan friendship) between the two sides. Basically, most of the time we like Karlsruher. We haven’t been in the same league for a while, but when we meet it’s a friendly affair rather than a punching sort. The fan groups go out and have a beer together. When Karlsruher had a crucial away game in Rostock last season, around 200 Hertha fans went to cheer them on. In a time when fan violence in some places is reaching frightening levels, it’s nice to see something completely the opposite.

Hertha Freundin shows how useful the site really is with a history of the Fanfreundschaft. It came to be in the mid-70’s, when some Hertha fans coming to Karlsruhe and receiving a nice welcome from the home fans. It’s continued ever since, despite the two clubs rarely playing in the same division. Now that they’re back in the Bundesliga with us both the Hertha and KSC fans are excited to renew the friendship properly.

Of course, it has to be put on hold for 90 minutes. But at least there (probably) won’t be riots after that.