Exilrapidler

Ich lese schon sehr sehr lange hier im ASB mit und kenne auch einige Mitbenutzer;sehr gut StanleyStiff ein sehr guter Freund mir. Habe mich jetzt angemeldet da ich einen Artikel gefunden habe den ich euch allen einfach nicht vorenthalten konnte; ich hoffe er wurde noch nicht gepostet,habe ihn aber bisher hier noch nicht gelesen. Beeindruckend auf jeden Fall. Ich selber bin Rapid Fan seit ich denken kann,habe auch selber bei Rapid gespielt in der Jugend,unter anderem mit einem gewissen Andreas Dober und Rene Gartler in der Mannschaft und jahrelanger Stadiongaenger. War unter anderem als 10 jaehriger in Bruessel beim Europacupfinale. Diese Stadiongaenge sind mir leider seit 1 1/2 Jahren verwehrt geblieben da ich seitdem in Afrika lebe und arbeite. verfolge aber nichtsdestotrotz jedes Match soweit es mir moeglich ist und bin deshalb immer wieder dankbar fuer eure Beitraege,Links,Fotos,Videos etc. lg aus dem Senegal Exilrapidler ups sorry; Beitrag vergessen: Voila,hier ist er: I feel obliged to write something after going to the Villa game tonight, I can't really put it into words sufficiently enough but I'll do my best. Phenomenal, simply unbelievable. I've never been abroad for a game, and apart from a few national teams I've never seen a foreign side play competitively. Over the past year I've become very, very interested in the supporter scene on the continent and across the world, and it fascinates me, so it was impossible to pass this opportunity up. Couldn't get a ticket in the Rapid end so got as close as I could in the home ends. Went into the ground at 6.30, an hour and a half before kick off, by which point the away section was already filling up. By about 6.45 it was at least half full and the Vienna support had all started singing and bouncing. Took 2 or 3 songs for them all to get going, but once the more "authoratitive" guys came in, every last person was singing and clapping. This didn't stop, apart from perhaps 10 minutes at half time when they started having it with the Villa lot a bit, until I left the ground 15 minutes after the final whistle. By the time the 2 Villa goalkeepers came onto the pitch the section was nearly full, every Villa fan in the stadium was seated and silent, the Vienna fans were still singing and bouncing. As the Villa keepers came out onto the pitch they received polite applause from the Villa sections, and a barrage of abuse and hostility from Vienna, going crazy at them as if they had just scored against them in the last minute and purposely run over to taunt them in the process. It set the scene for what they were going to create for the rest of the evening, a passionate and hostile atmosphere, without ever resorting to violent means, or the pathetic taunting that English fans have a liking for. The Rapid players came out to warm up to an almost heroic welcome, each one of the 1300 travelling supporters clapping their hands as hard as humanly possible, and yelling "Rapid" at the top of their lungs (you could see them all leaning forward giving it 100%). Everytime the players came over to the side where the Vienna support was, they continued to receive the exact same intense reception. No programme reading, hot dog eating, discussing possible tactics etc, the support were totally focussed on getting behind their team. Villa remained silent. The players went back to the dressing room. The away end was now full, gaps in the top left corner as I looked at it, but this was because they had all crammed themselves into the front section of the away end, as ultras tend to do, rather than the approach our vocalists tend to do of going as far back as possible, or of course staying in their allocated seats. The noise was still coming, and by this point half a dozen guys had made their way halfway up the stand, back to pitch, stood on seats, in order to ensure that the upper half of the stand was properly coordinated and aware of what songs were being sung, and what actions were required. There were a similar number of people doing the same at the front, for those who don't know, these are called capos, and that's how I'll refer to them for the rest of the article. The capos all raised their hands above their heads, the support followed suit, they held in this position for about 20 seconds, before all simultaneously taking their tops off, breaking into song, and swirling their tops above their heads. Villa remained silent, and by this point were looking on in astonishment. The players came out, Villa, polite applause, at best chanted "Villa Villa Villa", I wasn't really paying attention, I knew they weren't the main attraction for me. Ultras Rapid gave their players an even more rapturous reception than when they came out to warm up. The game kicked off and the Villa fans returned to their seated position, the Rapid support, of course, remained standing. They'd continue to bounce, clap, sing, and go mental for the entire game, I won't go into too much detail as I'd be here for hours explaining how fantastic each song sounded, but you can see for yourself in the pictures, and the video at the end of this. About halfway through the first half, the police made their only attempt of the night to control the supporters, they attempted to move the Rapid support from the aisle, and from being more than one to a seat. In most situations in England you'd expect one of 2 things, either full co-operation, or a complete backlash. Instead, rather sensibly, a few of the Vienna fans seemed to try to reason with the police, what was actually said, who knows, but it seemed they were attempting to be reasonable. At least 2 of the policeman didn't respond and tried to barge through, prompting the Vienna fans, every one of them, including the ones nowhere near said incident to start chanting "A-C-A-B, All Cops Are ********", and united to get rid of them. Intimidating, yes, hostile, yes, violent, no, how it should be. Villa got a penalty after about half an hour, this was the first time I'd actually turned away from the Vienna supporters to watch something in the game. The Vienna support all whistled to try and put Young off, who duly had his penalty saved. The Vienna support went crazy, sung the keepers name at full pelt, who promptly responded by pumping the badge on his chest and pointing to the Vienna support. Villa got another penalty minutes later which this time, was scored. The Villa fans, using the normal English intellect, started collectively singing for the first time, with the witty chant of "You're not singing anymore". Rapid were still singing, Villa sat back down. For the remainder of the half Vienna began to dominate, the score was 1-0 Villa, and yet none of them were singing, and every single Vienna supporter was still on their feet, singing with as much passion as they were at 1 up on aggregate. The half-time whistle went and the upper half of the Vienna section sat down for the first time all evening. The ultras remained standing and engaged in some "banter" with some particularly chavvy fans in the lower North Stand. The Vienna support was able to come up with some relatively instinctive songs sung by the Vienna fans in English to have a go at Villa. Of course this was the only opportunity for them as they were too busy SUPPORTING their team during the game, like they should be. The 2nd half began, the Vienna players received the same sort of intense reception again, each Vienna supporter that had a scarf raised it, those without raised their shirts, or flags, whatever was in their hand, and broke into song. However they went 2 down very shortly after the re-start. The Villa support very briefly, for a couple of minutes at least, began to sing as they'd taken the aggregate lead. Any other English team in Vienna's situation would've shut up and gone quiet, but Rapid, kept singing, bouncing, and clapping, with the same passion and intensity, as when they were 1-0 up on aggregate. With 15 minutes to go, after a number of missed chances, Vienna scored, making it 2-2 on aggregate, leading on away goals, the game would finish this way. Rapid's support went mental, no polite applause, just sheer craziness for a good 2/3 minutes. The singing continued, at no greater volume than before as they'd been singing non-stop, at the top of their lungs all game. The game finished, Rapid were through, cue more crazy scenes. Villa fans poured out of the ground, a couple gave the Vienna support a round of applause, most left doing nothing, a few tried to be hard by giving them a few ****** signs, one moron came and stood beside me, Villa scarf above his head and shouted something at them. Sadly this was the most passion he'd shown all game. The Vienna support ignored them, they sang and celebrated, the Vienna players came over and jumped like the supporters were. The Rapid section then stretched their arms out in front of them, did the noise some of us make before an opposition goalkeeper takes a goal kick (best way I can describe it!), the players did the same, before they all erupted to very quickly fling their hands above their heads, and did this repeatedly with the players. At which point I left the ground, well, more I was forced out by a steward who seemed to have a problem with me recording them, so I exchanged a few verbals with him about what he was doing to stop us (at this point I was representing the whole of England ) from being like the Rapid support. If you've managed to get through all that, here is the morale of my story. Many of you will have been abroad, either as a neutral or with your team. Many of you come back and report how incredible it is, this is all I'm doing here too, so my question is, why can we not at least try to create something similar? Many top level teams have now seen this type of support, it would amaze me, astonish me, and confuse me, if there wasn't 1 Villa fan walking out of that ground tonight thinking "Christ, why the hell can't we be like that? What do we have to do to get our atmosphere at that level, and that intensity?". It amazes me that despite travelling in Europe for the past decade, the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Everton, Villa, haven't at least tried to create something similar. Rather than taking the approach above most seem to be "Wow, that was good......oh well". I'd love to know if there's anyone here who still genuinly believes, that English support is BETTER than that abroad, either through noise volumes, or just because you prefer our "culture". It's worth noting there was very little display wise from Rapid, due to the obvious restrictions from Villa. The front of the section was decked in banners, and there were a few small wavey flags and 2 poles at the front of the section. So this isn't even about displays and choreography, that comes secondary, my main point is what the hell can we as supporters do to improve the atmosphere in England? Do the majority WANT to change the way things are? And if not, why not? I'm not sure what the way forward is, there are a number of small ultra groups in the UK, me and Dozzer have attempted at Cambridge but to date, have been pretty unsuccessful, but continue to try and get it to work and will not give up. It needs a few people at each club to stand up and be willing to take some action, realise the problems, investigate the solutions, and try to implement it. If there was to be some sort of UK movement involving supporters of all clubs, lobbying to revise restrictions on supporters to match those in the likes of Austria and Germany to enable better atmospheres, I'd be a part of it, but where to start is the real question. How do you get things going? Where do you start? There's so much to address. Sorry for the essay, it's something I was very passionate about before tonight, and am even more so now. Rapid's support amazed me, but it also depressed me in the sense that I know I couldn't see anything like that anywhere else in England. I've seen every professional team in the country, and no-one has ever come close to what they produced tonight. We have a problem, and something NEEDS to be done to fix it. It may be too late for us, but some people need to stand up and try at the very least. Quelle: http://footballgroundguide.ipbhost.com/ind...showtopic=20004