TuS Viktoria 06 Buchholz (Germany)

TuS Viktoria 06 Buchholz is an amateur sports club from the southern Duisburg district of Buchholz in Western Germany that was formed in 1906, prior to moving to a ground at Großenbaum the following year and becoming Viktoria Großenbaum Buchholz 06.

Athletics and gymnastics sections were added to the association in 1914 while the football team played in district football. A handball section was added to the club before they moved to a new site at Sternkampfbahn a few minutes away from Buchholz railway station.

A merger with another local club DJK took place when play was resumed following World War Two. In 1956 Sternkampfbahn was renamed Karl-Dölzig Platz in honour of one of the clubs founding fathers.

Further sports departments continued to be added as membership continued to grow while the Bezirkssportanlage indoor facility was opened in 1977. The 1984-85 season saw Viktoria’s football team promoted to the Landesliga for the first time.

The spell lasted a couple of seasons before returning to Bezirksliga football before the club bought their ground from the local council in 1988. The 1990-91 season saw promotion back to the Landesliga where a Viktoria ended as Gruppe 2 runners-up in 1992-93.

The team remained in the same division until suffering relegation in 1995-96. The setback didn’t derail the club who installed a new roof and speakers booth over the terracing in 1997. The work was rewarded with a return to Landesliga in 1998-99, though their spell lasted just one season.

Moritz Stoppelkamp began his fine Bundesliga career at Viktoria around the turn of the millennium as a junior before moving on to MSV Duisburg. His former side played their football in Gruppe 8 and 9 of Landesliga Niederrhein for five seasons.

At which point the 2005-06 campaign ended in relegation to Gruppe 1 of Kreisliga A, the eighth national level. Heiko Heinlein was appointed as coach as he led Buchholz to the league title in 2007-08.

The side stabilised back in Bezirksliga Gruppe 8 before a third place finish in 2009-10 at which point Michael Roß took over team affairs, leading Viktoria to another league title at the first attempt.

Back in sixth tier Landesliga Gruppe 3 football, Buchholz finished fifth and then seventh before being relegated in 2013-14. Undaunted, Roß took the team to a runners up berth in Gruppe 6 of the Bezirksliga before winning the Gruppe 5 title in 2015-16 with Tim Ramroth leading the scoring.

Viktoria’s spell in Gruppe 2 of the Landesliga lasted a couple of seasons before they went back down in 2017-18 to eventually signal the end of Roß’s rein as he was replaced by Maik Sauer halfway through the following campaign.

The team finished third in 2018-19 before ending the 2019-20 truncated season in fourth when the Coronavirus pandemic struck after Pascal Schmitt had put away the goals. Viktoria sat in second place when the 2020-21 campaign also ended prematurely.

TuS Viktoria 06 Buchholz will play in Niederrhein Bezirksliga Gruppe 7 in the 2021-22 season.

My visits

Thursday 27th August 2020

It was the second day of a brief adventure to North-Rhine Westphalia to complete my annual leave and I decided to go exploring and visiting clubs I would in all likelihood never have the chance of seeing play a home game.

I’d spent the night in Düsseldorf and after a pleasant walk, food and a visit to the decent set up at BV 04 I took the U79 from Kennedydamm north to alight at Sittardsberg before a mile or so walk along Sittardsberger Allee towards Buchholz.

I found the turning into Sternstraße just further up past the railway bridge, which then took me to the open gates of Karl-Dölzig-Platz. I walked past the club buildings which led to two football pitches.

The first had an artificial surface, with the second grass. The covered terracing separated the two, with accommodation on both sides for spectators, which I guess covered the club for all eventualities weather wise.

On my way out a trio of gents were sat outside the clubhouse. While me German is pretty basic, I went for the basic “Hallo. Ist fussball tourist.” Which I hope meant hello, I’m a football tourist, while I imitated that I had taken some photos.

It seemed to work as I got encouraging noises and smiles in return. Football really is an international language! I wandered off to Duisburg-Buchholz to take the train to Essen, where I was to stay for the evening and to enjoy further fun broadening my mind.

TuS Viktoria Buccholz II u17s 0 VfR Fischeln u17’s 7  (Sunday 8^th August 2021) B Junioren Friendly (att: 98)

Whenever I visit a club and only obtain photos, I’m keen to return at some point to finish the job off and watch a match. I was back in North Rhine Westphalia on a long weekend of football, which offered me the opportunity at Karl-Dölzig-Platz.

Nearby MSV Duisburg had already been knocked out of the DFB Pokal and had arranged a 1pm 3. Liga kick off against TSV Havelse. Scouring options, I fell upon this 10.30am start just down the road. Perfect.

I’d seen a game at C Junioren under 15 level at FC Kray the previous morning. It had been a higher quality match than my adult encounter at Grün-Weiß Wuppertal on Friday evening, so I had no qualms in taking in the next age group up.

I’d enjoyed a good Saturday night in Düsseldorf’s Aldstadt. It was as busy as I’d ever seen it, and that included festival time. It helped my sleep at the central Monopol Hotel before I headed to the station to catch the S1 service which had transported me twenty-four hours earlier.

The normally excellent Fussball.de website still hadn’t confirmed the venue for the match. Therefore, it was good news as I took a short cut to the ground, to see parking was at a premium and hear the sound of a referee’s whistle.

My demeanour was already good after I had managed to take up the offer from my hotel down the road in Cologne of any early check in the next day. This would allow me a slightly later night out down town with the chance to rest before Monday’s 6.30pm Pokal clash between Viktoria Köln and TSG Hoffenheim.

Karl-Dölzig-Platz was busy, but not with everyone in attendance to watch this particular encounter as Viktoria were holding a club day, for players and sponsors. The first team of the under 17’s, under 19’s and senior side were having their team group photos taken.

I headed to the far side of the artificial pitch, making use of the one of the wooden benches at the rear of the covered enclosure to view proceedings.

Fischeln, of Krefeld, immediately looked the better side. All their side looked like young footballers. Two or three of Viktoria’s second string were on the bulky side. Both line ups were of mixed demographics.

The visitors strong start included forcing the Viktoria keeper Leandro Lennig into a good stop from the opposing number 3. Up the other end Finn Alimpic came close to converting a cross for Viktoria.

It was no surprise when the away side took the lead on thirteen minutes. The Buchholz big number 14 brought down his opponent. Filschen’s 11 scored, on the immaculate 3G surface which now seemed to be Viktoria’s main pitch.

There was plenty of noise accompanying the action, as music from the clubhouse was superseded by continual chat on the mic as presentations were made and several had their say. Added to which was the sound of passing fast trains on the embankment, and the nearby autobahn.

It was 2-0 after twenty three minutes. A cross was flapped at my Lennig as the ball looped up for the visitors 3 to tuck away. The keeper made amends with a top save before the sitter of a rebound was missed by 17.

Filschen’s 17 made up for the miss with a beautiful curling shot to further extend the lead eight minutes before the break, with the match consisting of 40 minutes each way. Plenty of substitutions were made by the respective coaches at the interval.

17 added a second goal nine minutes into the second half when Lennig took his eye off another cross, before his teammate 15 capitalised on another defensive nightmare to make it 5-0 three minutes later.

With just over ten minutes remaining it was time for me to make my move towards the Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena for my main match of the day. Google Maps told me that the best option was the bus 934 from the stop round the corner from the station.

It was wrong! You can read about that bit on the MSV page. Later in the day I checked the website to find out that Fischeln had added two late goals to make the final score 0-7.