SG Unterrath (Germany)

Sportgemeinschaft Düsseldorf-Unterrath 1912/24 e.V, or SG Unterrath as their commonly known, is a West German football club representing the Unterrath district to the north of Düsseldorf, who were formed following a merger in 1993.

The football department is the foremost part of a sports club. They were formed from the merger of Unterrather Fußball Club, formed in 1912 and Rheinwacht Unterrath who could be traced back to 1924. The club also has sections for tennis, judo, gymnastics, handball, badminton and swimming.

SG Unterrath play at the Franz-Rennefeld-Weg district sports facility in Düsseldorf-Lichtenbroich, whereas Rheinwacht were formerly based at the Sportplatz Herdecker Straße in Rath. The football club works in a partnership with 1. FC Köln.

It’s unclear exactly what level the new club began in. Amin Younes who would go on to play for Borussia Mönchengladbach, Ajax and Napoli as well as the German national team started his career at the flourishing SGU youth section between 1997 and 2000.

The 2003-04 season saw Unterrath lift the Düsseldorf Gruppe 1 Kreisliga A title before finishing sixth in Niederrhein Bezirksliga, Gruppe 1 twelve months later. This was improved upon in 2005-06 with a third place finish.

The team continued to finish in the top five for the following four seasons. The consistency was backed up with SGU ending the 2012-13 campaign in third spot prior to a couple of disappointing seasons.

Midtable became the norm at Franz-Rennefeld-Weg until the 2019-20 saw the lifting of the Bezirksliga Gruppe 1 as Khalid Al-Bazaz and Carlos Penan led the scoring charts for the side coached by Suat Tokat.

SGU were promoted to the sixth tier Landesliga Gruppe 1, despite the season ending early owing to the outbreak of Coronavirus, prior to SGU sitting in eleventh place when the 2020-21 season also ended early owing continuation of the pandemic.

Deniz Top was in charge of the team for the 2021-22 season.

SG Unterrath will play in Niederrhein Landesliga Gruppe 1 in the 2021-22 season.

My visit

SG Unterrath 1 Duisburger SV 3 (Sunday 8^th August 2021) Friendly (att: 50)

My latest weekend to North Rhine Westphalia for football and socialising was going tremendously well. Public transport had behaved impeccably allowing me to attend three matches on both Saturday and again on the Sunday.

I’d already attended a youth match at Viktoria Buchholz and then the 3. Liga game between MSV Duisburg and TSV Havelse. I’d thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being among vocal fans, with three points at stake, as most of my other fixtures were friendlies.

Dodging out when the linesman put up the board for stoppage time allowed me to get a move on back to Duisburg Schlenk station to allow me to catch the train a few stops south to Düsseldorf-Unterrath where my arrival was greeted with a heavy downpour.

Fortunately, perhaps with thought to the 1pm kick off at MSV, Unterrath put their start back to 3.30pm. This allowed me to take shelter while the rain abated and then walk along Theodorstraße and then into Franz-Rennefeld-Weg, which took around ten minutes.

The football ground was on the right hand side of the complex past the clubhouse, tennis courts and indoor sports hall. Once again admission was free. The teams were having their final huddle before kick-off as I entered.

I was immediately impressed with the ground. It only had a path of flat standing behind either goal with high fencing preventing stray shots leaving the ground, but both sides had terracing with benches at regular intervals. The near side had a cover over the halfway line.

The dominant feature was actually just outside the ground. A huge sign atop a tower advertising the OBI Garden Centre. Past the far side was more terracing leading down to the second pitch, which would allow me some bonus action.

In the meantime, I concentrated on my main match which had official linesmen. Some of my other games had just the referee controlling affairs, or as at Werden-Heidhausen the previous evening, club volunteers just giving throw ins.

The 3G pitch was of the darker green variety, which often indicated it was getting on in years. It was crowned towards the centre spot. The players all looked fit and physical. They weren’t my favourite type of games as it made it appear that the pitch wasn’t big enough.

Duisburger came close to opening the scoring when Bünyamin Burak Sari got through but put his shot against the top of the crossbar as he collided with home keeper Kaido Ikeda, injuring himself in the process.

The visitors looked the better side to me in the initial stages of a good technical match without too many chances materialising. Unterrath’s Japanese forward Yukichi Sasaki went on a decent run but saw his shot saved by Duisburger custodian Rene Bloch.

I’d moved across to the far side to position myself in such a way on the terracing so that I could keep an eye on both pitches. The under 19 A Junioren match grappling for attention was into its second half with SV Eilendorf the away team.

Back on the main pitch DSV’s substitute George Wiedemann pounced on a bad back pass but couldn’t finish before referee Thorsten Lechtenberg blew for half time. This allowed me to concentrate fully on the age group encounter for fifteen minutes.

The weather was windy with showers, which wasn’t great for the 45 or so watching the game without any cover. I maintained my position of balance as play got under way on the main arena.

Unterrath had obviously had a good talking to by coach Deniz Top at the break as they came flying out of the traps to take the lead two minutes after the restart. A low cross from skipper Mustafa Kalkan was tucked away by Sasaki. The match needed the goal and then opened up.

My secondary entertainment had a grandstand finish when Said Tchacoura of Eilendorf scored a late equaliser to make it 2-2, celebrating by putting his finger to his lips as though he had been receiving some feedback throughout.

With that game done I moved round near the benches under the cover where the visiting coach Dennis Jerusalem was most vocal. His team drew level on fifty three minutes through a fine individual goal from Deniz Hotoglu.

Ten minutes later Hotoglu put his side ahead when he nipped in to finish. Duisburger looked on top again despite the best efforts of the impressive Sasaki for SGU. I’d say the game about a non-league step 3 or 4 standard back home in England.

With a couple of minutes remaining, I decided to call it a day rather than waiting an extra half an hour for a train back to the city. I missed Hotoglu complete his hattrick. I couldn’t complain at the amount of action I’d crammed in. 

 

Back at Düsseldorf I bought some ropey chicken and chips for tea before a siesta put me in good stead for an evening of reflection down the Altstadt. It was far quieter than the previous evening, but that suited me fine.

A couple of brewery stops and ending the evening in Fatty’s Irish Bar a perfect way to finish off what had been an excellent day. And I had no rush the next morning. That was really perfect!