Ground: HR-Schrott-Arena
Capacity: 2,000
Club Founded: 1912/1924 - Merged in 1993
League: Landesliga Niederrhein, Gruppe 1 - 6th Tier (current level)
SG Unterrath may not be one of Germany's famous football names, but this Düsseldorf club boasts a proud history stretching back to 1912. Competing in the Landesliga Niederrhein, the club is renowned for its strong community roots and excellent youth development programme.
A Potted History of SG Unterrath
The current club in the northern suburbs of Düsseldorf was formed in 1993, but its roots go back many decades. While this page concentrates on football, Unterrath also has sections for tennis, judo, gymnastics, handball, badminton and swimming.
Unterrather Fußball Club was founded in 1912, while Rheinwacht Unterrath was founded in 1924. They competed in local and regional leagues before deciding to pool their resources to form a stronger club to represent the local community, also in partnership with 1. FC Köln.
Rheinwacht were formerly based at the Sportplatz Herdecker Straße in Rath, while Utterrath FC established the current base at the Franz-Rennefeld-Weg district sports facility.
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.
Ten years after the merger, Unterrath lifted the Düsseldorf Gruppe 1 Kreisliga A title, to reach the seventh-tier Bezirksliga. The team comfortably consolidated in its new surroundings, lifting its league title in 2019-20, when Khalid Al-Bazaz and Carlos Penan led the scoring charts for the side trained by Suat Tokat.
Deniz Top was in charge of the team for the 2021-22 season, before he was replaced by Christian Schmitz. Deniz Aktag was the next head coach, as Oliver Dessau led the scoring. Daniel Beine led his side to a credible finish in 2025-26, with Antonio Munoz-Bonilla playing a starring role.
My visit
SG Unterrath
1 Duisburger SV 3
Friendly - Sunday 8th August 2021
👨👨👧👧 50 🎟️ Free
Football Weekend
My latest
weekend in 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 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.
Venue Location
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 before walking 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.
Landmark Feature
I was
immediately impressed with the ground. It had a pathway behind either goal with high fencing preventing stray shots from 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.
Pitch Needing an Upgrade
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.
The Action
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, with few 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.
Double Vision
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 people watching the game
without any cover.
I maintained my position of balance as play got underway 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 a goal.
Competitive Friendly
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 to the shelter, 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, the same player 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 was about a non-league step 3 or 4 standard back home in England.
Sunday Night in the Altstadt
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 hat-trick. I couldn’t complain about the amount of action I’d crammed in. Back at Düsseldorf, I had a siesta that put me in a good
mood 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 was a perfect way to
finish off what had been an excellent day. And I had no rush the next morning. That
was really perfect!
