This is Round One in the Oberliga Mittelrhein – one of the 14 regions in the 5th tier of German football. Porz is a borough of Cologne, while Bergisch Gladbach is a city about 25 miles away. German football gets more regionalised the further down the pyramid you go, so the away trips are pleasantly short (no equivalent of Tiger Travel to Exeter here). Interestingly (or not) ‘Gladbach’ means exactly the same as the Old English ‘Ladbroke’, that is ‘laid brook’ ie – a stream that has been made into a canal.
Even more interestingly (or not) Bergisch Gladbach is twinned with Runnymede in the UK, which sounds like it should mean something like the same kind of thing. But doesn’t. Off to football now.
