Dynamo Dresden - the Liverpool of East Germany

As the day progressed, we ended back at the bierkeller, the German’s had by now sussed out who was English and soon approached many of us, asking to buy “Wrangler” jeans, and indeed any “Western” clothes. Many “deals” were done that day, I sold my leather jacket for something like £30.00, and it only cost me £15.00?

We where asked to vacate our hotel rooms by teatime, and leave our bags in secure room the hotel, no problem. In the hotel corridors were fridge’s full of mineral water and fruit juices etc, a number of us emptied these out and passed them out to the German people outside the hotel. Soon hair dryers, towels, soap etc were passed onto our Dresden mates. The hotel people didn’t have a clue?

We boarded our coaches to the ground, gathered outside and were mobbed yet again by Dresden supporters each wanting our autograph’s, now I knew how Kevin Keegan must have felt?

Once inside the ground, we made our way up to the terraces, we were surprised to find that the Liverpool section had a ring of armed guards around us, properly to protect us from more autograph hunters. As usual a fine rendition of “You’ll never walk alone” boomed out from the travelling kopites, with a healthy number of anti – Man U songs thrown in for good measure (not sick ones). This didn’t go down too well with the Liverpool tour officials, words were said, so we all kept on with the anti – Man U songs for quite some while.

The ground itself was like a bowl, everyone was standing apart from a very little stand behind us, which could only hold on more than 1,000 supporters. The attendance that night was 33,000, it didn’t seem that big, but that’s what is down in the return programme at Anfield?

The game itself was a very tight affair indeed, Dresden where the top team in East Germany and soon had the Tricky Reds on the back foot, as Liverpool soaked up the pressure and tried to silence the home crowd. Ray Kennedy was alleged to have brought down a Dresden player and a penalty was awarded. Up stepped the Dresden number 10 Kotte, he smashed the ball to Ray Clemence’s left, right in the bottom corner? Somehow Ray Clemence managed to get his fingertips to the ball, and saved the penalty, the ground erupted as the German’s sighed in disbelief and we went up roaring our heads off. Possibly Ray’s best ever save?

A small scuffle broke out in the Dresden section next to us, we were told it was some anti – Government movement trying to disrupt the match. Some armed soldiers moved in amongst them and the mob dispersed. We started singing “Are you United in disguise” pointing at them, the humour was lost on them?

As the final whistle blew, we went ape, a 0.0 draw, a superb result, all set up for a cracking return game at Anfield. The Liverpool players walked right up to us and acknowledged our support, even Bob Paisley stopped and clapped us, we felt dead proud?

We had to wait behind for 10 – 15 minutes as the soldiers ensured that our departure from the ground was clear and safe. As we boarded our coaches a number of Dresden supporters broke through our armed escort and exchanged scarf’s, badges with fellow Reds. I gave a Liverpool pin badge in exchange for a Dresden pin badge I still have the badge as a memento to a very special time in my life.

After the game, we headed back to our hotel to collect our luggage and to load up the coach. Outside the hotel I met Anette for the very last time, she was wearing the Liverpool scarf I had given her the night before. She gave me a dirty big hug, whispered something “special” in my ear, we kissed then reluctantly left each other.

We passed over most of our Deutchmarks and Pfennings to the Dresden supporters gathered yet again outside our hotel, we didn’t need the money, they did?

The coach trip to the Airport seemed to take an age and a half, our coach was not involved in the nudge as mentioned above, our coach driver continued straight to the Airport. We gathered together in the Airport lounge, once the other coach arrived, we all put the last of our Deutchmarks and Pfennings into a kitty and we all had one last beer in Dresden.

The Liverpool players, management and directors arrived soon after, the players were allowed a quick drink with us, before being whisked away. Somewhere I still have two Dresden programmes, one signed by all the Liverpool players and Bob, the other unsigned.

The plane trip home was very surprisingly very high spirited, as everyone exchanged stories of the chaos and merriment that we had all contributed too. Christina thanked us for sharing our (in her words) unique sense of humour and zest for life with her, she said she had never experienced “anything” like “us” and said “we would be welcome back with open arms anytime”.

We went through the usual booking in procedures at Speke Airport, met up the foyer and were told that we had to make our own way home (no coaches to drop us off at Anfield?) we said our goodbyes and managed to get a taxi home. We had very little English money on us, and had to stop off at Lee’s to borrow some cash from his Dad, this was repaid at the next home game.

Next day, the family asked what it was like in Dresden, “O” a bit quiet not like around here. My Dad came home from work and asked, I told him it was superb and most of the above. He saw the glint in my eyes and the grin on my face and I sensed that he had an idea of what we had been up to.

Despite being “told” not to venture out of our hotel, I can honestly say that the majority of the Dresden people we met were superb, a credit to their City and indeed football club.

Our next game after Dresden away was Middlesborough at Anfield, the following Saturday. We got beat 2.0 some of the lads moaned on the way home, I didn’t I had the time of my life. A once in a lifetime opportunity that I will never forget.

The return leg at Anfield was again a very tight affair played in front of an expectant nighttime crowd of 39,300 with the Tricky Reds eventually winning 2.1. Kevin Keegan and Jimmy Case scoring for us, with Gert Hedler scoring for Dresden.

Dynamo Dresden where formed in 1952 and began concentrating on football alone in 1966, they finished 4th in their first season in 1967, sank to 13th place and relegation a year late, then regained top-flight status when they emerged as champions of their division in 1969. In 1970, they finished third, and in 1971 they won both the championship and the national cup competition. When we meet them in 1973, they were going for the double again, and they did indeed finish as champions of their league, although they had to concede second best to us in the UEFA cup. In 1974 and 75, they finished 3rd in their league, and reached the national cup final.

I’m not really sure what happened to Dynamo Dresden? I have a feeling that when the Berlin Wall fell and East met West. Germany was of course reunified, and I think most of the Dynamo Dresden players transferred to more professional clubs in Germany and Europe, as the lure of self-financial security was too good an opportunity for them to ignore.

Because of limited playing resources, I suspect that Dynamo Dresden where forced to play in the lower leagues of the Bundesliga maybe under a different name.

After seeing off Dynamo Dresden (the Liverpool of East Germany) UEFA handed us a semi–final draw against another easy opponent, the giants of world football BARCELONA.

That’s for another time.