LATEST NEWS ' RW AHLEN Vs CARDIFF CITY ' MATCH THREAD

Match abandoned

Looks like the ref has brought and end to proceedings. Players from both teams now posing for a photograph.

That is very definitely that, players going through their warm down as the lighting creeps ever closer!

Match abandoned at 0-0 just after half-time


LATEST NEWS ' RW AHLEN Vs CARDIFF CITY '

Starting XI: Marshall; Connolly, Ajayi, Tutonde; John, Ralls, Whittingham, Noone, Fabio; Immers, Gounongbe.




' UPDATED '

The game will now be played later tonight


' UPDATED '

BREAKING NEWS: Cardiff City v Ahlen is OFF due to safety concerns regarding the playing surface.

The first match of the Bluebirds' tour of Germany has been dramatically called off less than an hour before kick off


The game will be played later tonight

Both teams now have to dash to Cardiff City’s base in a place called Harsewinkel.

This Wednesday 20th July 2016 6pm UK time


Cardiff City will begin their pre-season tour of Germany tomorrow with a trip to North Rhine-Westphalia based side RW Ahlen at the Wersestadion. It is the first of four games the Bluebirds will play abroad this pre-season.


This game will be in the traditional format of two 45 minute periods, the other fixtures on this German tour will be two halves of thirty minutes, with a penalty shootout if the score is level. The kick-off is 7pm local time for fans based in Germany, for the Bluebirds fans at home on the British Isles, it is a 6pm kick off.

The Cardiff first team have played just one pre-season friendly, where they produced a convincing 4-0 victory over Shrewsbury Town, the team who knocked Cardiff out of the FA Cup last season. The win saw two different line-ups and a change in tactics.

The Bluebirds have also seen their development side lose 3-1 at The New Lawn to Forest Green Rovers. That squad featured three players with Football League experience. Adam Le Fondre, Federico Macheda and Tommy O’Sullivan were the only seniors in the line-up.

The fixture against the German side was set up to test their wits against foreign opposition and it will offer an alternative approach, displaying how playing styles differ. It will also give chance for players to impress head coach Paul Trollope, as he plans for the opening game of the league season, against Birmingham City.

RW Ahlen are a side who play in the Regionalliga West division, the league consists of many semi-professional based and top-tier reserve sides. It is the fourth tier of German football. In a league that consists of nineteen teams, RW Ahlen finished ten points above the drop zone in 13th place, where four teams are relegated. Ahlen lost more games than they won last season, winning 13 matches and losing 16.

Gianluca Marzullo, a 25-year-old striker born in Italy was their top goal scorer last season, scoring 11 goals for the North Rhine-Westphalia based side. The team as a whole scored fifty-six goals in that season, meaning the Italian contributed to 6.6% of the clubs goals in the league. He was present in all but one game for his side.

The German side whose highest achievements in the modern era was promotion to 2.Bundesliga, the second tier of German football, will be up for the task as Trollope looks to improve the Bluebirds’ players match fitness in preparation for the upcoming season.

The full first team squad will travel to Germany this week so we can expect to see a host of first team regulars in this fixture.

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Who are RW Ahlen?

Founded in 1996, Rot Weiss Ahlen play in the Regionalliga in the fourth tier of German football. They were last in 2. Bundesliga – the equivalent of the Championship – back in 2009-10.

"Rot Weiss" translates literally as red and white, the team's colours.



The hosts' strongest starting XI would be Sören Stauder, Christopher Heermann, Maximillian Dahlhoff, Julian Wolff, Rico Weiler, Cihan Yilmaz, Felix Backszat, Marco Fiore, Felix Bechtold, Damir Ivancicevic and Gianluca Marzullo.




Who else are City playing in Germany?

The Bluebirds will be lining up in back-to-back encounters against FC St Pauli and VfL Osnabrück – in the second and third tiers respectively — on Saturday in the Osnabrück Tournament.


Next Tuesday Cardiff City will face VfL Bochum, another team who ply their trade in 2. Bundesliga

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What time is kick off?

The match gets under way at 7pm local time this evening – that's 6pm our time.




Where is it being played?

It's being played in the Wersestadion in Ahlen, a town about a 45-minute drive north-east of Dortmund in the west of Germany. The 12,000-seater stadium was opened in 1949.

So, Cardiff City are in Germany after flying out yesterday and they play their first match of the tour tonight against RW Ahlen.

The game kicks off at 6pm UK time.

It’s being played in the Wersestadion in Ahlen, a town about a 45-minute drive north-east of Dortmund in the west of Germany.

It's off terrible state of the pitch etc

UPDATE l A behind closed door game v Ahlen will be played at the players' training base with live updates and highlights to follow.

BREAKING NEWS: Cardiff City v Ahlen is OFF due to safety concerns regarding the playing surface.

The first match of the Bluebirds' tour of Germany has been dramatically called off less than an hour before kick off


The game will be played later tonight.

Both teams now have to dash to Cardiff City’s base in a place called Harsewinkel.

It’s a 40km journey that will take around 45 minutes.


A behind closed door game v Ahlen will be played at the players' training base.

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Paul Trollope's pre-season planning was badly disrupted when Cardiff City's first tour match in Germany was called off because of the shocking state of the pitch.

The Bluebirds had been due to play local club RW Ahlen at their Wersestadion ground with a 6pm kick-off on Wednesday.

But less than an hour before the scheduled start time, the Bluebirds deemed the playing surface was unfit to stage the match.

After hasty negotiations, the two clubs instead agreed to play the fixture at some point in the evening behind closed doors at Cardiff's German training base in Harsewinkel.

The new journey...

This is the journey that both sets of players are currently making...

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Cardiff City FC ‏@CardiffCityFC 4m

#CardiffCity Starting XI vs RW Ahlen: Marshall, Ajayi, Connolly, Tutonda, Fabio, Ralls, Whittingham, John, Immers, Noone & Gounongbe.

19:00 PHIL SMITH
RW Ahlen team news

Starting XI: Mellwig; Witt, Klajic, Klauke, Heermann; Meschede, Waldoch, Kallenbach; Yilmaz, Machtemes, Libersan.

Half Time: RW Ahlen 0-0 Cardiff City

It’s 0-0.

Not sure we’ll see much of a second half but we’ll have a crack.

The plan is to keep going.

A few subs incoming here.







Quick turnaround

We’re not expecting much of a break at half time.

Wholesale changes and a quick turnaround as we try to beat the darkness.

The wind has really picked up here. There’s an almighty storm coming.

A bunch of cardiff’s instructions have just blown onto the pitch! Trollope laughs it off.

He’s seen the funny side of all the difficulties this evening.

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Match abandoned at half time 0-0

Match abandoned

Looks like the ref has brought and end to proceedings. Players from both teams now posing for a photograph.

That is very definitely that, players going through their warm down as the lighting creeps ever closer!

seems a comedy of errors this friendly

seems a comedy of errors this friendly

Wez, the organisation was diobolical and done on the cheap,its backfired.

seems a comedy of errors this friendly

Wez, the organisation was diobolical and done on the cheap,its backfired.

It's only pre season but you can't really blame us for this, a pre season game was organised and it's down to the opposition to have the ground ready.

seems a comedy of errors this friendly

Wez, the organisation was diobolical and done on the cheap,its backfired.

I'm sure they could have done it cheaper in the UK.
Still going away is a good time to bond for the players

Shambles!

Sunday league stuff

seems a comedy of errors this friendly

Wez, the organisation was diobolical and done on the cheap,its backfired.

It's only pre season but you can't really blame us for this, a pre season game was organised and it's down to the opposition to have the ground ready.

Its down to our club to look at where we are going to and all about the opposition, I thought you all said pre-season was important to get the team club,jelled together and some good work outs?

seems a comedy of errors this friendly

Wez, the organisation was diobolical and done on the cheap,its backfired.

I'm sure they could have done it cheaper in the UK.
Still going away is a good time to bond for the players

Luke, most clubs as big as Cardiff go abroad for pre-season.

Even the local club here in Mallorca, Atletico Baleares are now in Austria and they really are a poor club.

you couldn't make it up. Just when you start to believe, club officials put you back down to earth pretty sharpish

seems a comedy of errors this friendly

Wez, the organisation was diobolical and done on the cheap,its backfired.

It's only pre season but you can't really blame us for this, a pre season game was organised and it's down to the opposition to have the ground ready.

Its down to our club to look at where we are going to and all about the opposition, I thought you all said pre-season was important to get the team club,jelled together and some good work outs?

Yeah but the key reason why we went out there is for tomorrow, we organised the pre season months ago now, it's down to the opposition to have everything ready not us, we can't be held accountable for the state of ground over there.

It does look a mess the situation we was in but we shouldn't be held accountable.