The game started in the early evening on a Wednesday so it was at best tricky for many home fans let alone away supporters to get the Olympiastadion. The attendance was disappointing in terms of numbers if not support. The support and atmosphere started pretty much as normal but the game appeared to drift away from the script. |
I know some of the results in Europe and at home was hard to take but the reaction by some of the fans by half time and certainly the end of the game was far more disappointing than the attendance. The whistles started at half time and then there was the banner held up by one ultra-group referring to the incident on New Year’s Eve at Cologne Cathedral was a disgrace in my opinion. It appears whenever Hertha find themselves in the spotlight somebody does something to show the club in a bad light firstly against Rostock and now against Cologne. The whistles blasted towards the team after the game after the game was no way for fans, supporters to act.
Then, just three days later Hertha faced HSV, the team I have heard described as “the points provider”
The end result was a lot of Hertha fans going home in a far happier frame of mind that night leaving a picturesque Olympiastadion in the evening light.
The dream didn’t continue however as first Malli and then Gomez scored and the bubble was burst. It was not the end of the drama however as the man who I said was a good defender but lacked the attacking threat of Brooks won his duel with the ex-Hertha player and headed the ball home to draw us level again just after half time. Spirits dived on the 60th minute when Origi left us a goal behind. Then that man Selke saved us an away point with just seven minutes to play to finish what turned out to be a truly remarkable game for all sorts of reasons.
The murder of these Berliners is marked by individual brass plaques (Stolpersteine) set into pavements where they used to live before the Nazi reign of terror. The reason I bring this up now is a number of Hertha fan took the prompt of the anniversary of the Kristallnacht to visit some of the Stolpersteine in the city and polish the brass as an act of remembrance for the victims of the terror. |