What can I say about Hertha’s 2015/16 Hinrunde that hasn’t been said before? I feel like I have woken up in some parallel universe where it’s hard to recognise the footballing world around me. Hertha in third place in the Bundesliga and into the quarter finals of the DFB Pokal! Rumour had it this is the highest position for Hertha at the winter break for 41 years although I suspect this rumour is nonsense and it's more like seven! Last year we were scraping around for points to avoid relegation and now? Amazing, wonderful, superb and not the least, incredible!
In the cup game Nurnberg were no push over as they came into that cup game on the back of a decent run of form themselves. That back heel from Vedad Ibisevic to Darida to score that goal against Nurnburg – sublime! We are starting to play like a top four team. The last match before the winter break was icing on the cake for the 39,000 fans that managed to make it to the Olympiastadion to witness it. Two cracking goals by Darida and Kalou whilst the ball was pulled from the net a third time Ibisevic but unfortunately he had been just a whisker offside.
We are starting to play and look like a top four team! It prompted me to tweet just after the match “It's like a dream. I hardly recognise my own team, playing with confidence, passion and panache - it's bloody wonderful! #hahohe” Where has that come from? How will it all end? Who knows? Certainly not me but, for as long as the current run of form continues, I’m enjoying the ride that is for sure!
The black wearing Berliner pessimist in me finds me worrying, even in this joyous time that this rich vein of form will peter out over the long winter break and we end up dropping down the table in the New Year. Having said this with 32 points already the turnaround would have to be truly catastrophic to leave the Old Lady in any danger whatsoever.
The black wearing Berliner pessimist in me finds me worrying, even in this joyous time that this rich vein of form will peter out over the long winter break and we end up dropping down the table in the New Year. Having said this with 32 points already the turnaround would have to be truly catastrophic to leave the Old Lady in any danger whatsoever.
Bearing in mind how well Hertha have been doing over the last few months it is a mystery to me that, in a city of three and half million, there were over 30,000 empty seats in the Olympiastadion for the match against 1. FSV Mainz 05. Don’t get me wrong, the levels of support were immense and pretty well any EPL team would give their eye teeth to have something close to it, but that support is down to a hard core of about 35,000. Curiously, part of the problem is the sheer size of the Olympiastadion which is only filled when the likes of Bayern or Dortmund come to town. It is, I believe the second largest in Germany and yet occupied by a team with (until of late) modest achievements on the national (or international) scale. Put the 40,000 Hertha fans into a more modest stadium like, for example, Stamford Bridge and the world would be raving on about the atmosphere etc etc.
Part of the reason may be a curious mind-set where people think things are going wrong and if they aren’t, they will be soon. A Berlin variant of the Dartmoor weather forecast – “If you can’t see the moor it’s raining, if you can see the moor, it’s just about to”. This way of thinking doesn’t lend itself to long term enthusiastic support through thick and thin. Having said this I’ve been in the Olympiastadion watching Hertha play in the 2. Bundesliga with 35,000+ fans with no shortage of enthusiasm so it clearly doesn’t affect everyone!
In the winter at least the weather play a part at times. Although so far it has been weirdly warm this winter it can be bitterly cold in the Olympiastadion. I’ve seen people who clearly have an interest in the football huddled in a pub just a few miles from the stadium muttering about the cold.
One of the other factors may be the nature of the expanding population of Berlin. There are a lot of young people who move into the town without roots there and may have footballing loyalties elsewhere. Also I gather there are many older people coming to live in Berlin. Although this may be good for the city with them spending their “grey Euros” they are not likely to be spending them on Hertha tickets.
Having said all this, I may be a little disappointed that even more people don’t come to watch Hertha I am immensely proud of the support shown by those that do and that in my small way I contribute to that atmosphere. For those thinking of coming to visit Berlin come and take in a Bundesliga game and don the blue and white for a day. You never know, you may never want to take it off.
In the winter at least the weather play a part at times. Although so far it has been weirdly warm this winter it can be bitterly cold in the Olympiastadion. I’ve seen people who clearly have an interest in the football huddled in a pub just a few miles from the stadium muttering about the cold.
One of the other factors may be the nature of the expanding population of Berlin. There are a lot of young people who move into the town without roots there and may have footballing loyalties elsewhere. Also I gather there are many older people coming to live in Berlin. Although this may be good for the city with them spending their “grey Euros” they are not likely to be spending them on Hertha tickets.
Having said all this, I may be a little disappointed that even more people don’t come to watch Hertha I am immensely proud of the support shown by those that do and that in my small way I contribute to that atmosphere. For those thinking of coming to visit Berlin come and take in a Bundesliga game and don the blue and white for a day. You never know, you may never want to take it off.
RSS Feed