The first match of the season was held on one of the hottest weekends of the year with temperatures of 30 °C occurring even at 20:00 in the evening and naturally, much hotter during the day. Cool for readers in some parts of the world no doubt but pretty warm for Berlin.
| I had spent a couple of days enjoying the fine weather including watching Hertha train on the Thursday before the game. It was so warm after the training we decided to go for a swim in the Olympic pool next to the stadium to cool off. It’s quite special swimming in that historic pool and looking up to see the Olympic stadium above and at 5,50 EUR I think it’s quite a bargain as well! |  |
On the Friday we visited the Strandbad at Wannsee (see photo at the top of this post) but we spent most of the time in the shade of a tree on the beach taking the occasional dip in the lake to cool off!
On the day of the match the blue skies faded as clouds crept onto the scene but this did little to help with the heat and humidity. The “Berlin solar oven” AKA the Ostkurve was still bathed in sunshine and nice and “toasty”. During the match the ref. stopped the play once in the first half and once again in the second half to allow the players to have a drink as well as pouring cold water over themselves. Even ice packs appeared to be used to keep the players temperature down. Players in the Bundesliga are more used to snow than these kinds of conditions!
The match itself was a fairly typical Hertha roller coaster but this time with a happy ending. There were a few chances and half chances for Weiser and Haraguchi but they didn’t have it all their own way as Pekarik put in a last second sliding block to keep Freiburg out. Then the Freiburg captain managed to head the ball onto his own bar. Finally the deadlock was broken as Ibisevic passed the ball to the edge of the D where Darida blasted into the back of the net!
Happy days you might have thought but no, that’s not the Hertha way. Into injury time Hertha were heading to a narrow win even though Skjelbred had needed to go off injured leaving Hertha down to ten men. Then, from a corner the ball was headed past Jarstein to sink the hearts of every Hertha fan (again). To be fair, Hertha didn’t weaken and even deeper into injury time Schieber slid the ball past the Freiburg keeper to the absolutely wild delight of the management and the fans alike (I’m still a little hoarse a week later). The first three points of 2016/17 have been won and they’ll be the first of many I hope. That last minute winning goal made one of the hottest and sweatiest train journeys back home I have ever experienced worth every dripping minute!
The post-match celebrations involved one of the massed claps that have been seen in Berlin before but made famous in the summer by the Icelandic supporters in the Euros. I think we’ll be seeing a lot of these displays in the Bundesliga this year. Anyway, for your viewing pleasure I present – the Ostkurve . .
Happy days you might have thought but no, that’s not the Hertha way. Into injury time Hertha were heading to a narrow win even though Skjelbred had needed to go off injured leaving Hertha down to ten men. Then, from a corner the ball was headed past Jarstein to sink the hearts of every Hertha fan (again). To be fair, Hertha didn’t weaken and even deeper into injury time Schieber slid the ball past the Freiburg keeper to the absolutely wild delight of the management and the fans alike (I’m still a little hoarse a week later). The first three points of 2016/17 have been won and they’ll be the first of many I hope. That last minute winning goal made one of the hottest and sweatiest train journeys back home I have ever experienced worth every dripping minute!
The post-match celebrations involved one of the massed claps that have been seen in Berlin before but made famous in the summer by the Icelandic supporters in the Euros. I think we’ll be seeing a lot of these displays in the Bundesliga this year. Anyway, for your viewing pleasure I present – the Ostkurve . .
RSS Feed