Fussball Musings
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Hertha Podcast
  • Hertha Gallery
  • Visiting the Olympiastadion Berlin
  • Other Media
  • Fußball Terms
  • Contact

What a Hinrunde that was!

12/21/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
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.

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.
0 Comments

Starting to Dream

12/8/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
I went into match day 15 with my normal blind optimism that says “yeah, we could get something from this” together with a fair degree of apprehension.  A less seasoned Hertha fan might be thinking of dizzy heights and European places as Hertha were high in the table.  The apprehension however was not totally without foundation as the last time Hertha beat Bayer Leverkusen was back in 2009! 

At the start of the match, as it turned out, our team came out of the blocks like it had a firework up its collective hind quarters.   Optimism was inspired by the red card issued to Sebastian Boenisch following a studs up lunging tackle in the 17th minute leaving Leverkusen with just ten men!  Hertha were all over the visitors like a particularly nasty rash and rewards appeared with an assist from Vedad Ibisevic leading to an early goal from Darida in the 7th minute.  Naturally, I jumped out of my seat like a cuckoo on steroids thinking perhaps this could be our day. 

Then the cuckoo slapped straight back into the clock when Hernandez scored the equalizer in the 29th albeit against the flow of play.  The long suffering back of my seat took a pretty big hit as I crashed back into it when that goal went in.  It’s amazing how quickly euphoria can dissolve and be replaced with the more traditional pessimism and, for a while, Leverkusen had their tails up and pushed ahead but not for long.  In the 60th minute a towering header from Jay Brooks put Hertha 2:1 up and the visitors couldn’t produce anything to pull it back.  It could have been more had the penalty been awarded when Ibisevic was cut down in the box or the short range blast from Jay Brooks had not been saved off the line. 

A confident and dare I say it, a dominant performance from the old lady leaves her with 26 points two matches before the winter break.  There were still a few glitches that made the heart stop but in the run up to match day 16 we find ourselves in a position we couldn’t have justifiably dreamt of this time last year. 

Up until this point in the season (and those preceding it come to that) my prime concern has always been safety.  Always thinking of those 35 points or so required for safety as each win or draw notches up a few more to add to the total.  Each point a step closer to avoiding relegation.  I guess if I was honest, I’m still thinking very much like that but this season has seen the old lady playing with confidence and dare I say it, certain panache at times.  So much so in fact that it makes you think perhaps this year is the year things will really start to come together in the capital.  Perhaps this year it is OK to start to dream. 
 

The Ostkurve during the match against Bayer Leverkusen - superb as always!
0 Comments
    Picture

    Archives

    March 2022
    February 2021
    November 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012

    Categories

    All
    Chelsea
    Hertha
    Hertha U23
    Olympiastadion
    Other
    Schenckendorffplatz
    Wembley

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly