For any of you who wondered what the "Championship" (second tier football) in England is like, here is a little snapshot for you. It was new to me as well to be honest but it was a great day out.  With still two weeks before the Bundesliga kicks off my wife and I went to watch Brighton and Hove Albion play the first match if the 2014/15 season in the Amex Stadium.

Okay, the atomoshphere wasn't quite like the Olympiastadion but that wouldn't be a fair comparison. Both sets of fans were in good humour for the most part and there was a healthy contingent of away fans in the south stand. There was some singing of the standard songs in the stands "Hey Jude" and "Sussex by the sea". I tried to film some of it with my phone but the microphone picked up a disproportionate volutes from the PA which doesn't really do it justice but hey, it's justva phone so I can't complain to much!

They faced Sheffield Wednesday, a team they had drawn against in most if their recent encounters but long term, they had struggled against.

Although Sheffield had slightly more of the possession Brighton (the Seagulls) were the better team for most of the match I felt. Thus was perhaps summarised by the shots. Brighton had 11 shots with 5 on target whilst Sheffied had three shots, one on target but scored from it! Brighton had their chances (albeit not that many) but part of the difference was them not taking them. The other part was Andrew Croft getting red carded early in the second half - that really didn't help!

The match ended 0:1 and we enjoyed our rare taste of English football and found the "Championship was . . not bad at all!!

Here are a few photos from our visit to give you a small taste of what it was like at The Amex.

The build up to the World Cup Quarter Final today was a hot one today in Berlin.  Blazing hot sunshine and temperatures up to 30 degrees C kept my mind wandering towards cold drinks! We got back a little late and the local bars were already packed.  So rather than trying to find a corner somewhere to stand in to watch Germany's match against France we decided to cycle over to the Fanmeile near the Brandenburg gate.  It was a bit busy but the atmosphere was great and not too boisterous!

We got a great view on one of the big screens.  Coming back after the match we went past the Ku'damm which was totally jammed with cars flying flags tooting horns not really going anywhere - utter chaos bur great stuff.  Even the big advertising screen fipped to the German flag in between adverts! 

The fans after the final whistle - as you can see in the clip I took below . . . were a bit happy . .

Last night team USA played Ghana in Group G of the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil,  They got off to a great start - going 1:0 up after 29 seconds (31 on the TV coverage) with a goal from Clint Dempsey.  The stars and stripes went on to hold on until the 82nd minute when Ayew equalised for Ghana.

The real story for me comes as after a string of injury worries that resulted in Hertha's John Anthony Brooks being brought on at half time.  We acquitted himself well enough in defence as you would expect but he really shone in the 86th minute when a corner was won by the USA and all hands went to the pumps!

Jay went up to add his height to the attacking force and, in his first competitive match for the USA he headed it on to the deck and the into the back of the net!!  An amazing winning goal late in the game but the real joy was Jay's reaction to it all. 

He looked like he couldn't quite believe it!  His reaction was wonderful - overcome with emotion and ending up face down on the deck with his team mates all over him. 

A wonderful evening for the 21 year old Berliner and I'm sure, one he'll never, ever forget.   Congratulations to John Anthony Brooks and if you haven't you haven't come across him yet - check out this video clip about him

I wont go on about the game as this has already been done long before my fingers stroked the keys.  The atmosphere was pretty good and there was a good bit of support for the National Team.  There was an attempt at a simple Choreo forming two crosses of St George by holing up a "clapper" that was stick into everyone's seat before the match.

As it turned out those clappers were put to use later on in the match as well.  They rained down onto the pitch in the form of "paper aeroplanes".  The flights of these improvised aircraft often caused larger cheers than the match itself.  I can't help feeling that this, and the Mexican waves, says something about the quality of the match at times not to mention the attention people were paying to it (or not).

The most notable of these flights involved an epic flight from the upper stands to strike (albeit lightly) one of the Peruvian players from behind catching him by surprise.  See the you tube video below

A took al a few snaps with my phone on the way in and before the match - take them in if you like.

We had a great evening but it might be a while before we venture up to Wembley again.  And now, my mind will shortly be on the wander again - it will soon be off to the heat of Brazil.  Bring it on!

One the day of the Champions league final in Lisbon a tweet coming out from Berlin prompted me to give a short nod to Jay Brooks who has been confirmed in the final 23 for the US National team in the World Cup. So he will be heading for Brazil very soon with his father's countrymen, to face the best in the world. Quite an honour for him and good luck to him I say.

It may feel strange for him, playing against Germany when it comes to it after having faced many if them in the Bundesliga. However, perhaps Jay can offer Jurgen Klinsmann some recent insight to a lot of the players in the Gemany national team. After all, his last game was against Dortmund and it's not so long ago Hertha faced Bayern as well. Anyway, I hope he has a good World Cup and comes back to Berlin a stronger, better player.

OK, both Hertha and Chelsea had bad weekends. On the day after we spent the Sunday wandering around flea-markets and exploring the gluten free cafes of Friedrichshain to take our minds off thoughts of football. In the evening we went to another, totally different sporting event in Berlin - the handball of Füchse Berlin!
Well at least the hunters won! There was a great atmosphere in the Max-Schmeling-Halle to see the home victory over the Romanian team HCM Constanta. I gather there was about 5000 people in attendance which was good for a EHF Cup game.

Here us some of the goalmouth action for Die Füchse in the first half

Well the first has dropped out with a week to go and it's started with Miroslav Klose who has dislocated his shoulder and will be out for at least three weeks or so it is being reported in "Football-Italia.net.

From the England camp Michael Carrick (Achilles' tendon) and Danny Welbeck (knee injury) will not be playing on Tuesday. I gather neither will be being replaced in the squad.

Also the Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard and Tottenham defender Kyle Walker will be missing the Chile match on Friday through injury. Will they miss the match against Germany as well?

Liverpool's Daniel Sturridge has been nursing a foot injury and perhaps Frank Lampard (who would be captain in Steven Gerard's absence) has a slight cold, are by no means certain for the Chile match. The list goes on . . .

. . . and England go 2:0 down to Chile at Wembley whilst Germany get a 1:1 draw. The scene is now set - not long to go now!

Well, I have just spent 90 minutes watching England play Ukraine in the World Cup qualifiers. A pretty dull 0:0 draw leaves England top of their group (for now at least) but was it exciting? Er no!

Hey, I am not complaining too much as I am going to watch Hertha at the Olympiastadion on Friday. I am hoping for a good match and three points from this home match but the lads are going to have to fight for it. Loosing Alex Baumjohann to an ACL injury was a massive blow but it may give others a chance to shine. It was a shame that Stuttgart decided to wake up in the last game as well!  We will see on Friday who Jos Luhukay decides to play. I for one am looking forward to it

I remembered this podcast about football in Berlin dating back to the dark days of April 2012.  As background it is a great snapshot of the beautiful game in the German capital city. It is still there to be listened to so why not listen to the blast from the past . . .

Here it is on the podbean site -
http://bundesligafanatic.podbean.com/2012/04/ 

. . . . I tried adding a link here where you could download the MP3 directly but I failed totally!