Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde

The Saturday for the game against Wolfsburg saw Berlin experiencing some pretty typical April weather. You had to be prepared for almost anything including: glorious sunshine, dark menacing clouds, heavy showers, hail, cold as well as the inevitable wind. This forms an interesting metaphor that could so easily be applied to approaching pretty much every Hertha game!

Hertha fans approached the ground before the game bathed in lovely sunshine with cotton wool clouds just to show of the blue skies.

On this day I for one was not too confident about how this game was going to turn out as you can never quite tell which Hertha team will emerge onto the pitch. 

But, as soon as you are walking up towards the fortress Olympiastadion that normal “boyish optimism” kicks in and with it, “Yeah, we can do this” takes over.

The first twenty minutes or so it looked like just a matter of time before we would concede. Somehow the lads managed to hang in there despite struggling to string a few passes together at times. Allan de Souza had his first game in the starting eleven and to be fair he was running his socks off trying to make an impression after Hertha expressed an interest in extending his loan from Liverpool. Well you couldn’t fault his work rate.
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In the second half it was a different Hertha that came out with Dr Jeckyll in their heads and a different story to tell. Eventually it appeared, they remembered they had a fortress to defend and our captain Vedad Ibisevic put the ball in the back of the Wolfsburg net to our great delight. It took two headers the second off the keepers parry but in it went!  There were times in the second half when it looked like we might extend our lead but other times when we needed Rune Jarstein to save our bacon.  The first of these was after only twenty seconds (and he wasn't too happy about his defense for  some of them) and in one other case we were saved by some good solid Berlin woodwork!  Perhaps this time luck ran our way.

The contrast of our being able to drag something out of what started as at best, a “lack lustre” performance at home to our almost totally toothless performances away could hardly be more striking. There is something going on in the Hertha player’s heads and their mental attitude that holds them back away from home. The support in the Olympiastadion is magnificent but it’s not just that that carries them through at home but not away.  As soon as they get out onto the road Mr Hyde comes out to play and he’s really not very good at football, unfortunately.

At the game there were the inevitable banners on display on the Ostkurve but also some more personal ones in the case shown below one referring to, as I understand it, the decision that Afghanistan is apparently safe to send people back to - "Afghanistan: Revision of the deadly misjudgement - #Stayistan".  I’m reluctant to comment too much on political statements that I may not fully understand but I'm not sure I’d fancy being sent back there much to be honest.

​Against Wolfsburg it was a game of two halves as indeed now I suspect ultimately it will be for all thirty four games this season. One half will be played by an imperious Dr Jeckyll at home and the other by a frustratingly monstrous Mr Hyde.