FC Schalke 04 under grey skies

I woke up this morning to a drip, drip, drip sound coming from the corner of the room.  No gentle readers, it wasn’t a burst pipe, a leaking radiator or even worse an overflowing toilet in the apartment above.  It was rain dripping down from window ledges above hitting the metal window ledge outside our window.  Looking out you could see one of those even grey skies that appear to be leaking on the unsuspecting Berliners below.

I was hoping that the weather was not some kind of omen for the match coming up against Schalke 04.  I was also hoping that Schalke would be exhausted after their clash against Real Madrid during the week and Klass-Jan Huntelaar would have another downturn in form.  With only 10/9 games to play the sense of urgency is really starting to build. 

As it turned out it was disappointing in another way.  Before the match if someone offered me a point off Schalke I would have waited a polite length of time before ripping their arm off and taking the point with it!  In this year’s clash I found myself leaving the ground content but tinted with a strange feeling of regret about what might have been.

We had four friends out from the UK to spend a long weekend with us in Berlin and naturally, we took them to see Hertha play (hello David, Iris, Jacqui and Jim).  Sadly, poor Jim was ill and had to go back to his hotel which meant he missed the match. The remaining three, came out of the game being really impressed by the atmosphere.  They had a good view of both the match and the ever faithful, ever enthusiastic Ostkurve!

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Our friends could not share however the twisted emotions of having their team gaining a point you were not expecting but losing two that would have been so important.

The feeling when Anis Ben-Hatira knocked in that first goal was immense and by pure chance I was filming the crowd with my phone in one hand but looking the other way at the game when he scored!  Sorry about the shaky camera view and the abrupt end to the clip – the phone was stuffed into my pocket and I shot out of my seat twirling scarf in had screaming my head off!!  (I’m sure you understand)

When Genki scored in the 81st minute we went mad thinking those three points where so close now.  The crowd clapping in unison like a countdown to the final whistle.  But it wasn’t to be but Matip spoiled the party in the 90th minute to make it 2:2.  But, at the end of the day, those grey skies of the morning broke into a little sunshine cast on that vital and, to be honest, unexpected point.  

Here are a few photos from the day . . .