The first Sunday of advent saw 1. FC Mainz 05 visit the capital to try their luck against the increasingly formidable home form of Hertha BSC.
 | It had been a sunny late autumn day in Berlin which made it a nice day to wander around but as the time for the match approached and the sun went down the temperature went down with it. On a positive note, the sunset looked pretty good behind the Olympiastadion and provided a backdrop to enjoy a pre-match beer in the cool evening air. |
The dropping temperature helped to highlight a charity initiative called “Hertha wärmt!“ organised by one of the Hertha Ultra groups (Harlekins Berlin '98). The initiative involved collecting warm clothing, sleeping bags, camping mattresses etc for the Berlin City Mission who support homeless people in the city.
This is the fifth time the group has organised one of these collections and advertised via social media and the Hertha website.
A worthy cause as winter really is coming and it can be pretty cold in Berlin. I managed to find a warm jacket in my wardrobe that I was not likely to wear again so it came with me to the stadium and was proudly handed over.
A worthy cause as winter really is coming and it can be pretty cold in Berlin. I managed to find a warm jacket in my wardrobe that I was not likely to wear again so it came with me to the stadium and was proudly handed over.
Just a really small gesture perhaps but at least I felt I was taking part and helping one person who doesn’t have a warm flat to go back to. Doing it made me feel a little bit more comfortable in my own skin anyway.
The crowd was a little disappointing in terms of numbers in that only just short of 38,000 made it to the stadium on the night but I guess it was on a cold Sunday night and the first Advent Sunday at that.
The crowd was a little disappointing in terms of numbers in that only just short of 38,000 made it to the stadium on the night but I guess it was on a cold Sunday night and the first Advent Sunday at that.
Still, the faithful core was there and in full voice as always. They had one or two things to say before the evening was out as well but more about that later.
The game itself started off as a cagy affair with Hertha retaining the lion’s share of possession but with much sideways and backwards passing involved. After twenty minutes or so Hertha looked like they were gaining in confidence and starting to get hold of the match and then, after twenty five minutes the ball ended up in the back of the net. Unfortunately it was our net. It felt like the stadium just sank another couple of meters deeper into the earth as thousands of Herthaner hearts sank. Rune Jarstein was not happy and he looked like he was ready to kill somebody!
Hertha are not the team from a few years ago and they were not going to roll over and die. Just over ten minutes later our striker partnership combined as Kalou passed the ball across the goal to find Ibisevic who turned and fired the ball into the right net this time. Going in at half time with the score at 1:1 and all square left the crowd with every reason to be confident with 68% of the possession and having eight shots to the three from Mainz.
The second half brought a crazy sixteen minutes where: the ref went for his pocket three times, the ball ended up in the net and two players were sent off. In the 58th minute Ibisevic was given a yellow card for sliding in a little too hard on is opponent. Four minutes later Jean-Philippe Gbamin received his second yellow card and left the field. Party-party time for the home team you might think with their opponents down to ten men. The party really kicked off five minutes later when a header from Kalou dropped to Ibisevic who slotted it home for his brace. This was a real a milestone for the Bosnian striker as it was his 100th goal in the Bundesliga. A superb achievement and should have been grounds for standing ovations but seven minutes later the Vedator tried his hand at a bit of wrestling for reasons I cannot fathom, the second yellow card came out and off he went.
There was a nervous last twenty minutes where Mainz tried their best to get back into the game and claim a point. One especially nerve wracking moment in the last few minutes made the fans around us wince and put their hands up to their face when the ball shot across the Hertha goal, past Jarstein only to be cleared from the line by Brooks. It wasn’t nearly as close as it looked from the stands. At the time I couldn’t believe it hadn’t gone in but felt massive relief when the whistle didn’t blow! Twelve games in and Hertha find themselves in third place and with a standout 100% home record this season – remarkable!
The game itself started off as a cagy affair with Hertha retaining the lion’s share of possession but with much sideways and backwards passing involved. After twenty minutes or so Hertha looked like they were gaining in confidence and starting to get hold of the match and then, after twenty five minutes the ball ended up in the back of the net. Unfortunately it was our net. It felt like the stadium just sank another couple of meters deeper into the earth as thousands of Herthaner hearts sank. Rune Jarstein was not happy and he looked like he was ready to kill somebody!
Hertha are not the team from a few years ago and they were not going to roll over and die. Just over ten minutes later our striker partnership combined as Kalou passed the ball across the goal to find Ibisevic who turned and fired the ball into the right net this time. Going in at half time with the score at 1:1 and all square left the crowd with every reason to be confident with 68% of the possession and having eight shots to the three from Mainz.
The second half brought a crazy sixteen minutes where: the ref went for his pocket three times, the ball ended up in the net and two players were sent off. In the 58th minute Ibisevic was given a yellow card for sliding in a little too hard on is opponent. Four minutes later Jean-Philippe Gbamin received his second yellow card and left the field. Party-party time for the home team you might think with their opponents down to ten men. The party really kicked off five minutes later when a header from Kalou dropped to Ibisevic who slotted it home for his brace. This was a real a milestone for the Bosnian striker as it was his 100th goal in the Bundesliga. A superb achievement and should have been grounds for standing ovations but seven minutes later the Vedator tried his hand at a bit of wrestling for reasons I cannot fathom, the second yellow card came out and off he went.
There was a nervous last twenty minutes where Mainz tried their best to get back into the game and claim a point. One especially nerve wracking moment in the last few minutes made the fans around us wince and put their hands up to their face when the ball shot across the Hertha goal, past Jarstein only to be cleared from the line by Brooks. It wasn’t nearly as close as it looked from the stands. At the time I couldn’t believe it hadn’t gone in but felt massive relief when the whistle didn’t blow! Twelve games in and Hertha find themselves in third place and with a standout 100% home record this season – remarkable!
As I mentioned earlier in this post, the ultras held a protest with banners and a message to the powers that be in the club. Their concerns related to the ongoing saga of a new, purpose built stadium that has been in the news again recently. A feasibility study has thrown up suggestions of potential new sites for a stadium beyond the city limits in Brandenburg.
Quite where this leaves “Hertha Berlin” or “Hertha Berliner Sport-Club” and the core of the fans that come from across the city is a little hard to comprehend. For my part, my heart belongs in the Olympiastadion and I’m not happy about the prospect of moving so I’m with them on this one.
NB At the Hertha members meeting the following day it was announced that Vedad Ibisevic had signed an extension to his contract enabling him to stay at Hertha until 2019. Cheers all round.
NB At the Hertha members meeting the following day it was announced that Vedad Ibisevic had signed an extension to his contract enabling him to stay at Hertha until 2019. Cheers all round.
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