The run up to the last Bundesliga game of the season saw Berlin at its summer best with clear clue skies and blazing sunshine. The day itself was less impressive but still warm and dry and that is all you need when it comes to a pre-match “Fan-March” towards the Olympiastadion. There was much to celebrate with the impending entry to European competition and, in just a couple of months the 125th Jubilee for the club. All we had to do was not lose to Leverkusen and we’d be directly into the group stages of the Europa Cup. An important game to end the season and with our home form this season quite achievable you might think. But I have been told more times than I care to think about that build into Hertha’s DNA is the ability to lose important matches where other teams always seem to be able to pull a performance out of the bag just when it’s needed.
Hertha fans gathered from far and wide at Theodor-Huess-Platz ready for walk up to the Olympiastadion prior to the game. Fan groups had created a 125th Jubilee scarf and had big boxes of them for sale prior to the march. I was there early enough to buy one but the sold out really quickly. I stupidly didn’t think to buy three so I had two for my friends who had not arrived yet. I thought they were just behind me and there were a lot of scarves. It later appeared I was very wrong as not long afterwards they ran out. I just didn’t think – public apology for messing up - sorry guys, you know who you are.
The march was a great experience and good to be marching to the ground with friends amongst all the flags and pyros. Rather than me waffling on about it you can get a taste of the event through the photos and video clips shown below.
Some still shots of the march . . .
Ok, perhaps the less said about the game itself the better. Its fair to say this important game, that could have put us straight into the Europa Cup group stages . . . didn’t go well. After just five minutes Chicharito scored after what looked to me like a foul on one of our players (I couldn’t see who). At this stage there were no worries as we’d come back from behind before and we were at home after all.
I started to wonder if it was going to be our day when Weiser missed two opportunities the first of which resulted in a playful pat on the head from Marvin Plattenhardt. Then, just past the half our mark Leverkusen strung together some passes including a neat back heel and bang, we were 0:2 down. It got worse just before half time when John Brooks lost the ball trying to take it away from our penalty area and bang, it became 0:3.
Just past the hour Darida fouled in the box and Kissling put away the penalty - 0:4 this wasn’t going to plan.
Even at this time however the fans were still supporting the team and never gave up singing, chanting and giving it their all.
I started to wonder if it was going to be our day when Weiser missed two opportunities the first of which resulted in a playful pat on the head from Marvin Plattenhardt. Then, just past the half our mark Leverkusen strung together some passes including a neat back heel and bang, we were 0:2 down. It got worse just before half time when John Brooks lost the ball trying to take it away from our penalty area and bang, it became 0:3.
Just past the hour Darida fouled in the box and Kissling put away the penalty - 0:4 this wasn’t going to plan.
Even at this time however the fans were still supporting the team and never gave up singing, chanting and giving it their all.
In the 71st minute Mitchell Weiser managed to bundle the ball over the time to make it 1:4 with what on another day could have been a hat trick.
In the 81st and 90th minutes Leverkusen finished off the worse defeat I had witnessed in the flesh. Perhaps the lads were under too much pressure with all the "Hertha-International" slogans? Who knows, certainly not me. At least Sami Allagui got a farewell goal from the spot before he heads off the St Pauli in the summer. A bitter sweet kind of day really in that we are at least in the Europa Cup qualifies like last year and never sank below sixth all season but tainted by the nature of this last game.
In the 81st and 90th minutes Leverkusen finished off the worse defeat I had witnessed in the flesh. Perhaps the lads were under too much pressure with all the "Hertha-International" slogans? Who knows, certainly not me. At least Sami Allagui got a farewell goal from the spot before he heads off the St Pauli in the summer. A bitter sweet kind of day really in that we are at least in the Europa Cup qualifies like last year and never sank below sixth all season but tainted by the nature of this last game.
The team thanking the fans for their support
Even after all this it had still been a great day even if we spent a couple of hours before the game marching to what appears to be built into Hertha’s DNA – losing the big match. But hey, that’s football and as I said earlier, we never dropped below sixth place this season and finished one place higher than last year. That can’t be bad.
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