Three points against Hannover surely?

I’m not even going to try and think about, let alone mention the “M word match”. That is going to be cast into the dark pages of Hertha history and put at the bottom of a particularly dusty pile of history books in the corner of a forgotten library somewhere.
Back to Berlin and although I was still in shock after the “M word match” I was quietly confident (along with most Hertha fans) that Hertha could bounce back against bottom place Hannover 96 and keep on track for European football next season.
When we arrived at the Olympiastadion it felt fairly quiet and I was slightly concerned that people had stayed away following “M”. As it turned out there was a turnout of over 45,000 although I’m not sure where they all were before the game!

Even before going into the stadium you could see there was going to be another glorious sunset in the west of Berlin. As the sun went down under the horizon above the May Field you could see the huge marques being erected on the field. One heck of a beer tent . . . . I’m assuming they are going to be used for the DFB Pokal final in a few weeks.
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As the teams came out it became evident that the support was going to be strong on the day and the Hertha faithful were determined to lift their team after recent events. To be fair, the away fans were having a pretty good go at it bearing in mind the dreadful season they have had accumulating only 17 points over 28 games. Credit where it’s due though, it’s nice to see real loyal support like that.
The game got off to a lightning start and when, after just four minutes, Marvin Plattenhardt whipped in a cross from the left touchline to Vedad Ibisevic skipping over the ball and clipping it into the net the crowd went mad! High fives all around and dreams of 6:0 didn’t look quite so crazy. However, Beck nearly spoiled the party just a few minutes later. It was all a bit of a mess really with Stark being in front of Jarstein as the shot came in – jumping to head the ball over – missing the header and leaving Rune to take the slightest of chances to save as came over. Just fourteen minutes after Vedad's goal a back heel followed by a quick short pass just left Artur Sobiech to put it away and the stadium's collective heart sank.

Going in at half time it could have been worse with 45 to put things to rights although I for one was feeling a little nervous. Things became really brown and steamy on 58 minutes when Hannover scored again off the post and if it were not for a few million tons of concrete 40,000 Hertha hearts would have hit ground level. The newly found fighting spirit of Hertha kicked in however and Pal Dardai put on Julian Schieber as well as Kalou and Ibisevic to hunt down the equaliser if not a winner. It would be a harsh critic indeed to say he way faint hearted!

His bravery was rewarded in in 72nd minute, just after Schieber was put on when his cross found Kalou and the equaliser found the back of the net.  Try as they may the winner just didn’t come and Hertha’s third place lay in the hands of others on Saturday and Sunday.  The people from “M” obliged by losing to Ingolstadt which was very sporting of them I thought.  Mainz only picked up a single point whilst on Sunday Schalke did what Schalke does and only came away with one point.  Leverkusen however came away from Koln 2:0 up and just one point behind Hertha.  Perhaps of more concern is the fracture to Vedad Ibisedic’s face that may, or may not prevent him travelling to Hoffenheim.  As always, time will tell but come what may get better soon Vedad!

As a footnote on the subject of a new stadium the Ultras on the Ostkurve made their thoughts pretty clear –

Hertha & Olympiastadion    
Unser Verein – Unsere Heimat!   
Hertha - Our Club        Olympiastadion - Our Home!
I’m with them on that one!  More about that in a later post.