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Published: April 7th 2006
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Olympia
five golden rings Last Saturday I went with Andre, boyfriend of one of my neighbors, to the Olympic Stadium to see Hertha Berlin play Stuttgart in soccer. Hertha won 2-nil, but only the secondhalf had quality soccer. The stadium was awesome, and I can cross another country off the list.
It was built by the Nazis to host the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Jesse Owens and all that. It's wayyyy out there, and it's not surrounded by a neighborhood but by a large athletic complex. Speer did not design it. They re-habbed it about 5 years ago, and it will host several Wold Cup games this summer, including the final. Holds about 70K.
It's also quite near a train line, and the public transit folks very sensibly ran special express trains. (I wish DC did that for games at RFK...geez.) So my ticket was in probably the cheapest section of the stadium...14 Euros. The stadium is a horseshoe that is very nearly an oval, and the result is that wind sweeps into the open end and turns the opposite section (where i was) into a wind tunnel. Hertha's home kit is blue, so I wore my Vieira Arsenal jersey (thanks Jimmy) to fit
The view from my seat
upper deck was away from the action in. Only caught the friendly taunting of one teenager. Anyway, Arsenal had just worked Vieira and his new tean, Juventus, so I simply had to wear it, regardless.
Only about 50K people showed up, which is pretty poor, considering it was #5 versus #7 in a twenty-team league, and fairly decent weather to boot. And Berlin has over 3 million residents. It was hard to get a grasp of the songs, which is probably my favorite part of the fan experience. The song they sing when the teams take the field is a power-ballad that is quite good...not unlike the Liverpool song. The only player who (I could tell) had his own song was their #10, Marcelinho, the token Brazilian. The scarf-wearing of note was that a lot of men, who had very many scarves, made a sort of kilt out of them. Beers cost E 4, but you get a euro back if you return your cup. Seriously cuts down on litter! I also had a bratwurst, which was quite tasty...the concessions were professionally done...would certainly put the Durham Bulls to shame. The bathrooms were easily the cleanest I've seen at a footie match. Sure, it's a new
stadium, but the men's had two attendants (one was a woman) and they ask you to pay 30 cents per visit. The season-ticket-holders seemed to know the toilet attendants, so that familiarity/respect, I think, helps keep it all clean.
The away fans were few in number and were sheltered off by a clear plastic wall. The pitch is circled by a blue track, so the action is quite a ways away. There are some unofficial cheerleaders, in a sense, as there are a few guys in the first row behind the goal that actually have electric megaphones. They do a great job of leading the crowd in chants, especially when the game seems dull. When the game is exciting, the cheering drowns them out so they don't try. The system works. There is an official mascot, a bear named "Wunder Bar," a delicious pun on the word for "wonderful." The fan clubs don't seem to like him.
Andre is from Babelsburg (near Potsdam) and he and his friends have an unofficial "fan club"...the fan clubs tend to sit in the cheap seats, and look for trouble if the game isn't interesting. This happened in the first half. Two
guys two rows ahead of them (I was several rows behind all of this) started jawing, so they decided to settle their differences at halftime with a fight. At the start of the second half, the pugilists returned to their seats. No blood or problems...I think it was just a shoving match with a headlock here and there. Anyway, the police presence is pretty high.
Final appraisal: I would like to see what it's like in a sold-out game. Then again, Andre said they haven't had a sell-out all season...even though the team is pretty good! I would be so disappointed if I were he. I'm used to seeing DC United in a half-empty RFK, but these folks--zee Germans--are supposed to be serious supporters. The thug factor was light-to-moderate, with nothing approaching "out-of-hand". Which is a good thing, since I was wearing an Arsenal shirt. I think I shall invest in a Hertha scarf.
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Trucano
non-member comment
Bundesliga
Interesting that Aresenal gear would be that controversial. I guess the Champions League does foster more rivalry across Europe. Still, you were probably better off than had you shown up in a Bayern or Hamburg shirt or something.