What a day. What a night. Words won't do it justice, but I'll try my best. (Sorry, the photos aren't great, but my camera is technically broke.)
We met, as is tradition, in Mauerpark, next to the ground, at 4.30, I was the first one there *embarrassed* but I've the excuse that I live close by. TBH, the whole day I wasn't nervous at all, I don't know whether it was because a) I felt a bit detached from it all having missed all of the previous rounds and having only seen TeBe 4 times this season, or b) Hertha II are a league above us, a good Regionalliga team, and so I thought we had absolutely NO chance. Doughnut Boy was so nervous, lack of sleep and the lot :)
More familiar faces arrived in dribs and drabs, until at 5pm, as announced, the beer and some of the more important people involved with TeBe arrived. The club donated 5 crates of Berliner Pilsner beer to the fans to say thanks for their support this season, and this beer was gratefully accpeted :) A few of us went off and had a kickaround to try to chase away the nerves, until the arrival of some Hertha fans in the park made us more alert and we got stuck into the beer again with the others. What pleased me was the amount of non-TeBe supporting friends who were there, Simon, Nick, St. and Joe among others.
We headed to the ground earlyish, as one or two didn't have tickets and there was a huge queue. And then we got into the ground. The atmosphere was electric already, and the 'ultras', despite much cynicism from the old fart brigade, had done a great job with 'TEBE' in huge letters, loads of cardboard cups, shedloads of purple/white confetti and balloons, etc (nb a similar cynicism was noted at the Linfield Irish Cup final, and again that proved to be a great success. Hats off to LWOB, Bart etc, you did a good job)
The pre-match atmosphere builds, lots of familiar faces
The first surprise was that our star striker and top scorer of the last 2 seasons, Micha Fuss, was on the bench. We seemed to line up with quite a defensive formation imo, although given the respective leagues of the two teams, that was understandable.
As for the match itself, my recollection differs from most other fans. I thought we were largely outplayed, esp in the 2nd half. The teams really did cancel each other out, but in the 2nd half, Hertha had much better chances, the ball just flying past the far post on a number of occasions, Hertha's passing being much more fluent and their midfield more dominant. Our big defender-turned-striker, Vuckovic (think a better-looking Peter Crouch with more skill), seemed to spend more time in our box defending corners etc than in theirs, plus he also seemed to keep trying to do too much with the ball, to beat one man too many,and I was getting very annoyed with his reluctance to pass the fecking ball, much to the amusement of the German speakers around me, laughing at this crazy Irish guy swearing away in English :)
On the terraces, though, TeBe very much had the upper hand, singing almost non-stop, prompted by the huge purple-wig-wearing Ultras71 and various Babelsberg sympathisers. I felt though that not as much singing was done as last year, maybe cos we didn't get 'Lila-weisse Allez' going for half an hour non-stop :) I actually paced myself this tme, so no sore heads, and especially no crying :) It helped that I drank no beer at all DURING the match, seeing as the queue was a mile long and people had to queue for THIRTY FECKIN MINUTES for a beer. So I gave it a miss. Hertha's support seemed to made up of the old men that always go to watch the amateurs, plus a gaggle of dodgy-looking youngsters and skinheads.
The official crowd given was 1600, not a lot, but we made much more noise than you would believe 1000-odd could make. Our number was swelled in part by fans inspired by flyers (over 2000!) posted by Ultras71 and Mr. Bungle in the surrounding houses the day before. A big hats off to the 2 gentlemen for this.
Anyway, back to the game. Extra time was inevitable despite Hertha's superiority. Here we go again, I thought. I thought wrong. Hertha scored midway through the first period of extra time through their 1,96m striker Samba; our defence had held out heroically till then, thanks in no small part to the immense Schalle, but it was on the cards. At this point, I thought that was it. We had created NO chances of note, they were fitter, and the rest of the half was played out tamely. I was a bit gutted, but kind of resigned to it: we WERE the big outsiders, after all. A lot of glum faces were on show, BUT the singing and encouragement continued. A sign for me of the resignation was us throwing the rest of our confetti when we were still 1-0 down, we didn't really expect to use it again.
My feeling of despair was increased in second period of extra time, when, from a corner, Thompson leapt up, only to head the ball straight at the goalkeeper. That was our last chance gone. But no. Another free-kick (I think), up pops Kadow, IT'S IN! 1-1! Cue wild celebrations, I think I hugged some random Babelsberg guy beside me, then looked for Doughnut Boy and the regulars.
So, penalties again. I'd have happily settled for that. After all, we have Timo Hampf, football God, scorer and saver extraordinaire. But I underestimated the resilience of this team. Last minute, we get a free-kick out near the left hand touchline. Fuss sends in a big high loopy curly one. It's looking good, Hertha defenders don't attack it, the keeper looks as if he thinks it's going out, Lemcke attacks it like a man possessed, sticks out a foot and the ball is in the net. CUE ECSTASY.
At this stage, I have to admit, I fell over the first 2 rows of seats, backwards. Luckily, noone saw me, as everyone was too busy going nuts to care or notice. I got up and proceeded to look out every TeBe fan that I know, to hug them. Especially Matze, as it was his last game before he moves away, and Endi, as he's been through a lot lately, and Doughnut Boy, for the same reasons and cos he's invested a lot in the team this year. Read these 3 blogs for match reports, they're well worth a look.
The end was incredible. Loads of people piled down to the front, Fuss and ALL the players ran straight over to Block E to celebrate, and the noise was incredible. At the very end, I just picked up a big white flag and waved it again and again, I couldn't sing much by this stage due to sore heads, and I'm not one for standing by the fence and high-fiving with the players. Everyone was just delirious with joy. You could see how much the fans meant to the players, and how much they were enjoying it. This cracking video captures a little of what it was like.
After the match, we alighted to our usual 'Spaeti' (late-night offie) nearby to try to wind down a little and come to terms with what had happened. By this stage it was pissing it down, but no-one cared. Doughnut Boy was very quiet. He'd cried after the winner, and seemed emotionally drained. It made me laugh. I wasn't quite as bad, for me, Irish Cup Final day, May 6th, had been my personal footballing zenith.
After a beer and a chat with those I hadn't had a chance to see during the game, a 'Spontandemo' was held by 30-odd fans, with the banner we made last week, all the way to the Fraanz club, where the club were holding a night for players and fans. I didn't go, partly due to my prejudices against the club, partly cos I wanted to go to table tennis in the Kastanie. I regret not even going for a wee bit, as it was free in. But Felix, Doughnut as others celebrated until it was light :)
For me, the absolute highlight was seeing so many TeBe regulars together again, along with a lot of occasionals and newbies, everyone absolutley delighted.
TEBE PARTY ARMY!
