Rob Bradford’s Weblog

Yesterday myself and a work colleague went to the Olympic Stadium here in Berlin to see Hertha play Hannover in the Bundesleague. Since I’d never been to a football match before I wasn’t really sure what to expect. When we got onto the S-Bahn the train was full of optimistic fans drinking beer and rehearsing their football chants. Once we had found our seats in the overwhelmingly agoraphobic stadium we got to see quite a lot of action, in fact Hertha scored 4 goals to, uhm, Hannover’s, nil point. By the third goal my initial anticipation and scepticism had been replaced by an optimistic tension as I attently tracked the ball around the somewhat distant field. Ready to cheer along with the rest of the Hertha fans who surrounded us. Once the game was over we were submerged in the stream of blue and white as it left the stadium, their expectant optimism happily satiated. I think I now have some idea of what it feels like to be a football fan.