What sports teams do you support?

[Heid the Ba]

Elephant Snake Bucket weekend again, it is a saturday evening game so my choices are:
a: drink beforehand and watch the game in a drunken haze of profanity and unfocused hate;
b: stay sober and watch the game through a haze of profanity and focused hate?

We should have won 2 of our first 3 games but pissed them away; I have a bad feeling about tomorrow and freezing my chuckies off at Murrayfield is a penance at the best of times.

[Heid the Ba]

Would it be rude to ask what has gone wrong with Hertha?

[Lianachan]

Elephant Snake Bucket weekend again, it is a saturday evening game so my choices are:
a: drink beforehand and watch the game in a drunken haze of profanity and unfocused hate;
b: stay sober and watch the game through a haze of profanity and focused hate?

I spend my life lurching randomly between those two states.

As for the game, I think Han Solo said it best: "I have a baaaaad feeling about this".

Would it be rude to ask what has gone wrong with Hertha?

Would it be significantly more rude to ask who/what the hell are "Hertha"? To me, that's a German football team.

[Heid the Ba]

It is Arneb's beloved football team and they seem to be lurching towards relegation despite finishing high in the table last season; I just wondered if there was hope or if they were doomed.

[Lianachan]

It is Arneb's beloved football team and they seem to be lurching towards relegation despite finishing high in the table last season; I just wondered if there was hope or if they were doomed.

Ah, so it was that Hertha right enough then. I've not been following German football, but I'm surprised to hear they're relegation candidates - seen their name in European draws over the last few years.

[Arneb]

Would it be rude to ask what has gone wrong with Hertha?

Not outright rude but... maybe a bit insensitive. The things going wrong are the usual ones: Megalomania, tight purses, bad management, a catastrophic decision to sack a coach, bad choice of the new one, and an endless circle of de-motivation and failures reinforcing each other. The usual stuff.

Hertha were always spread thin even in the good days. Not a lot of money, being poorly rooted in a poor, internally divided city and thus not having a dependable and loyal following among key social groups (no "You'll Never Walk Alone" effect, very different from, i.e., the big Ruhrgebiet clubs) They had a charismatic boss and a methodical coach to make up for it. Then, after last season, they couldn't afford to keep a few key players, and lost another few through needless internal confrontations. The charismatic boss (Bayern's Uli Hoeness' younger brother, BTW) bowed out, and an inexperienced successor was chosen for old time's sake - he was a former Hertha goalgetter during the late 90s, when Hertha managed to return to the Bundesliga after a long, long hiatus. As soon as the first strong headwinds appeared this season, they also fired their coach, and hired a dour, colourless unimaginative drill instructor type replacement - not because he fit in well, but because he has a reputation for saving clubs in trouble. They've been at the bottom of the table ever since, and today, they lost 1-2 at home to Nuremberg, their direct competitor. Their last home win, 1 - 0 against another direct competitor, was in August last year, on the first day of the new season.

And so the curtain is slooooowly lowered.

[Heid the Ba]

Sorry Arneb, I couldn't find the details.

Ok, I went for sober and focused hate against the english; to be fair I also hate most of the Edinburgh based Scots fans. And crowds. And drunks. And cunts who turn up wearing Ireland tops: your pig-fucking team isn't playing and that ticket could have gone to a Scot.

Another game we could have won if our bloody Sydney born and raised stand off was competent and the referee didn't have Alzheimers. Every ten minutes he gave their captain a final warning before he sin-binned one of their players. Bastard.

Then the english fucked up at the end.

All in all an enjoyable day out.

[Heid the Ba]

Ross County play some good fitba' and were unlucky against the Leith Soap Dodgers. Bettert luck in the replay Liananchan.

[Lianachan]

Ross County play some good fitba' and were unlucky against the Leith Soap Dodgers. Bettert luck in the replay Liananchan.

Yup, County are a good footballing side. If there was any justice in football, which, of course, we all know there is not, then we would have won. Still, that's two loads of gate money coming in and all being well we should rip them to bits in Dingwall. Hopefully I can get a ticket for the replay.

[Heid the Ba]

And rip them to bits they did.

Sellick in the semi, so good luck.

[Lianachan]

And rip them to bits they did.

Sellick in the semi, so good luck.

We did indeed. I did get a ticket, and was at the game. Fantastic. I didn't run about the pitch like a wee dafty at the final whistle though.

Need to try to get semi-final tickets now, and convince the wife that yes, I do have to go to yet another County match. I live over 100 miles north of Dingwall, so a mid week after work fixture is quite a trip. At least the game at the <ahem> neutral venue of Hampden in Glasgow, against Glesga Sellick, is on a Saturday.

I took two mates down the road with me, and one of them is a passionate Hun. I think I can count on his support in the next round!

[Heid the Ba]

Aye, our treble bid went up the spout last night but that was more than made up for by the Buddies!

[Arneb]

Schalke 0- 1 Bayern in the Cup semifinal.


Well, as always. And the decisive goal, 25 min into overtime, was scored by that shitty Dutchman, Arjen Robben (Pure genius, btw). When I mentioned the shitty Dutchman today during the breakfast break on the ICU, everyone laughed, except our two nice Dutch nursing students....Oooaawww, Gawd, let me just disappear....

[Heid the Ba]

Arneb: Another nail in the coffin of Dutch - German harmony. do you get many people crissing the border (in either direction) to work?

Lianachan I suspect Celtic will be up for the semi, new manager and all that. I had hoped Mowbray would still be there next year. :D It is laughable to play all the semis at Hampden isn't it?

[Arneb]

Manchester United 3 - 2 Bayern München

Bayern advance to the Champions League semifinal (against Lyon) on the away goals rule. The "shitty Dutchman" mentioned above scores the decider in true Goal of the Year fashion. I hope he won't do that during the World Cup.

So sweet, having the ManU moneybags eat their fat grin! :D

Ah, Heid, for your question: I do not get the impression that there are very many of them. There are stories about (primarily) East German builders, for example, working in the Dutch construction industry because there was no work at home. The Dutch nursing students are a special case. There is some reason internal to their study curriculum that makes it necessary for them to work here. I haven't quite figured it out. They are fun to have around. Hard-working, well-behaved, well-motivated, and their accents are pleasure to listen to. They are students, not apprentices (contrary to the German system); it shows in a somewhat stronger theoretical knowledge (they even have to work out a small scientific project), but they are sometimes a bit insecure re. the hands- on business on an ICU.

There are also a number of people here who have houses in Belgium. The prices (but also the construction standards) are lower across the border, and some Belgian villages are closer to Aachen than some suburbs of the city proper.

[Heid the Ba]

Manchester United 3 - 2 Bayern München
So sweet, having the ManU moneybags eat their fat grin! :D

The funniest part is Alex Ferguson complaining that the Bayern players got his defender sent off by complaining to the ref when ManU are legendary for that.

There are also a number of people here who have houses in Belgium. The prices (but also the construction standards) are lower across the border, and some Belgian villages are closer to Aachen than some suburbs of the city proper.

I did wonder about that. There used to be a tax benefit to living in Belgium as income tax was only charged on what you earned there. Which is why many Dutch cyclist live about 50m over the border . . .

And we beat the Sheepshaggers last night, only 6 more points required. :D

[Мастер]

And we beat the Sheepshaggers last night

Did the sheep get jealous?

[Enzo]

Ewe had to go and ask...

[Heid the Ba]

Celtic 0 Ross County 2

County are now in the Cup Final and probably playing european games next season.

Lianachan may not be sober for some time . . .

[Lianachan]

Can't talk. Drunk. Back in a week or so.

[Heid the Ba]

Sellick can have no complaints, you played the better fitba". Enjoy the hangover . . .

[Arneb]

Meanwhile...

Hannover 2 - 0 Schalke
Hertha 0 - 1 Stuttgart.

Hertha are now 5 points away from a seat giving a chance of non-relegation (a decider against the third-placed member of the Second League). Next week, they take on Frankfurt in an away game, and the last three to play are the first three of the table: Leverkusen, Schalke, and Bayern.

The lights are going out. I have that eery feeling they will crash through into the Third League, and maybe even be re-amateurized when their Champions League type budget comes crashing down on them next season. The German Football Federation is extremely meticulous when it comes to clubs having sober finances.

[Heid the Ba]

Hopefully if (when) you go down you'll bounce back but the league makes it difficult with the financial restrictions. There is no way Newcastle would have been able to go straight back up with the German rules; of course there is no way Newcastle would have got into the financial mess in the first place under the German system. It doesn't happen in Scotland but there are a number of English clubs with proud raditions (and relatively recent European success) who are in the third tier.

Do Hertha own the Olympic Stadium or do you lease it from the owners?

There is a lot of talk of Ranger's debt (currently c£30 million) and how large that is but they have the turnover and income to service it, there are clubs with much smaller debts but in worse situations. Currently Cowdenbeath are on the point of going under because of debts of c£35,000.

[Arneb]

No, the Olympic Stadium is owned by the Berlin Senate. There was a lot of very bad and very justified talk about nepotism when the stadium was renovated- this was done very much to suit Hertha's needs, including the unusual bright blue- and white of the running track which happens to coincide with Hertha's colours.

The bounce-back will be fiendishly difficult. The thin fan bae and the obvious incompetence of the current financial management are key here. And nothing could be worse than playing SpVgg Unterhaching in a frigid November Olympic stadium in front of 6000 spactators.

[Heid the Ba]

Yes, that is a very blue track. :D

I have been at games at Murrayfield (capacity 67,000) with a couple of thousand in it. Even with 12-15,000 it feels empty.