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Since I got into roller derby, I've had less time and mental capacity to really follow footy anymore. (Well, also I've been living the freelancer lifestyle, which leaves less free time because a bitch has to work to get paid.) But Hertha opened a women's division in the last year or so, and they've been playing great in the Regionalliga Nordost. One curious side effect of roller derby is that I'm far less interested in men's sports than I used to be, so when I heard that they were actually good, I checked the game schedule to see if there were any games I could make it to ... and all the home games were roller derby weekends. Except May 9, so I put that on my mental calendar to check back in with other people from the one Hertha fan chat I'm in.
Time rolled on, and the Hertha Frauen only needed to get 1 point to win the Regionalliga in their game on May 9. Which had been scheduled for afternoon, then rescheduled until Sunday morning, but then! It was rescheduled to be at the Olympiastadion after the men's game -- and for free! They wanted to give the team a big cheering section while they got the title. So I got my free ticket and coordinated with one of the fan chat folks, and we met up there.
10 years ago, I was really into football, following the games and even writing for a soccer blog on occasion. Then a bunch of shit happened (including roller derby) and I mostly just followed the scores on kicker and the bitching on the fan chat (because the Hertha men have been really shit for a while now). When I came to Berlin in 2014 with Ben's family, we visited the Olympiastadion as tourists, and I sat in the Ostkurve and had a little moment of fandom.
Yesterday, after some shenanigans, I got into the Ostkurve. Fam, it was magical. I had emotions. We walked down into the cheering section, directly opposite the Marathon Gate, and I felt some of that same joy I used to have about soccer. Yeah, ok, winning 5:0 definitely helped, but the sheer energy of people in blue and white, shouting and cheering ... I'd honestly started to wonder if that piece of my soul was dead, the one where the fannish spark was kept.
I had to stop singing "Nur nach Hause" because I was too choked up to make words come out.
I hope I can go to more games next season. I need to learn the verse lyrics first, though.
Time rolled on, and the Hertha Frauen only needed to get 1 point to win the Regionalliga in their game on May 9. Which had been scheduled for afternoon, then rescheduled until Sunday morning, but then! It was rescheduled to be at the Olympiastadion after the men's game -- and for free! They wanted to give the team a big cheering section while they got the title. So I got my free ticket and coordinated with one of the fan chat folks, and we met up there.
10 years ago, I was really into football, following the games and even writing for a soccer blog on occasion. Then a bunch of shit happened (including roller derby) and I mostly just followed the scores on kicker and the bitching on the fan chat (because the Hertha men have been really shit for a while now). When I came to Berlin in 2014 with Ben's family, we visited the Olympiastadion as tourists, and I sat in the Ostkurve and had a little moment of fandom.
Yesterday, after some shenanigans, I got into the Ostkurve. Fam, it was magical. I had emotions. We walked down into the cheering section, directly opposite the Marathon Gate, and I felt some of that same joy I used to have about soccer. Yeah, ok, winning 5:0 definitely helped, but the sheer energy of people in blue and white, shouting and cheering ... I'd honestly started to wonder if that piece of my soul was dead, the one where the fannish spark was kept.
I had to stop singing "Nur nach Hause" because I was too choked up to make words come out.
I hope I can go to more games next season. I need to learn the verse lyrics first, though.
