| 05.10.2009 |
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| Hamburg had every reason to feel jittery coming into Berlin. After all, one of the classic storylines in football is a down-in-the-doldrums team with a new coach rallying to pull an upset over a squad cruising along at the top of the table. And true to form, Hertha jumped all over the Northern Germans at the start of their Sunday match, deservedly going up 1-0. Then, in a twist worthy of David Lynch movie, three bizarre things happened - one of them twice. First, Berlin defender Kaka, a surprise inclusion to the squad after spending nearly a year-and-a-half warming the bench, converted an entirely harmless cross into an own goal. Then, Timo Ochs - a late signing only brought in after Hertha had lost it's top two goalkeepers - tore a muscle. That meant that 19-year-old Sascha Burchert was forced once again to man the posts. Five minutes later, the teenager ventured out of his box to head away a ball that would have given Hamburg striker Marcus Berg a one-on-one. It landed directly at the feet of Hamburg midfielder David Jarolim, who lobbed it into the goal. 86 seconds later - and this is the truly improbable bit - Burchert did the exact same thing with the exact same result, only this time the Hamburg midfielder doing him in from distance was Ze Roberto. Hertha had essentially scored 4 goals, three against themselves, and match was as good as over. Both sides spent the second half wondering what wormhole to the Bizarro dimension had opened up at the Olympic Stadium. Predictably a debate has commenced about who was truly at fault for a most unlikely pair of blunders. The tabloid Bild newspaper has dubbed poor Burchert "the idiot keeper." Hamburg keeper Frank Rost defended the teenager, blaming Hertha's midfield, as did Berlin captain Arne Friedrich. Speaking of Friedrich, who has incurred much ire for alleged playing against the team in an attempt to hurry ex-coach Lucien Favre's departure. He ran to the Hertha block twice during the match. Once to cheers, after he scored. And once more after the match was over - to the turned backs of disappointed supporters. Hamburg probably could have cared less about all this. They got three of the easiest points any team is likely to get in football - and no doubt shared some laughs on the team bus home. |
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| 1 Comment |
| Great and hilarious coverage of the game! Keep it up, Jefferson. | ||
| Rebecca Steinberg | Homepage | E-Mail | 09.10.2009, 12:28 | ||