It's the hope (plus Steve Bruce & Jimmy Hill) I can't stand

Union faced mediocre opposition for the majority of the July pre-season and it was only the last 3 games that provided a stern test of their attacking verve and defensive agility. Prior to the spate of pre-season friendlies, I wrote on July 10th, my chief concern, was Union's "lack of fire-power". I was made to look foolish - or so I thought - when they hammered home over 60 goals in their pre-season friendly matches.

At present, Union resemble the Sunderland team that Steve Bruce was in charge of last season. The similarities are many (and mounting) and I'm getting worried now - if Bruce had not been swiftly sacked by the forward thinking Ellis Short we would have been relegated. Is Bruce somehow exacting revenge on me for my constant barracking of the fat Geordie on Facebook? Union have taken only 1 point from a possible 15 thus far.


Mrs Doubtfire

Not getting stuffed

Union are yet to be hammered this term unlike last year when they suffered a couple of heavy defeats. Union's defeats have been narrow - and thus avoidable. It was the same with Bruce's Sunderland.

In addition, when Sunderland have been relegated it has almost always gone to the wire. We were reliant on another side getting beat, when I was in the away end at Notts County, and we survived after a shocking 3-1 reverse. We took 17,000 away fans to Maine Road, and were relegated after an epic encounter which we lost 3-2. We lost 1-0 at Wimbledon and our striker missed a gilt-edged chance to level. It's still talked about. Coventry delayed the kick-off so they could play out a draw and relegate us - this also is still talked about (it was in the 70s!). So much so, that Jimmy Hill, who orchestrated the disgrace, was roundly jeered at Craven Cottage a couple of years ago. Let's hope I'm not at VFL Bochum on the last day of the season in mid-May chewing my fingernails!

Not knowing your best XI and formation

When sacked, one of Bruce's many excuses, was the squad needed time to gel. This was not helped by Bruce not knowing his best XI and formation. I'm guessing Union fans are seeing the link here. If you're not, Union manager, Uwe Neuhaus has fielded a number of different starting elevens this season and has also tinkered with the formation. Players are, in the main, creatures of habit. They like a system and they like to play it on a regular basis. Bruce was unclear tactically and relied on motivation alone it appears - which was also clearly failing as Martin O'Neill demonstrated. I'm certainly not putting forward any view here that Bruce and Neuhaus are similar. I'm merely pointing out the similarity of the problem both managers face(d) and where teams/managers can end up if this is not remedied quickly.

Injuries

Another Bruce excuse was that the Sunderland squad was somehow injury jinxed. You could write a book with the copy that Bruce fed the local rag about Sunderland's injury problems last year. Again, I'm not painting a picture that Neuhaus is similar here. However, a couple of Union players made comments about the spate of injuries post the Berlin derby. I just hope that Union do not fall into the 'Bruce trap' and focus on the excuses/explanation rather than the solution. Football clubs have a squad for reason. Bruce had a soon-to-be International footballer sitting in the reserves. Give youth a chance and focus on the positives rather than getting your excuses in early is of paramount importance.


James McClean - from reserve player to international

The derby defeat

Union have suffered what Bruce’s Sunderland suffered last year. A narrow derby defeat. For Sunderland this sapped the fans' morale and the defeat arguably had a damaging effect on the atmosphere at the SOL. Newcastle inversely went on a good run and managed to finish in a position way beyond most sensible Geordies' (I know a couple) wildest dreams. A key difference with Union is that the fans always back the team. They were applauded off at the end of the derby defeat.

Lack of creativity

One of Sunderland's major failings, in pretty much every relegation season, has been a lack of creativity in midfield - although Bruce would laughably claim "we created enough chances to win two football games". This is one area that I see a glimmer of hope for Union. Chances are being created. It's just a case of getting confidence back and converting a few more chances. Easier said than done of course but surely Mattuschka will return to the side and be dictating play like the Tuschka of old and Nemec will be given a chance and start banging them in. This conclusion though reminds me of being a Sunderland fan. I'll leave you with the name of a fanzine that I used to read in my youth. 'It's the hope I can't stand'.

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Fans, fireworks and full-time

When German official Wolfgang Stark blew the final whistle in the Esprit Stadium last night, it was clearly the the beginning of an inquest that could be far reaching for German football. German football fans in particular - the night was a nadir for pitch invasions and Pyros. Both were ill timed, caused disruption to the ebb and flow of the game and became the talking points. A real shame in a two-legged relegation play-off that ended 4-3 to Fortuna and condemned Hertha to a second relegation in three seasons.

By way of comparison, the first-leg in Berlin had passed with little incident. I was in attendance last week and took a few snaps.

Dark clouds hover over the Olympiastadion, a pre-cursor of what we were to expect from this clash

I was on the back row so a superb view of the action

The Berlin bear flag partially obscured

Fortuna fans with a flare after the second goal much to the mirth of the Hertha faithful

A youth with a t-shirt that he can wear for all of next season as Hertha will again look to bounce back immediately

The tie was finely poised at 2-2 on the night and 4-3 to Fortuna on aggregate, when in the 6th minute of added on time, hundreds of Düsseldorf fans mistakenly thought that Stark had blown for full-time and invaded the pitch to celebrate. The fans had started to leave their seats as early as the 85th minute, forming a cordon of people around the advertising hordings, constantly being watched by police and stewards but not moved on.

The match had such an inordinate amount of injury time, not due to one moron as was the case at Manchester City at the weekend, but several. Hertha fans had launched fireworks on the pitch when they went 2-1 down on the night. Hertha fans clearly thought that the 4-2 aggregate scoreline was unassailable. Moments earlier they had lost their goal scorer and arguably their biggest threat in Ben-Hatira, who was booked for a challenge that you can't get away with in modern football. It was a second yellow but could have easily been a straight red in 2012. Ten years ago, a clever official would have given him a warning and the game would have been all the better for the decision.

Germany is very much the home of 'proper football' in terms of fans though. The matchday experience is envied by the English fans who have a sanitised version of the game. All topics for another day of course but last night will be a stick that the German FA can beat the pro-pyro lobby with. @valedave made a point on Twitter last night that the good work of the pro-pyro lobby has been undone in one night. In one moment. Not a moment of madness but one of spite and ill feeling. Hertha have felt aggrieved all season. A freakish amount of own goals being their latest gripe - one in three goals conceded of late have been own goals. That's football Hertha fans.

When you consider the way Manchester City came back from 2-1 down to score two vital goals to win the Premiership, it was telling that Hertha scored in the 85th minute. Could a side in blue score 2 goals in quick succession? Without all of the added on time this goal would have came at around 78 minutes giving them almost quarter of an hour to salvage their top tier status. Would they have found a goal in this time? Would they have been slightly less drained of emotion and spirit? They had to go across to their own fans midway through such a crucial game and urge them to calm down and stop throwing fireworks on to the pitch.

The game sparked to life after only 25 seconds when Düsseldorf's Beister hammered in a shot from just outside the penalty area. The sot curled away from the Hertha goalkeeper and the visitors could have let this early setback derail them. However, staying true to their sponsors (DB, who had laid on discounted travel) they charged forward at every opportunity, often leaving themselves exposed to the counter attack and long balls down the channels. Unfortunately, as with DB, the game would also feature delays.

Hertha's possession finally bore fruit when a free-kick was whipped in from the left and Ben-Hatira rose and powered his header in to the bottom corner past the hapless Ratajczak. At 1-1, Hertha needed to be aware that a second Fortuna goal would mean they needed 3 goals in normal time. However, another goal for Hertha would force the tie in to extra-time.

It was parity as the sides went in at half-time and Hertha coach, Otto Rehhagel, was clearly using every ounce of his forty years of managerial experience, by keeping the Fortuna players waiting, as Hertha took their time entering the field for the re-start. The half was only 10 minutes old when Ben-Harita received his marching orders and 4 minutes later Hertha were 4-2 down on aggregate.

The goal Hertha scored on 85 minutes was overshadowed by the scenes that followed. If the Fortuna fans had waited for the game to be finished before celebrating wildly on the pitch then they would have the moral high ground. As it is, there was talk of Hertha consulting lawyers on Twitter last night and at the very least the game will be remembered for the images below rather than the seven goal thriller and feast of football that it was. Two Berlin derby games next season though - can't wait.

Hertha fans pelt the playing surface with missiles causing a long delay

Fans ready to invade the pitch

The early pitch invasion. It could have far reaching consequences for the home side

Hertha fans boxed in by the riot police

Absurd scenes when you consider there was over a minute of added on time left

Players eventually leave the pitch after 100 minutes

Match starts again after 116 minutes - a goal for Hertha would have caused a riot

Fortuna fans celebrate - this time the final whistle had been blown

118 minutes until the game could be finished

Hertha players were camera shy last night. The rumour was that the Berlin teams press officer wanted to keep them out of the spotlight after such tense scenes

Es war ein Spiel, über das noch lange geredet werden wird – und der sportliche Ausgang stand trotz des Finalcharakters lange im Hintergrund.

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Relegation Play-offs - protecting the 'big' clubs?

On Thursday evening Hertha face Fortuna Dusseldorf in the first leg. Fortuna are out of form and have won only 4 times since the turn of the year. The official Bundesliga helpfully divides the season in to two 17 game tables. Handy for the statto. The fact Hertha have managed to force their way in to the Relegation Play-offs is highly significant for both Berlin sides. The Union fans I spoke with all want the same outcome in the Oympiastadion - a Fortuana win. They want the Berlin derby next year and who can blame them after last season.

Sunderland fans do not have fond memories of Relegation play-offs. When Laurie McMenemy said he would take Sunderland out of the old Second Division, few expected he would face the ignominy of being the first Sunderland manager to relegate the former 'Bank of England club' into the third tier of English Football. The Guinness Book of Records is clearly written by someone who has indulged in too many of its sponsors beverages, as McMenemy is still rated as one of the twenty most successful managers in English post-war football. You only have to watch the Coogan-esque 'Do I Not Like That' documentary to see the clueless and sycophantic Geordie in action. Painfull viewing.

The more knowledgeable/sad among you may point to the "test matches" of the late 1800s - that pitted sides against each other from the First Division and newly formed Second Division - as being the first "play-offs". In the days of no promotion the bottom three and top two fought it out using a complex system. I'll not be offering any analysis I am afraid.

The relegation play-offs were introduced in to the English football league at the start of the 1986/7 season. In May 1987 Sunderland finished 20th and faced Gillingham with the second leg at Roker Park. Whilst Sunderland managed to level the tie they were relegated on away goals after an epic encounter at their old home. This format of relegation play-off lasted only two seasons and 1990/1 saw the introduction of the format that prevails today.

The principle of the play-offs is very clear in England. It extends the interest in the league for a large number of clubs giving them something to play for. Instead of the top three being promoted the top 2 are promoted and places 3-6 enter the lottery for promotion. The case for the play-offs here in Germany is much less clear cut.

If we compare the Championship in England, with the Bundesliga 2 in Germany, in my view there are two critical differences. The Championship is arguably less competitive so needs a play-off system to keep the league competition alive for as long as possible. You would be hard pressed to find anyone in disagreement with this point. The play-off system in the Bundesliga appears to want to protect the bigger clubs (offering third bottom in the Bundesliga 1 an escape route via the play-offs) rather than enhance the league competition in the German second tier. Dusseldorf finished third but nobody in mid-table was vying for 6th place as they were in The Championship. For these two reasons I'd be disgruntled if I were a Fortuana Dusseldorf fan and relieved if I supported the West Berliners.

Being a Sunderland fan, an FC Union convert and a lover of the underdog, I will be rooting for the away side this evening. KO time is 20:30. Expect an overview over the weekend. You can sign up via e-mail on the right hand side of this page or follow me on Twitter below. Please do so and thanks for reading. The blog has been up 1 week and has received almost 2,500 views, largely due to the official FC Union site highlighting the blog on their Facebook page, with the classic headline "Unioner aller Länder... auch in Cottbus dabei ;-)." The icing on the cake was a Union fan describing the whole blog as the "hammer". No greater praise.

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Bundesliga, 34. Spieltag Preview

It is doubtful that I will make a habit of commenting on the top tier of German football. The league gets enough coverage as it is. However, all Union fans will be keeping a close eye on today's proceedings at the Olympiastadion on the last match day of the season.

When the Berlin wall came down people from the east came in droves to watch Hertha BSC - two days after the wall fell Hertha played SG Wattenscheid and the fixture attracted over 11,000 east Germans. A fan friendship developed and a subsequent friendly between Hertha and Union attracted over 50,000 fans.

Whilst the rivalry may not be fierce, most Union fans will be glad to see Hertha relegated - last season Union even managed to beat Hertha on their own patch.

Union fans celebrate with red flares as they beat Hertha 2-1 in the Olypiastadion last season. My debut at the home of Hertha.

Hertha are currently languishing second from bottom and their only hope of survival involves beating 1899 Hoffenheim today and hoping that FC Köln do not manage to cause an upset against Bayern and take all three points. If Hoffenheim beat Bayern the Hertha result is immaterial. It does not bode well for either side though as one of them must face a play-off due to finishing third bottom.

Hoffenheim's away form is mixed and they have lost as many (8) as they have won and drew. However, Hertha have the second worst home record in the division and the strange atmosphere of the often half empty Olympiastadion has showed, as they have garnered a measly 12 points at home thus far. Most clubs would be pleased with Hertha's impressive average attendance - it's over 53,000.

It would be a brave man to back Hertha to win this afternoon and avoid relegation. They would then have to beat one of the three Bundesliga 2 teams, who are still in contention for third spot, via the play-offs if they were to retain their Bundesliga status.

However, the last day of the season is prone to throwing up surprises and Hoffenheim have nothing to play for. At least Hertha can cling to the fact that Bayern players will be playing for a place in the Champions League Final although they have already comfortably secured second spot and qualification for The Champions League next season and may be in wind-down mode, keen to avoid any injuries.

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