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Road to Wembley: Champions League Semi Finals in Goldman’s Bar

29. April 2013 in Circus Hostel, Football, Goldman's Bar by Paul

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Last Tuesday in Munich. Barcelona, the greatest club team in recent history take on local heroes Bayern Munich for a place in the Champion’s League final. For once Barcelona are not favourites, thanks to Bayern’s wonderful form in the Bundesliga, which they have wrapped up with games to spare. The pundits are split, but their predictions have one thing in common: it is going to be a close game. Problem is, no-one told Bayern… as the final whistle blows it is 4-0 to the German side, who have one foot firmly in the final.

Twenty four hours later in Dortmund. Real Madrid, led by the self-proclaimed “special one” Jose Mourinho are in town for the second of the Spain vs Germany semi finals, looking to get revenge on Jürgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund who beat them in the group stages earlier in the competition. Again, the pundits declare the tie too close to call, and again the local team refuse to follow the script… only a defensive mistake prevents the scoreline matching the previous nights action but no matter. With a 4-1 lead, Borussia Dortmund also feel confident that they will make it through to the final.

A week on… FC Bayern look safe, but in the Camp Nou anything can happen. Real Madrid will fancy that an early goal might give them a chance of overturning the deficit… Will we have an all-German final at Wembley Stadium in London, or will the giants of Spanish football fight back and achieve the improbable? Come down to Goldman’s Bar this week to find out…

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEMI FINALS – SECOND LEG

Tuesday 30 April @ 8.45pm: REAL MADRID versus BORUSSIA DORTMUND (First Leg: 1-4)

Wednesday 1 May @ 8.45pm: BARCELONA versus BAYERN MUNICH (First Leg: 0-4)

BOTH GAMES LIVE ON OUR LOVELY LARGE BRAND NEW MEGA-BIG SCREEN

Goldman’s Bar @ The Circus Hostel
Weinbergsweg 1a
U-Bhf: Rosenthaler Platz

Berlin – A Sporting City?

22. April 2013 in Berlin, Football, Stuff We Like by Paul

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It was a nice bit of trivia whilst it lasted… for the past twelve months Berlin was the only major capital in Europe without a football team in its national top division, but with a 1-0 victory over Sandhausen this weekend Hertha BSC have returned to the Bundesliga. 1 and they have the chance to wrap up the 2nd Division Championship in the next couple of weeks as well. But although football fans throughout Germany mock the capital for its footballing prowess (or lack of), in other sports the story is much healthier.

Getting equal billing to the Hertha boys this Monday morning was the Ice Hockey players from Berlin’s Eisbären (Polar Bears), who won the fourth play-off game over the weekend to clinch their third German Championship in a row and their fifth in six years. Meanwhile, the basketball team ALBA, who share the 02 World with the Eisbären, have clinched a play-off spot and despite an indifferent season will go into the knock-out series to determine the champions knowing that they always have a chance… in March they already picked up their first silverware of the year by winning the German Cup.

Meanwhile the women’s team from the Berliner HC are currently top of the field hockey Bundesliga, a championship the men’s team won last year, and the men’s volleyball team of the Berlin Recycling Volleys came 1st in Bundesliga during the regular season and are currently battling for the German title in the play-offs. So football might not be the Hauptstadt’s forte, but on the ice, the court and the Astroturf, Berlin’s sporting men and women can compete with the best.

Congratulations to the various Berlin teams on their successes this year, and remember, once again next season you can get your tickets for Hertha BSC games at the Olympic Stadium here at The Circus, and now with added Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Schalke 04 and VfB Stuttgart…

Football at The Olympic Stadium – Hertha BSC vs VfL Bochum

27. März 2013 in Berlin, Football by Paul

Olympic Stadium

The Olympiastadion in Berlin was built for the 1936 Olympics and was fully renovated in time for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, and it is a stadium that has had its fair share of iconic moments, from Jesse Owens racing to victory to become the star of a games the Nazis had wanted to use to promote their own conceptions of racial superiority, to Zinedine Zidane headbutting his way to a runners-up medal in the World Cup final, or Usain Bolt powering his way to World Championships and World Records on the distinct, blue running track.

Normal service, however, involves the home games of local heroes Hertha BSC Berlin, and this coming Saturday 30th March, they are taking on VfL Bochum in a clash that will have a big impact on Hertha’s chances of winning promotion from the Bundesliga 2. and a return to the top flight of German football. The Olympiastadion is a truly awesome spot to watch football, and this being Germany the tickets are cheap and there is beer and sausages inside the ground to keep you well fuelled.

Not only that, but your ticket doubles as a pass for the public transport ticket for a few hours before the game until 3 in the morning… does that sound like a steal, or what? Tickets cost €12 and the best news is you can get them from the reception. So if you fancy catching the game, drop by and see if we have any left…

(Image: © visitBerlin | Scholvien)

11mm – International Football Film Festival in Berlin

11. März 2013 in Berlin, Festivals, Film, Football by Paul

11mm

Starting this Thursday is the tenth anniversary edition of the 11mm International Football Film Festival. The festival includes feature, documentary and short films from around the world, and for 2013 there is also a special selection of the best films of previous editions of the festival.

Some of the highlights of 11mm in 2013, which runs from Thursday 14th March to Tuesday 19th March include The Damned United – the story of Brian Clough’s brief reign as Leeds United manager – Das Wunder von Bern – telling the dramatic tale of West Germany’s triumph at the 1954 World Cup – and the Two Escobars – which tells the tragic story of defender Andrés Escobar and Pablo Escobar, then the world’s most notorious drug baron, and how the intersection of crime and football led to Andrés’s murder.

Tickets to all films cost €7, there are plenty of films in English or with subtitles, and the venue for the festival is Babylon, just a short walk down the road from The Circus on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. A must for any football fans in town over the next weekend.

Festival Website

 

Derby Day in Berlin

7. Februar 2013 in Football by Paul

Derby

On Monday 11th February 2013 all eyes will be on the Olympic Stadium for what is arguably the biggest game of the season in Berlin’s football scene as Hertha BSC take on city rivals 1.FC Union. Last buy viagra online season Hertha found themselves relegated once more from the top-flight Bundesliga, leaving the German capital without a single representative at the highest level of the game in this country. But on the upside, it meant two games against 1.FC Union, the first of which Hertha won on the opposition ground last autumn.

So Union will be travelling north and west from Köpenick with revenge on the mind, and it promises to be a wonderful atmosphere in the Olympic Stadium on Monday evening. If you want to join in the fun, we have a limited number of tickets available for Circus guests that you can get at the reception. As an added bonus, included in the ticket price is a public transport ticket for both before and after the game. If you are used to Premier League prices, the cost of watching football in one of the world’s iconic stadiums will come as a pleasant surprise!

Kick-off is at 8.15pm, and if you are interested in a ticket, come by the reception at either the hostel or the hotel, or speak to your concierge if you are staying at the apartments.

Come on you BLUES/REDS!*

(*delete as applicable)

St Pauli prepare to fly the Jolly Rodger from the Olympic Stadium

16. November 2012 in Football by Paul

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On Monday evening at the Olympiastadion, local (ahem) heroes Hertha BSC are taking on cult-club St. Pauli from Hamburg, in

a battle that is currently gracing the second division but was once a fixture of the Bundesliga. When St Pauli come to town you are guaranteed a good atmosphere, and the Olympic Stadium itself is well worth a visit in its own right. And, you might have heard, football in Germany is reasonably priced, you can get a beer and a sausage in the ground without needing a mortgage to pay for it, and the play on the pitch is not bad either.

Sounds good? But where can I get a ticket? Oh yes, I can hear you… but never fear, because we have tickets for every Hertha BSC game available at the reception, and for Circus guests they cost €12 and this includes public transport to and from the stadium. Is there a better deal in world sports? I don’t think so…

No Dice Magazine and the story of Türkiyemspor

20. September 2012 in Berlin, Football by Paul

Türkiyemspor

No Dice is Berlin’s football quarterly in English, and a must read for any lover’s of the beautiful game living in or visiting Berlin. On Friday they celebrate the launch of their fourth edition – you can find details here – and we are extremely pleased that they have allowed us to re-publish this abridged version of an article by Stephen Glennon from an earlier edition of the magazine. Photography by Ian Stenhouse.

Izmirspor was founded by a group of Turkish immigrants in 1978, and by the time the club changed its name to Türkiyemspor in 1987, the club had risen meteorically to the Landesliga, then the fourth tier of German football. Attendances for the level were remarkable, with around 1,000 fans present for most games, and an incredible 11,949 (or even more – plenty of fans without tickets found their way into the stadium) for the big derby with Hertha BSC, as the Old Lady’s slump to the Oberliga (then 3rd division) coincided with yet another promotion for Türkiyem.

Harald Aumeier was a Türkiyemspor fan during these halcyon days, and remembers them well. “We were the number one in Berlin for one year,” he recalled, “Hertha went down to the Oberliga, to our league, and we had more fans than Hertha in this year.” That Hertha won 2-0 in the packed Poststadion was of no consequence to Aumeier – his ‘number one’ has little to do with what happened on the field.

To him, like to many Turkish immigrants at the time, Türkiyemspor was a symbol, a rallying point, and having more fans than the city’s biggest team was an enormous fillip to the immigrant community in Berlin. According to Aumeier, “You constantly hear racist things because you have black hair, you look a little bit different … every time you feel that you are not equal. And then came Türkiyemspor. Türkiyemspor showed on the field that if we have equal conditions and equal rights, we can win. And we give the winning feeling to the people who were losing all the time.”

Read the rest of this entry »

And the winner is… Bully

3. Juli 2012 in Circus News, Football by Paul

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Yes, ok, so Spain are the European Champions. And they did so with a performance that will most likely resonate through the ages. And, yeah, yeah, Xavi and Iniesta and Fabregas and the rest are all really special and can kick a ball around better than almost any team that has come before them… but really, we all know that the whole Euro 2012 tournament only had one real point, and that was to give us the results that we needed for the World Famous Legendary All-Star “campeón del mundo” Tipping Competition.

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If the German team – tipped as they were by over half the competition – had made it to the final it could have been a close-run thing, but in the end the Spanish side repaid the faith the Bully had placed in them, and helped him to win a competition that he led from pretty much the first whistle. Once again the tipping competition was a lot of fun for the Circus team and friends, and for that we can thank Andreas and Andrew for keeping it all running smoothly.

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45 entered, but only 6 could win the cash prizes. Here is the Hall of Fame for 2012 – the top 15 that can share their glory with Alba, Silva, Casillas and co…

41 pts – Bully

32 pts – Robin, Katarina and Tilman

31 pts – Toga and Nicha

30 pts – Julia.H, and Victoria

29 pts – Digel, Christian, Andrew, Rene, Sophie, Judith and Team Hausmeister

Oh, and it is something of a tradition that the winner has to invite the last placed competitor to a dinner with their winnings, and it just so happens that this time both the top and the bottom were next to each other on the leaderboard. Better luck next time Keima…

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