Raffael Caetano de Araújo_-_Wikipedia foto - source Steindy (talk) 23:13, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

So it was going to be either Hertha BSC Berlin or FC Köln which survived yesterdays – both mainstays of the German Bundesliga for the past ½ century – and the one to definitively drop-out became Koln.

On the 34th Bundesliga match-day Hertha needed to win at home to Hoffenheim and they had to hope that Koln would get a good thrashing at home to Bayern München. Nothing else would do – no combination of goal-difference or ties or any other team doing anything else would help – so it was clear what needed to be done and somehow to their credit they did it!

Otto Rehhagel’s Hertha escaped being instantly relegated and being either one of the 2 bottom teams in the Bundesliga which would have meant an instant downward move to the next division.

Although mid-table Hoffenheim had nothing to play for on this final day of the season, their manager Markus Babbel did have a score to settle with his former club – who dismissed him just months ago. He had successfully guided Hertha back to the Bundesliga last season, but was fired in December in rather murky circumstances.

Was he fired? Did he leave on question of personal proffesional football differences with the sports director or was there something else more personal? There are many juicy rumours but no-one wants to talk and in the end who cares – but the Hertha fans will certainly not forget.

He seemed to have mixed feelings after the game and did greet ‘his’ former players warmly at the end of the game – however he probably correctly avoided Michael Preetz, the general sports director of Hertha, – who rightly or wrongly – is being blamed for the terrible season the club has had.

The Hertha Team which played well yesterday against Hoffenheim were: Goalie Kraft – Lell, Hubnik, Janker, Bastians – Niemeyer, Kobiashvili – Ebert, Raffael, Ramos – Lasogga. We add above the picture of Raffael Caetano de Araújo, who scored in the 93rd minute for Hertha, and who more than any one player deserves praise for his consistency and goal-scoring prowess this season.

Meanwhile the opponent for Hertha was decided in a scrappy 2-2 draw for Fortuna Düsseldorf with Duisburg which on the last day of German 2nd division was enough to earn a chance at promotion.

Fortuna Düsseldorf will face Bundesliga side Hertha Berlin over two legs.

Reprinted from OTA Berlin with permission.

Sporting competitions should not be placed at the service of politics he said adding that the European Championship are being held and should simply take place in the Ukraine as planned. He also thinks that the German team players themselves should be given the opportunity to give their own opinion and should not be prevented from airing their views on the matter.

Steinmeier did criticize the handling of the of the jailed opposition leader Tymoshenko by the Ukrainian government in Kiev saying she should be held in acceptable conditions and not mistreated.

In 2008 Steinmeier strongly opposed calls for a proposed Olympics boycott in Beijing which came from various quarters of the EU and elsewhere and was and still of the opinion that boycotts are counter-productive.

The United States Government boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest of the then Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and were at the time strongly supported in this boycott call by the then UK Government.

Now 32 years later these same two nations are themselves caught in an Afghan quagmire entirely of their own making – should now not the same rules apply and should not the London Olympics be boycotted? http://www.boycottlondonolympics.com/

India did threaten to boycott the up-coming London games and Iran has already confirmed it will do so – http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/mar/01/india-boycott-olympic-opening-ceremony

The present Conservative UK government is itself licking its wounds after the British electorate severely ‘boycotted’ them in local elections yesterday and Mr William Hague, the usually irritatingly dim and half-witted UK foreign secretary, wasfor once more muted and said the ‘ government was monitoring the situation’ and would at some later date come to a decision on whether ministers would attend Euro 2012.

In other words he seems to have learnt the old adage that men who live in glass houses should not throw stones …. and please nobody boycott the London Olympics!

Meanwhile the opportunist Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt – increasingly boycotted by Swedish citizens – plans to boycott of the Championship in Ukraine. This probably has more to do with a domestic political scandal wherein his former defence minister Sten Tolgfors was forced to resign last month in the wake of disclosure of secret Swedish plans to build an arms factory in Saudi Arabia.

See also – http://www.ota-berlin.de/blog/05/03/polish-president-bronislaw-komorowski-correctly-rejects-any-boycotts-and-says-euro-2012-should-and-will-go-ahead-in-both-poland-and-the-ukraine-by-ota-berlin-constituency-blog-contributor-filip-van/

http://de.euronews.com/agenturmeldungen/1505392-steinmeier-lehnt-boykott-von-spielen-der-fussball-em-in-ukraine-ab/

http://www.boycottlondonolympics.com/

http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2012/05/ukraine-and-europe?fsrc=gn_ep

Reprinted from OTA Berlin with permission.

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski -foto Wikipedia - source Bronisław_Komorowski.jpg

Ukraine is co-hosting the June 8-July 1 European Championships together with neighbouring Poland.

The EU has said that they consider Tymoshenko’s jailing last October as political and has criticised her abuse-of-office conviction which has strained ties between Ukraine and the European Union which it aspires to enter.

Yulia Tymoshenko was a successful but controversial businesswoman in the Ukranian gas industry , becoming by some estimates one of the richest people in the country. Ms Tymoshenko, 51, is the main political rival of the present President Viktor Yanukovich, and is serving a 7 year prison sentence in Kharkov, where Germany will play one of its group matches and where she has been on hunger strike for more than a week.

All in all Ms Tymoshenko does not come across as a very up righteous, believable or sympathetic political personage. Her always ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude is somewhat suspect and while the charges and conviction against her could been seen as “justice being applied selectively under political motivation” , some of the corruption charges against her are never the less probably true considering her intensive accumulation of weath in such a very short time.

It seems this is more a case of the EU using her case to put pressure on the present President Viktor Yanukovich and thus interferring in the internal affairs of another country which usually backfires. The Ukrainian people should be the judge of this and it seems that they over whelmingly want the games to go ahead and strongly dislike this political blackmail so close to the start of the games.

So far criticism from the EU has provoked a sharp responses from Kiev and accused Germany especially of old ‘cold-war’ mentality and suggested that Germans should not meddle in Ukraine’s internal affairs. The EU has recieved support from an unexpected quarter, namely Russia. The New York Times writes about this today- http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/world/europe/european-politics-dims-ukraines-chance-to-shine-during-soccer-championships.html

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel – a very big football fan herself and especially of the German national team who are one of the tournaments favorites – has, as is her wont, chosen to take a more pragmatic stance. Ms Merkel has chosen her position more carefully and it is a bit more nuanced- she will decide on attending/or not attending games in the Ukraine at the very last minute.

Merkel has in the past travelled to attend important matches involving the German team, and it is an open secret that along with a love of opera, football is one of her ‘weaknesses’.

The German Olympic Sports confederation chief Thomas Bach has said that boycotting sports events has proved to be unsuccessful and senseless in the past citing the American boycott of the of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games .

The Swiss Sports Minister Ueli Maurer will not join any boycotts of the Euro 2012 football championships stating that it is on principal not appropriate to use sporting events for political purposes . Switzerland did not qualify and is therefor not participating in the 16-team tournament.

Norway has also rejected calls for any EURO 2012 boycott with the Norwegian Foreign minister Gahr Støre saying Norwegians fans should attend. He did also express concerns over political developments in the Ukraine and his government would raise these concerns in the proper forum and at the appropriate time -but these were not related to this big sporting event.

In the Hague the weak caretaker Dutch government along with the royal family have said they would not attend Euro 2012 Football Championships in Ukraine if the condition of imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko did not improve – which is fair and logical enough. This position is much fairer and much more logical than most of the things that the outgoing Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal did during his entire time in office!

See also -http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/apr/30/euro-2012-ukraine-diplomatic-crisis?INTCMP=SRCH

Arjen Robben - foto -Paulblank - Wikipedia

Mario Gomez from Bayern München, that is, thanks Mario Gomez from Chile!

Footballer Gomez was so moved by this great story of humanity and human recovery he vowed that he would use them as his inspiration.He also noted that he scored three goals and that there were also 33 miners who were rescued and his team jersey number is ‘33’.

In Chinese numerology – in which the sound of the Chinese word that the number name sounds similar to will bring luck – the number 3 sounds similar to the character for “birth” and is it thus considered a very lucky number. While ‘33’ is an obviously a less auspicious number in consideration of modern German history – beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it worked for him!

Footballer Gómez comes from an Upper Swabian village by Stutgart and is of German-Spanish descent, with a Spanish father from Granada and a German mother and has retained both nationalities.He chose at an early age however to just play for Germany and has done so for the German national team in 2002 at the age of 17.

In contrast to the habit of many ‘prima-donna’ type football stars who are so often ego-driven and intellectually challenged – this time Gomez unselfishly said after the game that he had benefited from ‘ three excellent assists’.It seems that the Chilean miners may have also affected his ego in a socially positive way – we wish him many more goals in the next weeks and month – Bayern will need them!

This blog is brought to you by …..OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog with kind permission’

Украинская сборная является молодой и динамично развивающейся командой, которая может добиться больших успехов на чемпионате по футболу даже в, так называемой, «смертельной группе». Сама группа состоит из чемпионов и достойных соперников: Франция, Швеция, Англия и Украина. Многие считают, что такая лотерея не может пойти на руку хозяевам поля, но сами футболисты настроены по-боевому и напротив, говорят, что их такой расклад вдохновляет.

Сам тренер национальной сборной (великий в прошлом футболист и уже великий нынешний тренер) Олег Блохин говорит, что этот чемпионат в общем один из самых сложных за последнее время именно потому, что в этот раз не удалось пройти никому из «средних» команд и попали в списки только самые сильные. Также тренер не поддерживает всеобщего настроя по поводу группы Д как «группы смерти», он даже иронизирует по этому поводу, говоря что если это группа смерти, то Блохину лучше сразу застрелиться: «Все четыре группы тяжелые – у нас тяжелая группа и, следовательно, будут тяжелые игры. 

На самом деле в сборной полным полно талантов как Ярмоленко, Гусев, Тимощук и всемирно известный Шевченко. Такой состав уже сумел добиться хороших результатов на чемпионате мира в 2006 году, когда Украина заявила о себе как о прорывной, сильной и главное перспективной команде, открыв миру такие имена как Шовкоский, Воронин и Милевский.

Главная цель на сегодняшний день для Украинской команды – это выход из группы. Такова цель абсолютно реальна, но для того чтобы ее достичь надо конечно же поработать над своими пробелами, которые в основном представлены в защите. У Украинской команды сильный дух, глубокая страсть и хорошая атака, но, к сожалению, у нее часто не хватает выдержки довести матч до конца, самые распространённые провалы – пропуск голов на последних минутах, в чем винить вратарей было бы грешно, особенно таких как Шовковский, который на ЧМ 2006 сделал нереальное – словил 3 мяча с пенальти.

В общем, с такими парнями, как Украинские футболисты, да еще и под руководством обладателя Золотого Мяча и Суперкубка УЕФА даже таким командам как Франция будет, о чем призадуматься.
Украина сыграет в 3 матчах в славных городах Киеве и Донецке. Не смотря на скандалы вокруг завышенных цен в стране полным-полно дешевых квартир и хостелов, которые можно найти не на таинственных, непонятно кем написанных, страницах интернета с сумасшедшими ценами, а в таких компаниях как Аpartment Service Киев, где вам все расскажут и покажут за краткое время.
Следовательно можно не переживать, жить будет где и футбол будет яркий так что можно паковать вещи и езжать в Украину.

This Article is by Natalia from Kyiv.com .

Mario Gomez - Ralf Reinecke. Original uploader was Pascalre at de.wikipedia

In the first game last week Bayern München did what they had to do. They covered Cristiano Ronaldo and the other Real forwards did not allow Real Madrid too much space. At the Bernabeu Stadium this time around this evening they will have to do it all over again and play as brilliantly.

As Philipp Lahm did it cleverly and he will have to do so again in this key encounters – we should remember that Cristiano Ronaldo, as a player is just behind Lionel Messi in the Spanish league in number of goals an outstanding talent if not always a hard worker.

To win this evening Mario Gomez, Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben, and Thomas Müller will all have to be in great form and have ‘a nice day’ type of game.

Bastien Schweinsteiger will have to be back in form in mid-field, and it looks like he is and Manuel Neuer, well Manuel Neuer will just have to be Manuel Neuer, one of the best goalies around – and then Bayern can go on to the Champions League final in…………….yes in Munich/ München on Saturday the 19th of May.

The opponent in that final will be Chelsea of London with their super-star Didier Drogba – an absolute star player who led his team to defeat last years champions FC Barcelona. They did this last evening, with 10 men in Barcelona and proved they are a motivated – if somewhat elderly- side. However they were absolutely brilliant last evening and age did not matter – however character and drive did, and they had lots of both! Fernando Torres who has not scored too many goals as of late – added the last goal. They would have gone through anyways however this was just more of Chelsea showing thier great power.

See http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/apr/24/barcelona-chelsea-champions-league and http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/torres-sets-seal-on-the-miracle-of-barcelona-7676053.html

This is funny- GOAL.COM had predicted 3-1 win for Barcelona – so dangerous to make these exact predictions – http://ph.news.yahoo.com/goal-com-predicts-barcelona-3-1-chelsea-real-111003963.html

Former Bayern coach Louis van Gaal is hoping for Bayern in a big way! – http://www.tz-online.de/sport/fc-bayern/gegen-real-madrid-louis-gaal-drueckt-bayern-daumen-2291672.html

More about this evenings game -http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/25/sports/soccer/in-stunner-chelsea-advances-to-champions-league-final.html?_r=1&ref=soccer

This blog wrote an excellent article about Mario Gomez on 18th October 2010 – http://www.ota-berlin.de/blog/10/18/mario-gomez-thanks-mario-gomez/ from which we reprint the following;

Mario Gomez from Bayern München, that is, thanks Mario Gomez from Chile!

Footballer Gomez was so moved by this great story of humanity and human recovery he vowed that he would use them as his inspiration.He also noted that he scored three goals and that there were also 33 miners who were rescued and his team jersey number is ‘33’.

In Chinese numerology – in which the sound of the Chinese word that the number name sounds similar to will bring luck – the number 3 sounds similar to the character for “birth” and is it thus considered a very lucky number. While ‘33’ is an obviously a less auspicious number in consideration of modern German history – beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it worked for him!

Footballer Gómez comes from an Upper Swabian village by Stutgart and is of German-Spanish descent, with a Spanish father from Granada and a German mother and has retained both nationalities.He chose at an early age however to just play for Germany and has done so for the German national team in 2002 at the age of 17.

In contrast to the habit of many ‘prima-donna’ type football stars who are so often ego-driven and intellectually challenged – this time Gomez unselfishly said after the game that he had benefited from ‘ three excellent assists’.It seems that the Chilean miners may have also affected his ego in a socially positive way – we wish him many more goals in the next weeks and month – Bayern will need them!

Reprinted with permission from OTA Berlin.

Getting to the list of top 50 UEFA countries Ukraine understood that they are half way prepared for the EURO 2012 football championship.

Ukraine today is a combination of a world class Shevchenko’s and Kalinichenko’s experience and new talents like Milevskiy and Yarmolenko.

The last time Ukraine showed its potential was on the 2006 FIFA World Cup where Ukraine got to the 1/8 and beat Switzerland 3:0 in after penalty session where national goalkeeper Shovkovkyi set a record by not conceding a single goal. Nevertheless following games did not result as well;
Ukraine didn’t get to play on the World Championship in 2010. It is indicative that the team loses at the end of the second half; the great example of such is a game with France where Ukraine managed to let in 2 goals in the last minutes of the game. Surely the week part of the team is quarterbacks.

Ukraine got to the list of players for 2012 EURO championship as a host country. When Oleg Blokhin, a “Golden Ball” keeper and an incumbent of UEFA Cup Winners Cup agreed to lead the team for the second time the country breathe a sigh of relief. It was Blokhin who took Ukraine to its best results and proved that Soviet experience can be used in a modern football.

Oleg Bokhin almost finished the list of players to play on EURO 2012. Among the most famous are Shevchenko, Kalinichenko, Timoshuk and Nazarenko.

Another Ukrainian “Golden Ball” keeper Shevchenko is optimistic:” EURO 2012 championship is even harder than a World Cup, still at all, I’m optimistic, because Blokhin’s reappearance helped us very much. The team changed a lot, our mentality changed. Blohkin was a great player. He was our main figure during many years. He got a golden ball and led the national team to the World Cup. His return gave us confidence”.

One of the biggest openings for Ukraine during the EURO football championship is expected to be Andriy Yarmolenko. Young and enthusiastic scorer was noticed by several clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool, Milan etc. The forward plays at Dynamo Kyiv club and a national team. He can play at almost every position, more often at the right and does an incredible amount of work on a field.

Ukrainian National team will play in a group D which has strong opponents like France and England. The first match will be played on one of 2012 EURO host stadiums, Olympiyskyi stadium with Sweden on June 11.

Ukraine has a great potential, the main aspect is how it will use it during the championship. Together with an experience and young unconquered Ukrainian temper we can expect the team to go off the group and even more.

This article courtesy of Natalia from Euro 2012 football championship.

Otto Rehhagel - fohttp://www.euro-2012-blog.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=576&action=editto Wikipedia by Beek100

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Hertha logo [Wikipedia

Ben-Hatira , with Tunisian parents, was born in Berlin in 1988 and started his football career playing for local youth clubs eventually ending up at Hertha BSC.

Otto Rehhagel presented a different team which lost to Bayern Munich last week in a painful 0-6 drubbing.

Brought into the team was Ben-Hatira, Lell moved from midfield to right back to replace and Kobiashvili was deposited in defensive midfield, not as usual in his comfortable position just behind the left forward area. Ramos inside-right position, remained unchanged – and while usually very good somehow seemed to excel today where he played skillfully and with 2 goals – successfully!

Mainz started the game impressively enough however it was Ben-Hatira who scored with a brilliant assist from forward Nikita Rukavytsya .

The talented 24 year old Ukrainian – Australian Rukavytsya and Änis Ben-Hatira are the type of players that Hertha will have to depend and build upon in the future if they want to get out of the dull-drums which they seemed to have been in for almost a decade.

Gustavo Adrián Ramos, Berlin`s Columbian forward scored the 2nd goal in the mid-2nd half and Mainz thought they had a chance to get back in the game with a thunderous kick by Choupo-Moting in the 58th minute. However the very same Mr Ramos 10 minutes later who provided the “icing on the cake“ for Hertha when he scored the game’s final goal.

People may be expecting too much from ‘King Otto” as he is affectionately called in Berlin but everyone wants Hertha Berlin NOT to be relegated YET AGAIN!

It is of extreme importance that Berlin has and keeps a first league Bundesliga team – Go Hertha Go!!!

Jürgen Klopp’s Dortmund will host Bayern München on the 11th of April – this could be the match of the season which will decide first and second place in the league.

To see the latest Bundesliga rankings – http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/spieltag/1-bundesliga/2011-12/spieltag.html

Berlin Olympic Stadium - foto from Wikipedia by Chrisgj6

Kindly reprinted with permission from OTA-Berlin.