Hertha Blog

Hertha in Stuttgart - me at Twickenham.

2/24/2014

This was the first Hertha game that I haven't watched, one way or another, for a couple of years. This was because I had agreed, as a volunteer, to drive a minibus with a couple of disabled adults up to Twickenham to watch the Six Nations - England v Ireland match. During the first half of the Hertha match I was driving through South London. For the second half, well there was 3G in the stadium but sadly none of my data was moving on it! I was kept up to speed my the occasional text arriving. I was able to see the highlights when I got home so all was not lost. A fantastic away win for Hertha and 34 points will be enough to keep us away from relegation which for me at least was the key goal for Hertha. Now the Old Lady can work on staying well up that table.

Back to the ball with a different shape England were lucky to get away with a tight match that ended up 13:10. It was, in effect, decided by the first half penalty put over by Owen Farrell as both sides scored converted tries and a penalty in the second half.

There was a great atmosphere at the game with plenty of singing. I always say these rugby internationals have more of a Bundesliga type feel to them (minus the pyrotechnics). Quite different to any English football matches I have been to.

Here are a few pictures of the match

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Wolfsburg visit the Olympiastadion.

2/18/2014

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Albeit very early in the Rückrunde , Spieltag 21. finds Wolfsburg coming to Berlin in a battle over a potential European place. The two teams are currently in 6th (Wolfsburg) and 7th place (Hertha) so these three points are clearly vital for both teams when they can be won at the expence of the other team. As always I am looking forward to the game although the Sunday night timing could have been better (for me anyway).

Thursday evening and I'm sitting on an Airbus ready to head out to Berlin. A quick power nap as we take off and for the first 20 minutes I think. I have to keep my energy levels up for the long weekend to come!

On Friday I went up to the new "flagship" Nike store in Berlin as Fabian Lustenberger was going to be there for the opening. The queues outside were just silly.

There was no way I was going to wait around that long when you can go along to and see Lusti at an open training session almost any time you like at Schenkendorfplatz

Just before walking in . . .

Well, that was disappointing. A 1:2 defeat after such a promising start as well. We suffered, not for the first time, from not putting away early chances and it coming back to bite us in the second half. It was the turn of Sami Allagui to have a bad day in the office on this day. Chance after chance went begging and nothing worked for him. Even the goal from Per Skjelbred was a bit of a scrabble.

The ref. had a good game this week and none of the controversy experienced against Nürnberg came into play this time around. He was a stickler for having both free kicks and throw ins from the correct place. When a player from either side "tried it on", as they usually do, he sorted them out straight away! He let the game flow quite well as well - he played advantage where he could.

No excuses for Hertha there then. The old lady was just nowhere near clinical enough in the final quarter. I tweeted at half time that I hoped the list chances would not come back to bite us but sadly, they did. Yet another conceded to a set piece (corner) and the second goal was a blast from distance and from open play from what I can remember. I reluctantly have to say it was cracking goal. A shame it wasn't scored by Hertha!

Another chance for Ben-Hatira and Hertha in the last minute coming off the bar - it really was not our day. Perhaps the "Old Lady" has become a little too dependant on Adrian Ramos during this season. The results have been great, do not think for one second I fail to appreciate what he has done for us this season but, he has been involved in over 60% of our goals. Take him out of the equation and we're in deep trouble. This, together with fixing our apparent inability to defend set pieces must be playing on Jos Luhukay's mind.

But hey, at least the weather was nice for the game. Here are some more photos from before the match -

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A new deal for Bayern

2/13/2014

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It appears Bayern München have reached an agreement with Allianz who have acquired an 8.33% share of the club in exchange for a whopping €110,000,000! That puts the clubs value at €1,320,000,000 - gulp!

It gives Allianz the same percentage share as some of the other major sponsors: Adidas and Audi. I gather that Bayern will be using it to pay off the debt on their stadium (the Allianz Arena) as well as improving the youth and junior facilities in München.

This is all very creditable but it goes to highlight the massive gulf in finances between Bayern and pretty well everyone else in the Bundesliga. Although the deal recently announced by Hertha was a huge one and will make a great difference to the Old Lady, it is dwarfed by this financial master stroke by Bayern.

I am not sure it's good for the league as how can anyone else compete with that? It's almost as if Bayern are in there own little league of there own and the Bundesliga is actually about who comes in behind them. Well, like or not, Bayern are clearly not going to be going away any time soon . .

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Hamburg away

2/9/2014

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With Fabian Lustenberger with a hamstring injury picked up in training we are waiting to see who will be wearing the armband when the Old Lady heads up to Hamburg. It appears he'll be out for at least two weeks so sadly, he'll miss the Wolfsburg game as well.

Hamburg SV have not been having a nice time if it of late and the dinosaurs are in the drop zone after five straight defeats. Having said this Hertha have had a disappointing start to the Rückrunde as well.
We can't afford to be so wasteful with our chances in Hamburg. The HSV defence has been disorganised and generally no doing the business recently. We are going to have to capitalise on that and really make the most if our chances to bring those three points back to Berlin.
I'm out for the day in Dorset but I'll do my very best to be back home in time to catch the BT Sport coverage of the match. Fingers crossed!

It's in the press on Saturday morning about The Old Lady being without Lusti and Per Skjelbred recovering from Flu. Fair enough I hear you say - but they also say HSV may be playing Lasogga who is on loan from Hertha. How does that work??
In the end Lasogga stayed on the bench but, from the HSV angle Per Skjelbred didn't. Something in the loan deal I guess

The teams announced by Hertha . .

Wow, what a great game for Hertha! Thrills and spills - a missed penalty followed by three an answered goals!!

Hosogai brought down in the box by a crazy tackle lead to a penalty to be taken by Adrian Ramos. It wasn't a good one to be honest and Rene Adler pushed it out for a corner. The start of Hamburg's woes came as the corner came in, Ramos headed it down and Sami Allagui bundled/poached it in. What the Hamburg defence were doing is beyond me!

Two more goals from Adrian Ramos in the 23rd and 38th minutes effectively put the game to bed. The second goal followed a lovely one two between Adrian and Johannes van den Bergh. Hamburger SV never really turned up and Thomas Kraft didn't have too much to do.

Hertha worked hard today in that they covered 117km (110km by HSV) and won 55% of the tackles in the process. Hosogai, van den Bergh and Pekarik covered 11.4km each and the recently returned Tolga Cigerci wasn't far behind. Hosogai was everywhere as usual, he's been an excellent buy this season. The absence of Fabian Lustenberger and the recent recovery of Per Skjelbred from flu didn't have a massive impact and Hertha were often attacking in numbers. The Old Lady was imperious and looking every bit an established Bundesliga team. Wonderful!

Where Hamburger SV go from here it is hard to say. Six losses in a row is enough to make any fan's heart sink and the very real prospect of the "dino" getting relagated has been thrust into their faces this weeekend. I don't wish that on anyone but I'm pretty sure those fans attacking players cars after the match is not part of the answer . . .

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Nürnberg come to Berlin!

2/3/2014

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I'm looking forward to the match on Sunday against 1. FC Nürnberg (no suprise there!). When the two teams met in the Hinrunde it ended with a point a piece but that was not in the Olympiastadion! On a mildly cool day in February in Berlin with a home crown firmly behind them I'm hoping Die Alte Dame will retain all three points catapulting her back to sixth place in the Bundesliga. We'll soon see I guess!

Nürnberg won their last match 4:0 against Hoffenheim and that was their biggest win for three years but also their first win this season! This is the match that leads them into the away match in Berlin on Sunday. On the other side of the coin Hertha are still riding high and have won 29:16 (64%) of there previous home encounters against 1. FC Nürnberg.

Having said all of this, Jos Luhukay has never won against Nürnberg so there is no place for complacency and we need a win tomorrow to keep us on track to end up in the top half in May.

Post match.
Well, Hertha ended up going down 3:1 . . . I'll could only comment from my admittedly biased perspective when I'd calmed down a bit . . . mutter .. mutter . . (Ref) . . (robbed) . . .
OK van den Bergh didn't have a good game getting a yellow for a rash challenge within two minutes. He then went on to make a clearance that cost Hertha the equalising goal. Not a good day at the office but I hope he'll bounce back from it. We missed chances, especially in the first half, including one sitter by Ramos. You could almost feel it was going to going to come back and bite us. Had it gone in we would have been 2:0 up and perhaps things could have turned out very differently.

But, deep into the second half, how can that not be a red card and a penalty? Ronny sends the ball over the top towards goal - Ramos passive offside at this stage - Nürnberg player at the back post (hand waving up in the air) keeps it out of the net by handing it out like a keeper! Ramos now, and only now smacks it in. But, no hand, a ball in the net - Ramos not active at that stage!! Ramos blocking the keeper?? Nah!

It appears as of 03/02/2014 · 13:20 the DFB have an opinion on the matter. They say refereeing community agree that the call was incorrect and Ramos did NOT impede Schäfer in getting back to the goal sufficiently to warrant it being called offside. Therefore, the red card should have stood and the penalty awarded. For those German speakers amoungst you (or those who are a dab hand with Chrome) a news article on the DFB site - Penalty for Hertha or Offside: Complex situation

I have calmed down a little now and can only hope Hertha come back fighting next week. . . a few random photos taken at the match . .

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Hertha in Stuttgart - me at Twickenham.

Wolfsburg visit the Olympiastadion.

A new deal for Bayern

Hamburg away

Nürnberg come to Berlin!

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