Some team news has arisen since Hertha's English Week encounter with Bayern. It appears that Alexander Baumjohann is back in the squad after he damaged his anterior cruciate ligament back in August. It's taken him most if the season to get back to fitness but his return is most welcome!

It also looks like Tolga Ciğerci Will be back as well which is another much needed boost.

Another thing worthy of note in the squad that has been announced is the continued absence of Johannes van den Bergh and also the inclusion of the local player Sebastian Holland. Johannes originally lost his place through suspension after a fifth yellow card in the M'Gladbach game. For reasons unknown he has not made it back into the squad as yet. Sebastian however has gained some valuable first team match time over the last few games.

Another player missing from the squad is Peter Pekarik who also will not be making the trip to Gelsenkirchen on Friday.

Lastly great news for Thomas Kraft who had to leave at the last minute following the birth of his son Mateo. Congratulations to Thomas and I wish him and his family every success! This gives a chance to Rune Jarstein who has his Hertha debut against Schalke though I'm not sure why Gersbeck wasn't called up.

Not long to wait to find out exactly who is going to be in the starting eleven - Ha Ho He!

The visit to Gelsenkirchen is not going to produce an easy encounter for Hertha. Schalke are riding high as they have won seven out of eight of their home games. Having said this Hertha have done well on the road. At least in comparison to their recent dire form at home. They gave won five out of their last eight encounters on the road and one more was a draw. Fingers crossed they will be able continue this away form during Spieltag 28.

After the match.

It didn't go well, Hertha lost 2:0 in Gelsenkirchen and again came home to Berlin without any points. Some of the talk about who was going to be in the team proved a little suspect. Sebastian Langkamp featured in defence rather than Fabian Holland.

Again, as with the Bayern match, I see no point in dwelling on the result. Hertha need to break out of what some are calling a "mini crisis" and get just screw more points under their belt beforevthe end of the season.

I'm not going to dwell on the match too much. The possession figures say a lot about how it went. Bayern had 77% of the ball and only 7% of their passes went astray. It didn't go all Bayern's way and Hertha were in the opposition penalty area long enough to force the penalty which Ramos put away.

The thing I take away from this match was the superb atmosphere and the massive levels of support for the home team. Even though everyone must have known Hertha's backs were going to be rammed against the wall the chanting and singing went on from start to finish. It was totally awesome!

The video below shows Hertha fans in full voice down perhaps but not defeated!

This weekend Hertha travel to Monchengladbach to face "the foals" and in doing so up to six of Hertha's players could find themselves returning to their former club.  Marcel Ndjeng ,Tolga Cigerci, Johannes van den Bergh, Peer Kluge and Alexander Baumjohann are all former Gladbach players. 

Also in this game both managers are facing their former clubs. Lucien Favre hosts Hertha whilst Jos Luhukay returns to Monchengladbach where he was the coach at until 2008 when he was sacked with just a 38% win rate.  He returns this weekend with his team from the capital with a significantly better 53%. 

With just two places and three points between these two teams who knows what will happen to Jos' statistics when the time comes on Saturday evening. You could easily argue this is going to be the game of the weekend / Spieltag 26!

Hertha never really recovered and the midfield in particular just didn't have appear to have any ideas. There was only one real chance for Hertha, early in the first half when Anis Ben-Hatira was left in space with just the keeper to beat and he shot it wide.  Another case of Hertha not taking their chances.  Gladbach had 58% of the possession but the key thing was they had four shots on goal and scored from three of them.  Hertha had just two shots goal and didn't score at all.  What is perhaps worse that later in the second half Hertha had the ball and were passing it around but not driving forward.  They couldn't find any answers and no way through.  To make things worse, as if you needed to, in the 63rd minute Sebastian Langkamp picked up a fifth yellow card so he will miss the next match (against Bayern).
Recent results must have affected the guy's confidence and so the way they play. Jos Luhukay has his work cut out to lift the team and get them back in the fight. I really hope Jos can work some special magic in the next few days!  Next stop Bayern comes to town . . .

We woke up in Berlin on Friday before the match against Hannover '96 in the Olympiastadion to find blue skies and unseasonably warm weather! I'm still hoping that we'll have similar luck tomorrow that will extend beyond the weather onto the football pitch!

The form Hertha has shown at home of late has been not so good but Hannover hasn't won for five games at home or away so both teams have a lot to prove. Hertha are still without Lusti, Cigerci, Ben-Hatira and Ndjeng so tomorrow's team will naturally be slightly makeshift. Having said this Jos Luhukay has never won against Hannover. In six meetings he has drawn three times and lost the other three. Not an ideal record to take forward to the match but I am sure Jos will have been using every bit of the fine Berlin weather to prepare the team for the fight to come.

Ronny managed a swerving free kick from about 35m to go just over the bar. Ramos then managed to trip over the ball then Per Skjelbred shot just wide when left 1 on 1 against the keeper.
In the 49th minute Lars Stindl was left alone, the defence all around him but not really marking him and . . 0:1 it was. Ramos had a good chance when he chipped the keeper after this first goal but it landed on the roof of the net. Just eight minutes after the first goal Jan Schlaudraff was left unmarked, onside and in front of goal - a pass picked out leaving Kraft no choice but to come out and . . 0:2 it was.  Ronny managed to smack the post with one of his belters but even he didn't get on the score sheet.
With two minutes of added time, just to add insult to injury, Szabolcs Husti was allowed to run in on goal, Kobi didn't tackle him and bang 0:3 it was.
Hertha really must learn to take those early chances in periods where they dominate early possession to put a game like this to bed before the other team can come back and score on the break. I do not even want to think about the defending for those goals. To go down 0:3 like that at home against a side who have picked up only their second away win of the whole season and yet still be ninth (the same place) in the table is extraordinary but Jos Luhukay still hasn't beaten Hannover '96.

OK, both Hertha and Chelsea had bad weekends. On the day after we spent the Sunday wandering around flea-markets and exploring the gluten free cafes of Friedrichshain to take our minds off thoughts of football. In the evening we went to another, totally different sporting event in Berlin - the handball of Füchse Berlin!
Well at least the hunters won! There was a great atmosphere in the Max-Schmeling-Halle to see the home victory over the Romanian team HCM Constanta. I gather there was about 5000 people in attendance which was good for a EHF Cup game.

Here us some of the goalmouth action for Die Füchse in the first half

Sunday sees Hertha travel to sixth place Mainz in an away game that could be oh so important in where the Old Lady ends up at the end of the season. With only four points between fifth and eighth places in the table things could hardly be tighter. A win in Mainz could see Hertha up to sixth place depending on what happens when M'gladbach play Augsburg on Saturday.

Hertha has won five out of six of the last away matches. What will happen to the away form this weekend - can the old lady continue in winning ways on the road? Will Mainz contain Ramos or will he rise up from his mini-crisis to grasp his full place for Columbia in Brasil? Will Sami step up to the plate? How will our defence hold up - against set pieces in particular? So many questions but so few answers. Always worries with so many key players being potentialy out of the picture: Lusti, Skjelbred, Cigerci, Ben Hatira and also Brooks. Not long to wait before we can find out one way or another . . .

I had to listen / watch the first half of the match as best I could whilst attempting to leave work this afternoon. I saw a couple of fine saves by Thomas Kraft who was the MVP for the first half IMO - he kept Hertha in the match including one 35m sprint out from his goal to clear the ball away from the approaching Müller! Again, IMO, it would be madness not to extend his contract beyond 2015.

The second half was a more interesting one and yielded two goals. The first was from our very own Adrian Ramos and this goal makes his tally 15 so far this season alongside Robert Lewandowski and one behind behind Mario Mandžukić with 16.

Unfortunately, the second was from a penalty conceded by Sami Allagui and put away by Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting of Mainz. Kraft got close but even he couldn't keep it out.

There were further chances for Hertha, notably some long distance efforts from Ronny who was brought on as a sub to replace Marcel Ndjeng. It could have gone either way right to the end so I guess the 1:1 score line was a fair result in the end.

I guess a draw didn't help either team very much but an away point is always better than no point at all. It takes Herthal another point further away from the drop zone which has to be the number one priority this season. Anything else, including dreams of Europe, is just icing on the cake.

Two home matches in ten days are coming up against Hannover and Bayern and I'm going to be at both of them so I'm hoping for some points from at least one of them - fingers crossed!!!

I wasn't able to watch the home game against Freiburg on Friday due to family commitments but, from what I can gather I didn't miss all that much! We listened to the match via Tunein radio and my phone whilst driving and we were on "the edge of our seats" hoping for somebody to scream "Tor für Hertha", it didn't happen and it remained 0:0 and just the one point at home. Our home form is starting to look pretty suspect these days. There have been twelve home and we have won just five of them and these wins were concentrated at the first part if the Hinrunde. As it stands Hertha have won more points away than at home (18:17).

The game on Friday also yielded a problem with Tolga Cierci who, it appears according to Bild, will be out for three weeks. Also Ben Hatira damaged his foot and may be out for longer. We could live without this, especially Tolga but hey . . .

I'm hoping for an upturn against Hannover '96 when we're there to see the next home game. I definitely want Hertha to be at full fighting strength for the English week and Bayern! Really looking forward to that one - Ha Ho He!!