Hertha Blog

Best out of three for Hertha?

3/19/2015

The next three games for Hertha could be crucial to how this season ends for the club. Starting on match day 26 the Old Lady faces firstly Hamburger SV then SC Paderborn and finally Hannover 96. These opponents are in 15th, 16th and 13th respectively Hertha nestling between in 14th place in the Bundesliga table leading into match day 26. Obviously, with Hertha only 6 points off the bottom of the table each of the games are, in effect, six pointers. Win them and Hertha stands a good chance of climbing up to mid table safety. Lose them and . . . .
With the first of the three on Friday night in Hamburg we were waiting to see if Hertha could reproduce their 3:0 win achieved in the Olympiastadion in October.

Ok, in the end, it wasn't three nil and perhaps it wasn't pretty but 0:1 was good enough on the night! Sebastian Langkamp knocked in a header from a Marvin Plattenhardt free kick after Hamburg went down to ten men. How important might those three points be near the end of the season?

It could be a pivotal point in this years campaign with Hertha now having six points between them and the playoff spot (for a few hours at least).

We didn't have long to wait as H96, Freiburg, Paderborn and Stuttgart were all playing at 15:30 on Saturday. The Hertha position could have been further cemented or weakened depending on the score lines.

Well, after the games on Saturday, it could have been better but it could have been worse! Stuttgart and Freiburg both picked up three points and so kept pace with Hertha. With H94 losing and the 0:0 draw for Paderborn however the Old Lady pulls away a little at least.

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FC Schalke 04 under grey skies

3/17/2015

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I woke up this morning to a drip, drip, drip sound coming from the corner of the room. No gentle readers, it wasn’t a burst pipe, a leaking radiator or even worse an overflowing toilet in the apartment above. It was rain dripping down from window ledges above hitting the metal window ledge outside our window. Looking out you could see one of those even grey skies that appear to be leaking on the unsuspecting Berliners below.

I was hoping that the weather was not some kind of omen for the match coming up against Schalke 04. I was also hoping that Schalke would be exhausted after their clash against Real Madrid during the week and Klass-Jan Huntelaar would have another downturn in form. With only 10/9 games to play the sense of urgency is really starting to build.

As it turned out it was disappointing in another way. Before the match if someone offered me a point off Schalke I would have waited a polite length of time before ripping their arm off and taking the point with it! In this year’s clash I found myself leaving the ground content but tinted with a strange feeling of regret about what might have been.

We had four friends out from the UK to spend a long weekend with us in Berlin and naturally, we took them to see Hertha play (hello David, Iris, Jacqui and Jim). Sadly, poor Jim was ill and had to go back to his hotel which meant he missed the match. The remaining three, came out of the game being really impressed by the atmosphere. They had a good view of both the match and the ever faithful, ever enthusiastic Ostkurve!

Our friends could not share however the twisted emotions of having their team gaining a point you were not expecting but losing two that would have been so important.

The feeling when Anis Ben-Hatira knocked in that first goal was immense and by pure chance I was filming the crowd with my phone in one hand but looking the other way at the game when he scored! Sorry about the shaky camera view and the abrupt end to the clip – the phone was stuffed into my pocket and I shot out of my seat twirling scarf in had screaming my head off!! (I’m sure you understand)

When Genki scored in the 81st minute we went mad thinking those three points where so close now. The crowd clapping in unison like a countdown to the final whistle. But it wasn’t to be but Matip spoiled the party in the 90th minute to make it 2:2. But, at the end of the day, those grey skies of the morning broke into a little sunshine cast on that vital and, to be honest, unexpected point.

Here are a few photos from the day . . .

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Heimsieg then away in Stuttgart

3/3/2015

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On Saturday Hertha hosted fifth place FC Augsburg at the Olympiastadion whilst sitting at the foot of the table with only Stuttgart for a cushion. After the match Hertha were three points and three places in the table better off but, points don’t tell the whole story.

It was by no means an easy victory. Although Hertha had much of the attacking action with Salomon Kalou having the lion’s share of the attempts on goal we had to wait until the 88th minute for the breakthrough. A throw in from Marcel Ndjeng and a flick on from Jens Hegeler found Kalou, in the right place at the right time, waiting to pounce. He didn’t need to be asked twice and he slotted it past Hitz. There were some pretty uncomfortable minutes following the goal where Augsburg really went for it but Hertha hung on to those hard earned points.

Although the win was most welcome there was a price. Both Peter Niemeyer and Per Skjelbred picked up yellow cards that I believe will result in a one match ban. This will leave options in the midfield more limited when Hertha travel to Stuttgart. To add to Hertha’s woes it was in the press on Sunday night that Julian Scheiber had damaged the ligaments in his left knee during training and will need an operation on Wednesday. It looks like we will be dependent on Salomon Kalou in the box for the rest of the season. It would be a good time for him to find a rich vein of form!

It isn’t all doom and gloom however as the in form Valentin Stocker will be returning from his suspension ready to play on Friday. As it turns out, on match day 24, with Hertha by no means safe and the Swabians just five points below them, it may just be that the points tell the only story that matters.

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Best out of three for Hertha?

FC Schalke 04 under grey skies

Heimsieg then away in Stuttgart

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