Hertha Blog

Safe at last

5/25/2015

Well the 2014/15 Bundesliga season is over for Hertha and we live to fight another year in the top league. Hertha lost against Hoffenheim but this time it was only 2:1 and that was enough with both Stuttgart and Hannover winning their games. Massive relief for all Hertha fans but to say they were “happy” would be a bit of an exaggeration.

The defence has improved massively under Pal Dardai and the combatively small number of goals Hertha have conceded since is taking over helped with the goal difference that kept us above HSV. The number of goals scored however has been a bit of an issue. There is work to be done over the summer break and perhaps money to be spent. This may be more difficult than it may otherwise have been after we lost our shirt sponsor earlier this year. It’ll also be interesting what the new 2015/16 shirts look like. Will there be a surprise on the front?

Not everything is settled in German top flight football however with the playoffs being held on Thursday 28th of May and Monday 1st of June. Karlsruhe SC lost there place in the 1. Bundesliga back in 1968 but Hamburger SV have never been demoted and have a clock ticking to prove it! HSV will see if they can keep that clock ticking and KSC will want to break into the top flight.

Naturally Hertha fans will want our friends from Karlsruhe to come out on top but over two legs it's not going to be easy. You can be sure HSV will be fighting tooth and nail to keep their clock ticking. Hertha on the other hand can concentrate on scoring more goals next year and finishing a little further up the table.

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Last match of the season

5/19/2015

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The table at the end of match day 33 ended up looking like this -

In a nutshell, the state of play for Hertha in this last match of the season (and being so perilously close to the relegation places) can be summed up in three simple statements

The table at the end of match day 33

1. Hertha is in practice, safe from going down automatically because they are now four points clear of Paderborn and although Hamburg could still equal them on points (if they win against Schalke) they have a goal difference which is 12 goals worse than the Old Lady.

2. Hertha will stay up, come what may if they can win, draw or even lose by only a one goal margin against Hoffenheim on Saturday.

3. Hertha will have to play in the relegation playoff if they lose by two goals or more but only if, at the same time, Hannover manages a draw against Freiburg and Stuttgart wins in Paderborn.

So, needless to say a Hertha win in Hoffenheim is first on the wish list but perhaps somebody winning in Hannover would do at a pinch.

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Eintracht Frankfurt Part 2

5/16/2015

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If I said I was going to this match at the Olympiastadion without a certain anxiety I would be telling a bit of a fib. Although we had a slight buffer between us and those below us it was just that – slight.
On a positive note Schalke 04 somehow managed to snatch all three points against Paderborn and those soon to be extinct “dinosaurs” HSV equally avoided points in their relegation dogfight with Stuttgart. However, Hannover took all three points against FC Augsburg and SC Freiburg beat some team from Bavaria – not sure what they’re called.

In the Olympiastadion there was an optimistic if somewhat tense atmosphere with an impressive 60,000 fans in attendance to fuel the waves of supports braking over the pitch. The Ostkurve were doing their thing, singing, chanting and clapping after many of them had marched to the stadium from Theodo-Heuss-Platz starting at 11:30 in the morning!
Here are the Hertha faithful as the teams come out before the match . .

The first half was a nerve wracking affair with Frankfurt edging the possession but Hertha making the best of what they had. They had four corners to Frankfurt’s one and six shots for just one from the visitors. At half time both teams went in at 0:0 with much to play for but naturally the pressure was on the home side.

At half time the Frankfurt away fans felt like they weren’t getting enough attention so they held a little fireworks party all by themselves. They really should have been a bit more organised if this was all they could muster . . .

The best chance of the second half and probably the game fell to Salomon Kalou's who ran one on one towards Kevin Trapp in the 54th minute only to blow the chance to chip the keeper who got a good hand to it driving it clear. The Berliner Morgenpost report that Kalou now has 823 minutes of football without a goal. This is a record such a high profile signing could do without.

Perhaps John Anthony Brooks came out looking best out of this match as he won 77 percent of his duels although a silly shoulder barging “tackle” cost him a yellow card and so he misses the last game against Hoffenheim.

After the match it was quite eerie in the stadium as the team came over to the fans to be greeted with silence. Most of the fans stayed but there were no cheers or clapping although there were no whistles either, just silence. I suspect everyone was thinking about what could have been and those other results shown on the big screens. There was much food for thought in that nothing is certain until next week and the last match of the season.

With for points separating the bottom six teams with only three points to play for it could hardly be tighter in the relegation battle. Hertha should be OK but it it would have been nicer to seal it with a win. But hey, staying up is the important thing - let’s leave it looking pretty until next year . .

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Eintracht Frankfurt Part 1

5/14/2015

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Here is the table as Hertha heads into match day 33. Not as comfortably positioned as I might have hoped perhaps but it could easily be a lot worse.

Six points to play for and with Hertha only three points and a bit of goal difference away from the playoff place.

The outcome of these last two games will define this season for the bottom six clubs.

If Hertha can win on against Entract Frankfurt at home on match day 33 they should be safe short of some pretty impressive wins by some of the other teams at the bottom. With all of the matches kicking off at 15:30 on Saturday some of the results coming in and appearing on the big screens in the Olympiastadion could cause a pretty big reaction.

Matchday 33
FC Augsburg : Hannover 96
Hertha BSC : Eintracht Frankfurt
VfB Stuttgart : Hamburger SV
Sport-Club Freiburg : FC Bayern München
FC Schalke 04 : SC Paderborn 07

Matchday 34
Hamburger SV : FC Schalke 04
SC Paderborn 07 : VfB Stuttgart
TSG 1899 Hoffenheim : Hertha BSC
Hannover 96 : Sport-Club Freiburg

No matter what Hertha do on Saturday, if Hannover, Paderborn or Stuttgart lose they are in very deep trouble indeed. Stuttgart could no longer catch Hertha as they need a win and a draw to be on equal points although the win would have to be a pretty big one to overtake Hertha!
To have a chance of overtaking and dropping Hertha into the mire the bottom five teams need the following:
Hannover 96 – at least a win and a draw and close the goal difference gap of 3
VfB Stuttgart - at least a win and a draw and close the goal difference gap of 5
SC Paderborn 07 – in practice, two wins
Sport-Club Freiburg - a win and a draw would do it.
Hamburger SV – in practice one win would do it.

But hey, I'm really hoping none of this matters. I just want to see Hertha win on Saturday and then who cares what the other teams do in their matches! Part 2 will appear on, or shortly after match day 33 . . .

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A Hertha weekend in Munich

5/13/2015

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Hertha have some difficult matches in the run up to the end of the season not least of which was the away match against Bayern Munich. By pure chance I happened to be in Munich on that weekend with my other half (if you believe that was by chance you are very “special” indeed!). We planned to take a very long weekend having a look around the city and have a couple of days out visiting Salzburg and Schloss Neuschwanstein by train using “Bayern tickets”.
The key event of the visit however was our visit to the Allianz Arena to support Hertha against the team soon to be crowned Bundesliga champions (again). It was a superb evening and I was thrilled to be there with the away fans that may have been in the minority in terms on numbers but not in terms of spirit!

It had been a pretty hot day in the city and the evening was pretty warm when arriving at the match. The U-Bahn on the way up was packed with fans and was stiflingly hot and sticky to the point of being grateful of the doors opening at each and every stop!

Naturally blue and white shirts were fairly few and far between on route to the stadium but the closer you got, the more could be seen. Having said this the first was in our hotel at breakfast!

You can look up the match stats on any number of websites but I want to concentrate on the feel of the game and the atmosphere – die stimmung. The section that I was in was meant to be for Hertha fans only – and the tickets said no Bayern shirts scarves etc. would be allowed. This was a bit of a joke really as there were quite a few Bayern fans near us and sitting next to us were a group of Japanese tourists that only appeared to have a mild interest in the game at all. How they got those tickets is a total mystery to me. But enough about that there was a pretty solid core of blue and white about us and that’s what counts!

The Hertha faithful created loads of support with chants, songs and clapping despite the best efforts of the PA system at times. I sometimes wonder if it's just me hating PA systems at football matches. I find it really annoying when supporters are knocking out a great song/chant and it gets drowned out by an announcement or some "Musak". Fans can create quite enough of an atmosphere by themselves thank you very much!

Having said this the speakers kept quiet most of the time - it's just one of my pet hates. I took a short video clip to give those who were not able to be there a taste of the atmosphere on the day. . . .

We left the stadium with heads held high. There had been no whitewash, Hertha had had their chances and only world class goalkeeper prevented us taking the lead.

Naturally I entered the stadium with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation. I really didn’t want us to be put to the sword but I was also aware of Hertha having a decent record against Bayern where others had been taken apart. The tension built up during the match and I spend nearly all of it on the edge of my seat or leaping up into the air! This was never more so when Nico Schulz had that run on Neuer – oh so close. Coming up to the last 15 minutes it really felt like we had a chance of nicking a point, if not more but clearly it wasn’t to be.
Here are a few photos of the evening . . .

We left the stadium with heads held high. There had been no whitewash, Hertha had had their chances and only world class goalkeeper prevented us taking the lead.

So we left with a warm feeling inside which was just as well because it started raining as we waited for the U-Bahn into the city.

So mine was a wet Hertha shirt that travelled across the city back to our hotel but, I didn’t care. We had “done alright”.

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Am I worried yet?

5/9/2015

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Following the 1:0 loss to Bayern last weekend match day 31 brought another narrow defeat to a top team in the form of Lucian Favre’s Borrusia Mönchengladbach. Again, the death nail fell in the last ten minutes when it looked like we were going to hold onto at least one vital point.

With Hertha only being four points clear of the playoff spot and nine points still to play for I am getting increasingly nervous about how this season is going. Sure we are playing better and the defence in particular is better organised than it has been of late but we’re still not picking up points and those below us in the table are.
One of my concerns is that Salomon Kalou is not firing on all cylinders yet in my opinion. There have been many long balls going up towards him but he appears to lack the strength to hold his position against opposition and pull the ball down. I’d be the first to admit I know nothing about the technicalities of the game but from this fans perspective, as the main frontman he appears to lack the physicality required. I may be being unfair there – I really don’t know. It is however, a good time for Valentin Stocker to start scoring. I only hope it’s not too little too late.

Hertha now has three games ahead of them and it appears they cannot rely on the teams below them to help us out and drop all of their points. There are two away matches against Dortmund and Hoffenheim which are going to be pretty tough and one key game in two weeks against Eintracht Frankfurt. Loose that one and, unless we get points in Dortmund, we’re in deep trouble so the edge of my seat in the Olympiastadion will be take on about a years’ worth of wear in the 90 minutes of that game!

How many times have I found myself at the end of a Bundesliga season chewing on my fingernails as Hertha desperately scraps at the foot of the table? Too many times is the answer. Am I worried? Yes I am – but we can do this. Another few points and the Old Lady is safe for another season. Anyway, come what may, win or lose, sink or swim, it’s Blue and White for me.

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Safe at last

Last match of the season

Eintracht Frankfurt Part 2

Eintracht Frankfurt Part 1

A Hertha weekend in Munich

Am I worried yet?

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