I remembered this podcast about football in Berlin dating back to the dark days of April 2012.  As background it is a great snapshot of the beautiful game in the German capital city. It is still there to be listened to so why not listen to the blast from the past . . .

Here it is on the podbean site -
http://bundesligafanatic.podbean.com/2012/04/ 

. . . . I tried adding a link here where you could download the MP3 directly but I failed totally!

Last week it was announced there was going to be a garden gnome decorating contest.  No theme was involved you could paint it up in any way you liked.  !

The Hertha starting lineup consists of:  Burchert - Pekarik, Janker, Lustenberger, Holland - Niemeyer, Kluge - Sahar, Ronny, Ben-Hatira - and Ramos.
I did not get to follow this game (friends came to stay) so I had to content myself with a few glances at Twitter to know what had been happening.
Here is the Hertha TV highlights if you want to catch up -

Happy 121st Birthday to Hertha BSC who were formed as a club 121 years ago on the 25th of July 1892.

Many happy returns to Die Alte Dame with many happy victories!

Ha Ho He Hertha BSC!!

On Tuesday the 23rd Hertha play their penultimate pre-seson friendly against U.S.
Palermo the Italian second division side.  Kick off is at 18:30 hrs CET or 17:30 BST for those in the UK.
In the run up to the match BZ are reporting that Hajime Hosogai will get his first run out in this match.  He has done a bit of training with the lads now so it will be interesting to see how he does in his first game.  It sounds like all of the new guys will get a run out so for the first half at least Hajime will be playing alongside Alexander Baumjohann, Johannes van den Bergh and Sebastian Langkamp.  With the talk about Peter Niemeyer it will also be interesting to see what happens with him in these two remaining pre-season matches.  It would be a shame to see him loose the captaincy I think as he was so key in much of last season.  It sounds like everything is still very much up in the air but some think Peer Kluge is a front runner..  As always, time will tell . . .

The match
The starting team was:  Kraft, Ndjeng, Langkamp, Brooks, v.d. Bergh, Hosogai, Kluge, Allagui, Baumjohann, Schulz and Lasogga.

Hertha conceded a goal in the 12th minute with a shot from Paulo
Bruno Dybala, an Argentine forward, that left Thomas Kraft with no chance.  Although I hate to say it, it was a great strike.  Hertha went in at half time still 1:0 down.

During the break there were some changes:
Hubnik came on for Langkamp,
Janker for Brooks and,
Mukhtar for Hosogai
          and then . . . .
Kobiashvili for Kluge,
Sahar for Allagui and,
Wagner for Lasogga

In the 58th minute Alexander Baumjohann made it 1:1 with what I think was a deflected shot from well outside the D.  He then struck again to make it 2:1 in the 65th!  The second was a great goal: pinching the ball off a Palermo player just in their half and then running down the middle to beat both a Palermo defender and the keeper.  Great stuff!

The match ended 2:1 to Hertha ans another win!  It also makes five goals in the pre-seasons for Alexander Baumjohann - he's setting in very nicely so far.

The Hertha TV highlights video can be seen below

The pre-season freindlies are going pretty well so far. Four wins and 17 goals whilst keeping four clean sheets perhaps sounds better than it really is given the opposition (with the greatest respect). Having said this the games do give a wonderful opportunity for the new lads to integrate itch the team.

The Bundesliga 2. started yesterday with wins for Karlsruher SC (yay! 3 points in the bag for KSC), St Pauli and Erzgebirge Aue which is more than wetting my appetite - I'm starting to dribble!

Still, it's only three weeks until Hertha's first match in the Olympiastadion and the match day tickets go on sale on Monday. Closer still, it's only two weeks until the first DFB Pokal match - can't wait!!!

Thursday the 18th at 17:00 sees Hertha play Viktoria Köln in the fourth out of six friendlies before the Bundesliga starts in just over three weeks. I wonder if we'll see Hajime Hosogai have his first run out? The guys need a bit of playing time together and I'm sure Jos Luhukay will be keen on giving it to them. As always - we'll see . . . .

Today was a a game of two halves in every sense of the term.  The Hertha team changed totally at half time in what turned out to be a totally one sided run out for the new look Hertha side preparing for the Bundesliga in 2013/14

It ended up 12:00 in favour of the Blue and Whites but lets not read too much into this score line ok?

In the first half Hertha fielded the following:
Kraft – Holland, Brooks, Langkamp, Janker – Niemeyer – Schulz, Baumjohann and Ronny with both Allagui Ramos up front.

In the second half, all change Hertha fielded the following:
Burchert – van den Bergh, Hubnik, Franz, Pekarik – Kluge, Mukhtar – Ben-Hatira, Wagner, Ndjeng – and Lasogga up front.

The goalfest ran as foillows:
0:1 Baumjohann (10.),
0:2 Baumjohann (15.),
0:3 Ronny (17.),
0:4 Allagui (20.),
0:5 Ramos (24.),
0:6 Baumjohann (27.),
0:7 Mukhtar (47.),
0:8 Lasogga (59.),
0:9 Ndjeng (65.),
0:10 Lasogga (70.), 
0:11 Lasogga (84.),
0:12 Lasogga (87.)

So a hattrick for Baunjohann and four for Lasogga is a nice confidence booster in the run up to August.  The Hertha TV video below shows the match in all its glory!

There are still a number of pre-season matches on the cards for Hertha in July.  I have posted the dates below.  Sadly I am not able to go and see any of these, not even those in Berlin.  The match against Wisła Kraków is going to be behing closed doors anyway.  Oh well only four and a bit weeks to go . . . 

For those interested - 
Tues July 9th 18.30 hrs VSG Altglienicke - Hertha BSC - (at the Fritz Lesch Sportplatz, Dörpfeldsteße 89, 12489 Berlin) result 12:0
Sat   July 13th 15.00 hrs RB Leipzig - Hertha BSC  - result 0:1
Tue  July 16th 17.00 hrs Hertha BSC -  Wisła Kraków in the Amateurstadion - result 2:0
Thu  July 18th 17.00 hrs Viktoria Köln - Hertha BSC  - result 0:2
Tue  July 23rd 18.30 hrs Hertha BSC -   US Palermo  - result 2:1

Fri    July 26th 18.30 hrs Hertha BSC - RAD Belgrade