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I've created a little gallery of photos taken mostly at the Schenckendorffplatz training ground in the last week of August 2015.          I will add a few more photos when I have time to prepare them. Higher quality versions of the photos can be found on my Flickr account - Econet1892
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The weather in Berlin over the weekend of Spieltag 2. has been superb. A pretty steady sunny 27°C and, perhaps most importantly, lovely warm evenings. We were expecting a good crowd at the Olympiastadion to lend support whilst Hertha face visiting Werder Bremen on Friday evening and the Hertha faithful didn't disappoint.
 The sun goes down over the Marathontor as the crowd starts to come into the stadium The game started off pretty well with Hertha controlling the lion's share of the possession and after six minutes the crowd erupted as Stocker drove the ball into the back of the net to put the Old Lady 1:0 up. As the net bulged my thoughts dashed back to the 6:1 opening game against Eintracht Frankfurt just a few years ago . . . "surely that can't happen again"? My initial thoughts were correct, it couldn't happen again. A crazy scrappy equaliser came out of nowhere and for a while it was the men in green who had their tails up and looked like they may score again. Luckily they didn't but not without the woodwork coming to our rescue on a number of occasions. Hertha could have won this match but they could easily have lost it as well so perhaps a draw was a fair result in the end. A couple of players stood out for me in this game if for nothing else than their work rate. These were Valentin Stocker and Genki Haraguchi. Both worked like demons driving forwards but also tracking back to spare the Old Ladies blushes. The same cannot be said for Salomon Kalou who appeared to lack energy in much of the game where he often didn't chase the ball if it didn't fall straight to his feet. At least the long ball tactic appears to not be being used as often where Kalou is often separated from the ball far too easily by defenders who beat him in the air and on the turf.
I was hoping, just a week ago that Salomon had turned the corner but perhaps I was being overly optimistic. In the last few minutes Jay Brooks, after he was brought on off the bench appeared to be acting as a front man in the opposition box. Well if he can score for the USMNT then perhaps he can do a turn for Hertha as well! Time will tell. Well it’s been an eventful week and the Old Lady has been a busy girl! First she stepped up for the first round of the DFB Pokal and, unlike last year, despatched Armenia Bielefeld with a 2:0 score line to see them into the second round in October against FSV Frankfurt. To say it was easy would be stretching it to the point of almost disappearing! Having said this Nico Schulz made a fine run down the left flank and produced a cross to Salomon Kalou that my eighty nine year old mother-in-law could probably have scored from! The second goal in the 88th minute from Vladimir Darida was a cracker and I hope it was the shape of things to come. Perhaps I shouldn’t make slight of Kalou’s contribution as he’s in desperate need of confidence and when it comes to it, a goal is most certainly a goal! In the first game in the Bundesliga Hertha travelled to Bavaria and FC Augsburg who finished last season in fifth place and direct qualification to the Europa League. This meeting was never going to be easy but hope springs eternal and on this occasion there was at least some justification. It says it all when in my opinion the man of the match (like in so many games in the past) was Thomas Kraft. If for no other reason than the two cracking saves he made in the last minute to deny Augsburg the equalizer they were pushing so hard to get. Having said this at one point in the first half Salomon Kalou did some nice footwork in the box to evade two defenders to get a shot away that was blocked to send the ball off the post and away. A cracking save from Thomas Kraft to tip a shot onto and then over the bar in first half kept the score even. A decisive point in the game in many ways was when Raul Bobadilla was sent off for his second yellow following a pretty dangerous challenge that ended up with his leg crashing into Fabian Lustenberger’s midriff. No idea what the FCA bench were complaining about in that it was a pretty obvious yellow so he had to go. Perhaps they realised it was a pretty crazy challenge by Bobadilla and were as much frustrated by their own player beneath it all. After the break, with a man advantage, Kalou was tripped in the box and it was a clear cut decision for the ref to point at the spot. The “face-palm” from Augsburg’s trainer Markus Weinzierl after the foul conveyed his thoughts on the matter pretty clearly. The keeper went the right way but Kalou struck it hard enough for it to go clean under him giving Hertha the 1:0 lead. It must have been an afternoon for crazy pointless challenges as Roy Beerens running down the same line that saw the departure of Bobadilla lashed out with his boot missing the ball completely but taking out his opponent in dramatic style. Not one of Roy’s finest moments and the man advantage was gone.
Hertha then had to weather a storm as Augsburg now had their tail up and were really going for it. A free kick struck hard and almost true beat the wall and Thomas Kraft with only the post keeping it equal. Then a superb reaction save Kraft’s boot from another close range shot closely followed a few seconds later by tipping the ball over the bar to retain all three points for the old lady. A superb performance from Hertha’s keeper kept them in front to the end. Perhaps Hertha can come out of this week with two crumbs of comfort. The first being knowledge that they have a top class keeper in the form of Thomas Kraft. The second being, with two goals in a week, perhaps we have started to see a glimpse of what Salomon Kalou can do if his confidence and form returns. With a week before the start of the Bundesliga season for 2015/16 and just a few days before the DFB Pokal match against Armenia Bielefeld the tension is building.
I am not keen on the look of the home shirt with the logo (and the green “swish”) but then I really don’t like gambling so that doesn’t help. These are just my personal opinions and when it comes down to it The Old Lady needs the revenue coming in from Bet-At-Home.com so they are here to stay for a few years at least. Looking forward to the 2015/16 campaign I confess that I am still a little nervous about the Old Ladies prospects. Our ability to score goals is still a pretty key issue which may not have been addressed over the summer as well as many would have liked. The preseason matches do little to bolster my confidence as we still appear to lack the punch in the last quarter. Salomon Kalou has yet to develop an eye for the game in the Bundesliga and is too easily taken out of the equation. His fellow strikers Sami Allagui and Julian Schieber are both injured still so we’ll have to wait for a while to see what they can add to the strike force this season. Midfielder Alexander Baumjohann, recovering from his second ACL tear has had two years without professional football and will need time to recover both his match fitness and his form. We’ve said goodbye to some established Hertha players including Peter Niemeyer and Sandro Wagner who both move to newly promoted Darmstadt. I for one wish them well but perhaps not so much luck when they play against Hertha!
Our ranks have been swelled a little with the addition of Czech midfielder Vladimír Darida (SC Freiburg ) who if I remember correctly scored in his first game for Hertha. We also now have Mitchell Weiser who arrived earlier in the summer on a free from Bayern. Time will tell how the newcomers integrate into the team and what impact they can have. As usual, I am looking forward to the new season but I am nervous as to how things will unfold. |
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