Spieltag 8 finds Hertha in an away game in Duisburg on a Monday night. Mondays are great if you are watching it on TV thanks to Sport1 but a real downer getting to the match if you want to be there.

Even a Hertha fan must feel quite optimistic heading towards Duisburg on Monday. Duisburg, after seven games so far this season have only one point. Hertha however are riding high after wins against Dynamo Dresden and Aalen as well as a draw against K'lautern.

Well it didn't going to plan, again,  although it started so well with Hubnik of all people poking in a goal after only four minutes!  After that, perhaps the less said the better.

We were struggling from that point on really.  The defence looked vulnerable, especially in the air and in attack we were depressingly toothless.  It looked like an accident waiting to happen and on the 55th minute Baljak scored for the Zebras.  To make it worse, he scored again on the 72nd minute. 

We always appear to be able to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory – it’s a talent we have.  Depressing, but there you are!

Amazingly, out of the blue (not a blue Zebra) Sandro Wagner scored an equaliser in the 78th minute.  We were riding our luck massively at times but we got a point, and again, we’ll see in May how important that point will be . .

Here we are in English week and another Hertha game after only four days.

Team news coming out if the Haupstadt is not good since the weekend. Poor Maik Franz has been injured once again. Thus time he appears to have hurt the ball and socket joint in his shoulder somehow and could be off for months.

He must be so gutted after having been off for so long and he had been playing so well. We saw him in the Hertha offices fan shop the day before the Aalen match as well . . .

It sounds like the operation in München went well but it'll be three to four months before Maik will be back in training at Hertha - http://ow.ly/1OCOqu

Ben-Hatira - Lord only knows what's going on there with his ex-girlfriend and the police . . . . . despite any allegations it appears Ben-Hatira will be on the teamsheet against Dresden :)

I'm working when the Dynamo Dresden match is on tomorrow which is a bit of a downer. I may not be able to even see a stream :(.

I did not get to see much of the match but it sounds like I did not miss very much. We won with thf help of an own goal from Dynamo Dresden.

I saw a few chances and i don't understand how the shots went astray!! The continuing problems with finishing are still very much in evidence.

One positive thing, the defence held up reasonably well without Franz. Peter Pekarik had a good game I thought . .

The sixth match if the 2012/13 season saw Hertha play Kaiserlautern.

K'lautern led the way down into 2. Liga last season and were in fourth spot - one about Hertha in fifth place in the 2. Bundesliga.
.
This was a key match for Hertha even if it is only in psychological terms. A win away at K'lautern would have placed us well up the table and help boost the teams confidence which suffered so badly last year.

Hertha started the match well and from a totally biased viewpoint we had much of the possession. It was promising to see us create a number of chances during the first half.  Sadly however we did not seam to be capable of finishing and the score sheet remained 0:0 at half time.  Too many shots ended up straight into Sippel's hands.

As well as weak finishing, another old problem for Hertha, namely problems with discipline, started to creep into the match .  Three yellow cards were picked up by Hertha players (Niemeyer, Ben-Hatira and Bastians over the 90 minutes with a total of 24 fouls..  Having said this, the match was a tense one as K'lautern picked up four yellow cards with 25 fouls as well.  This gives some idea as to the number of hard tackles, both good and bad, that were made during the match.

When it came to the second half it looked like a different game.  Hertha had lost the control and K'lautern were looking more dangerous.   Then in the 66th minute K'lautern were awarded what was, at best, a "soft" penalty (see highlights video kindly uploaded by somebody who claims to be from the Czech Republic - Romzar7).  The more I look at it, the worse I feel about it.  I had better not look again!

Then, in the 69th minute the 2012/13 hero for Hertha Ronny sends a lovely curling shot into the bottom right corner of the net - TOOORRRR Hertha!

 Hertha never regained the control that they had in the first half and the game ended with a 1:1 draw. 

A point is very much a point and, who knows at this early stage of the season, how important that one point could be in May.  Having said that, we could easily feel hard done by when you look at that penalty decision.  We may not have lost any ground against K'lautern on this day but there are still four teams above us in 2. Bundesliga and three of them may be pulling away.  Braunschweig, at "time of going to print" are five points ahead  . . . .

After the lull last week in both the Bundesliga and the EPL we have Spieltag 5!!  Chelsea were away to QPR and the match was to be started off by a handshake (or not ) and accompanied by the inevitable chants from the QPR fans! It ended a disappointing 0:0 draw - I didn't see the game but it sounds like there were some "strange decisions" by the ref.

Hertha were playing VfR Aalen who, before the match, were in 10th place in 2. Bundesliga whilst Hertha are in a creditable 7th position.  Aalen however had been doing well away from home so this was going to be no easy game.

We were off to the Olympiastadion and we were looking forward to the match and hoping that Hertha could add another 3 points to their tally!

We had a fantastic afternoon at the Olympiastadion as the sun shone on down on us from on high! A crowd of 34,712 were there to support Hertha there on the day.

Hertha started well and dominated much of the game although Aalen were pulling pushing and everything else whenever Hertha tried to make a break up the wings.  In one case Ronny was pushed on the left wing and the Aalen player fell over to be awarded free kick!  What the . . ?

From the stand it appeared that the ref. missed everything that might have favoured Hertha.  Some of the decisions the crowd "expressed their dismay" . . . yet the match ended up with two yellows each!!

Hertha kept knocking at the door but it was starting to look like they were never going to score! It was really worrying that Aalen would score on a break leaving us right in it!

The deadlock was finally broken in the 60th minutes by none other than Adrian Ramos with a fine header. There then followed that nervous period when just one goal is never quite enough to be comfortable . . .

A few chances followed, including one that looked like it bounced off the post and along the goal line. Watching it on TV later showed it wasn't quite as close as it looked from the stand ;).

Hertha have started to show a few glimpses of a promising, confident passing game but still need to finish much better.  The defense looked a lot more solid this week as well which has been a long standing weakness and it was nice to see them getting in there, regaining possession and passing it forward.  They are still very much work in progress but, its a start!

In the 90th minute Ronny put it to bed with a second to give Hertha a well deserved victory at home. This leaves Hertha in fifth place in 2. Liga after five games.

All in all a great afternoon albeit a nervous one at times. But it wouldn't be watching Hertha if it looked easy would it?

There is no Bundesliga or EPL action this weekend but all is not lost! We are taking the opportunity to go up to see some if the Paralympics before it finishes on the 9th if September.

In this first section of the post we are still onroute to London to meet up at my sons flat in town. We are then heading off to see the last three "sitting volleyball" matches at the ExCel. This will include the Gold medal match. Looking forward to it - more to follow . . .

Arriving at the ExCel Centre
We arrived at the ExCel at about 12:00 and checked out the centre for half an hour or so before going into the events themselves.

We found that we could go into the "day ticket" seats in the wheelchair fencing for an hour or so before the Sitting Volleyball started at 14:00.

This was a real result for us - we didn't realise we could see any of the other events with our ticket until we got there. We got to see TeamGB fence against Russia as well!!

Sadly we didn't do so well but at least we had a chance to cheer them on!

As soon as TeamGB had done their stuff we quickly moved on the Sitting Volleyball arena

The first match that we saw was Brazil v Egypt. It was a tight match with both teams fighting hard. It went to five sets with only two points in it even in the fifth set

Brazil. Egypt
1st Set.     25:14
2nd. Set   15. 25
3rd Set     25. 21
4th Set      5. 25
and the 5th and final set. 15:13 to Brazil!

The Bronze Medal Match
Next came the bronze medal match between Russia and Germany. Naturally I was cheering on Deutschland!! My hands hurt from clapping so hard!!

It was a very tough match with Russia trying to retain the bronze medal from Bejing. It was another five set match -

The Gold Medal Match
Last, but certainly not least, we had the gold medal match between Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) and the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI)

Iran started as the favourites to win the gold and they had a massive following in the arena with flags everywhere! But things were not to go their way -
Bosnia / Iran
First set   19:25
Second set.  25:21
Third set. 25:22
Fourth set. 25:15
Bosnia and Herzegovina go to take the gold leaving Iran to the silver in a thrilling days play.

Now we "only" had the medal ceremony . . .

Coming back in the second half . . . something had changed and Hertha were hanging on for grim death! Something had to give and Quiring scored for Union on the 69th minutes

We are now resting in sixth place in 2. Bundesliga coming up to Spieltag 5.and I'm looking forward to the match against VfR Aalen on the 16th

Today is Derby Day in Berlin and the mighty Hertha take on Union Berlin at Der Alten Försterei.

Today has been much anticipated and indeed looked forward to. I'm not able to go to the match (very limited numbers of tickets) but it is being broadcast live on the telly so no dodgy streams are required!

I am a little nervous about the reputation of the ref - Peter Gagelmann who has a but if a reputation of being trigger happy with his cards. Hertha will need to keep their discipline tonight - no more repeats of yellow or even worse red cards please.

Thomas Kraft is back tonight which is great news for Hertha he has been sorely missed since that fateful day in Düsseldorf last season. He should make a big difference at the back. Let's hope our new strike force can make a difference - Ha Ho He!