Sunday sees Hertha travel to sixth place Mainz in an away game that could be oh so important in where the Old Lady ends up at the end of the season. With only four points between fifth and eighth places in the table things could hardly be tighter. A win in Mainz could see Hertha up to sixth place depending on what happens when M'gladbach play Augsburg on Saturday.
Hertha has won five out of six of the last away matches. What will happen to the away form this weekend - can the old lady continue in winning ways on the road? Will Mainz contain Ramos or will he rise up from his mini-crisis to grasp his full place for Columbia in Brasil? Will Sami step up to the plate? How will our defence hold up - against set pieces in particular? So many questions but so few answers. Always worries with so many key players being potentialy out of the picture: Lusti, Skjelbred, Cigerci, Ben Hatira and also Brooks. Not long to wait before we can find out one way or another . . .
I had to listen / watch the first half of the match as best I could whilst attempting to leave work this afternoon. I saw a couple of fine saves by Thomas Kraft who was the MVP for the first half IMO - he kept Hertha in the match including one 35m sprint out from his goal to clear the ball away from the approaching Müller! Again, IMO, it would be madness not to extend his contract beyond 2015.
The second half was a more interesting one and yielded two goals. The first was from our very own Adrian Ramos and this goal makes his tally 15 so far this season alongside Robert Lewandowski and one behind behind Mario Mandžukić with 16.
Unfortunately, the second was from a penalty conceded by Sami Allagui and put away by Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting of Mainz. Kraft got close but even he couldn't keep it out.
There were further chances for Hertha, notably some long distance efforts from Ronny who was brought on as a sub to replace Marcel Ndjeng. It could have gone either way right to the end so I guess the 1:1 score line was a fair result in the end.
I guess a draw didn't help either team very much but an away point is always better than no point at all. It takes Herthal another point further away from the drop zone which has to be the number one priority this season. Anything else, including dreams of Europe, is just icing on the cake.
Two home matches in ten days are coming up against Hannover and Bayern and I'm going to be at both of them so I'm hoping for some points from at least one of them - fingers crossed!!!
RSS Feed