Greetings gentle readers. As you can see I have returned after a break since Hertha’s victory against Mainz before Christmas 2015. During self-imposed sojourn Hertha have accumulated another three points from three games all of which ended as draws. All this adds up to Hertha remaining in third place in the Bundesliga with a remarkable 35 points after just 20 games and equal to the points tally for the whole 2014/15 season! I would not be alone in saying for the capital city club “what a difference a year makes”.
There were a number of things were promising from the performance against Dortmund albeit from a Hertha fans biased viewpoint. Firstly, Hertha defended so well. Last year our defence appeared shambolic at times from an untrained eyes perspective. When Thomas Tuchel allegedly said “Hertha had ten men in front of the goal” that was code for “they wouldn’t let us score”. He didn’t mention the other five Hertha players running towards his goal on the counter!
There were a few chances for Hertha including a header from Jay Books that just went over the bar, a last second tackle on Baumi when he was on goal and about to shoot and perhaps the best chance of all with Kalou on goal with players to his left and right but decided to shoot and pushed it wide. Perhaps, if Genki Haraguchi had run inside for a 1-2 rather than going out to the right? Who knows, things may have been different.
In the end a draw was a fair result as it turned out I think but you can’t help feeling disappointed that we didn’t get a win. If luck had run slightly differently it certainly could have happened. For example Ibesivic appeared (without the benefit of replays) to have been pushed over in the box and yet the ref was not for pointing at the spot. The Bosnian was clearly livid at the decision and from the limited amount that I could see I don’t blame him. He was taken off soon after (for his own good I suspect) and the penalty wasn’t given so let’s move on. I’m not sure I would be quite so philosophical if we had been a goal down!
So, here we are, vying for European placed and last year we were fighting for survival. Indeed what a difference a year makes in position and expectation.
There were a few chances for Hertha including a header from Jay Books that just went over the bar, a last second tackle on Baumi when he was on goal and about to shoot and perhaps the best chance of all with Kalou on goal with players to his left and right but decided to shoot and pushed it wide. Perhaps, if Genki Haraguchi had run inside for a 1-2 rather than going out to the right? Who knows, things may have been different.
In the end a draw was a fair result as it turned out I think but you can’t help feeling disappointed that we didn’t get a win. If luck had run slightly differently it certainly could have happened. For example Ibesivic appeared (without the benefit of replays) to have been pushed over in the box and yet the ref was not for pointing at the spot. The Bosnian was clearly livid at the decision and from the limited amount that I could see I don’t blame him. He was taken off soon after (for his own good I suspect) and the penalty wasn’t given so let’s move on. I’m not sure I would be quite so philosophical if we had been a goal down!
So, here we are, vying for European placed and last year we were fighting for survival. Indeed what a difference a year makes in position and expectation.
RSS Feed