We Won
By: Abby |
2 Comments
We won.
We won.
The first time since August- against Brøndby, way back when. All those weeks of things getting worse and worse, of less and less confidence, of more and more crap. And while this result only matters a little (we’re still rock bottom in the league), it’s such a nice result to have.
Of course, we went about it in the most difficult way possible. After 3 minutes we were down a goal, conceding from just the first corner. The unmarked Michael Papadopulos put the ball into the net and I assumed it was another one of those games.
But we had a couple of weapons- Valeri Domovchiyski and Artur Wichniarek. Yes, you read me correctly- Artur Wichniarek. The Pole has been the symbol of everything that has gone wrong about Hertha this season, an example of an old mistake, the striker with no goals and nothing to show for the several months he’s been in the city. But in Heerenveen, he was what we hoped he’d be in July, setting up two goals for young Domo before scoring the winner himself in injury time.
Between that we’d done well in the game, especially after equalizing in the 21st minute, but being Hertha we of course went into the break behind, after Papadopulos scored again in the 36th minute.
But! Unlike Hertha of late, we came back. We came back twice. We fought back, scored an equalizer, scored a winner. True, it’s only against a team who’s struggling in their own league, but we didn’t manage anything when we played them in Berlin. And a win, an actual win, is just fantastic. We’re now 2nd in the group, in good spirits heading into the Köln match, and we could possibly end up in the next round after all after the other result (and a better head-to-head with Heerenveen).
Plus, Wichniarek. I’ve had a theory that things will get better as soon as Wichniarek starts performing. He’s been the symbol of all that’s gone wrong in Berlin, but he’s not a bad player. He’s got a fine record at Bielefeld and he knows how to score. But he’s had a block at Berlin all the times he’s been here.
Is it gone now, with today’s game? It’s probably too early to say. But it’s my fervent hope that now that King Artur’s broken his duck, Hertha’s luck will turn around.
Going Dutch
By: Abby | 7 Comments
Oh, I wish it was last season. For many reasons, of course, but also because we’d have a reasonable chance of actually getting out of the group stages if we were anywhere near decent. Sporting may be the favorites, but they’re only seventh in the Portuguese league, twelve points behind the leaders. FK Ventspils come from a country that is only vaguely interested in football (basketball and hockey being much more important), and tomorrow’s opponents Heerenveen sit fifteenth in the Eredivise. For a team actually in the upper reaches of the Bundesliga, it would be a fine place to be.
Of course, this isn’t last season and we’re nowhere near the upper reaches of the Bundesliga. We’re in worse form than Heerenveen, certainly, as they won a game last weekend, going 3-0 over Den Haag.
As is so often the case, we’ll be a bit injury-hit for our trip to the Netherlands, with Pal Dardai, Gojko Kacar, and Rasmus Bengtsson (as well as longer-term injuries Florian Kringe and Timo Ochs) not making the trip. We’ll also be without Patrick Ebert, who got two yellows when Heerenveen came to visit and is suspended. This could mean some playing time for some youngsters- Lennart Hartmann, Sascha Bigalke and Fanol Perdedaj are all in the squad- but I’m not holding my breath.
While this is perhaps not as necessary as Saturday’s game against FC Köln, I’d love to have any sort of result. Hopefully the players will as well. Any sort of confidence boost going into the Köln game is a good one. For the players as well as the fans.
As the crisis in the capital goes on, I’m sure we’ll see more and more fanciful suggestions as how to pull ourselves out of it in the tabloids. It’ll be interesting as to how they’ll top what I’ve seen today, though. Bild says that we want ex-Bayern Munich striker Roy Makaay, currently warming the bench at Feyenoord. He definitely knows where the goal is, but he’s also 34 and that number is unlikely to go lower.
Not to be outdone by the Germans, the Daily Mail is reporting that we’ve made a lucrative offer for Sol Campbell. Yes, that Sol Campbell. Undoubtedly talented, undoubtedly eccentric, and just having left the Notts County experiment by mutual consent after playing only one game in League Two. Apparently he’s hoping that the special tribunal that meets next week will let him join a new club, and even more oddly, we apparently have a lot of money to throw at him.
I don’t even know how to react to that kind of news.
If you’re in the States and have DirecTV, you’re in luck. Hertha’s being televised among their list of games. Check your listings and cross your fingers.
False Glimmers
By: Abby | 1 Comment
You know what would have been nice? A terrible, clogging draw, the kind of uninspired awfulness that gives the football haters of America all the proof they need that this is a horrible sport. One with no good chances, fouls, and nothing interesting to talk about.
Ahhh.
Instead, the vague hope of a turnaround that I felt after the Wolfsburg game disappeared again, as Hertha fell to an uninspired 2-0 loss to Borussia Dortmund. Neither team were particularly great, but Dortmund were less terrible and eventually came away with the win after a 60th-minute penalty and an injury-time goal.
So, er, basically everything sucks. As a blogger, it’s hard to look at the team and the results and say more than that. It also doesn’t help that the club and Lucien Favre are set for a legal battle, making me even more depressed at the situation.
One could say that there’s nowhere to go but up, but in football there’s always a down.
Anyway.
Hertha are allegedly now looking for investors to prop up the squad in the winter transfer window. The collateral? The one Hertha player with a market value, young Serb Gojko Kacar.
I guess that’s where we are now.
Thursday we play against Heerenveen again, who have actually won a game since beating us before. I’ll have a preview up when we get closer. And knowing me, somehow I’ll be hopeful again.
Category: Team NewsCome On Home
By: Abby | 6 Comments
Finally, a bit of a turnaround. It took a change of coach, undignified sniping in the press, and until October to do it, but we’ve got another point in the Bundesliga. Defending champions Wolfsburg, home of some particularly potent attackers, were held to a 0-0 draw. And with it, maybe, just maybe, some signs of hope.
“Battling” and “spirited” are used being used to describe the Hertha performance, and to a Hertha fan, there are no better words you want to hear about a performance (besides maybe ones describing a goal). Unlike the lackluster and disinterested games that have been a fixture of Hertha since the summer, against Wolfsburg the Hertha players showed a bit of fight in the fight. It’s as if they cared or something.
Hell, we could have possibly even won the game, if Ramos’ shot had gone in instead of hitting the post. But let’s not get greedy. I’d have been more than happy for a point from the game on Saturday.
Sunday also featured the return of beloved Czech goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny, who’d been out since nearly the beginning the season. Last year he was the player of the season, but he’s barely played at all this time around and we’ve struggled to replace him. His official backup Christopher Gäng is injured, baby Sascha Burchert has ended up on the blogs for all the wrong reasons, and emergency signing Timo Ochs went off injured on his first game. So it’s great to see him back. (Although this report in Bild on him playing through injury is a little worrying. But it’s Bild, so take it with a grain of salt.)
Pal Dardai (who talks more like a captain than Friedrich did or does) says we need nine points before the winter break. Three wins, or two wins and three draws, would see us on that track. It’s not exactly a call to arms but it’s feasible. No use in getting carried away on one good result.
During that winter break we’ll be hoping to bring in some reinforcements, and if the papers are to be believed, it’s going to be some familiar faces. Ashkan Dejagah started his career at Hertha before leaving for the wealthier climes of Wolfsburg. But he’s not been starting lately and rumors suggest we may go for him on loan.
And since it is the tabloid press, they have to tease us suffering Hertha fans more by suggesting that we will make yet another move for Andriy Voronin. We all love Andriy, and I for one would love to bring him home. I’m pretty sure Liverpool don’t want him, and his energy and experience would be so helpful right now. As would his presence. There’s something about him that does make me smile.
We’re out of the Cup, so we have a week to dwell on things before going to visit a surprisingly sturdy Borussia Dortmund. We’ll see if our turnaround will continue.
Category: match reportsDark Before the Dark
By: Abby | 9 Comments
It doesn’t get easier.
13,334 showed up to the cavernous Olympiastadion on Thursday to see Hertha lose 1-0 to Heerenveen, a team ranked third from bottom in the Dutch league. Like us, they’d been struggling after a successful previous season (coming in 5th and winning the Dutch cup), and sacked their manager. It would have been the time for us to turn something around, but as seemingly usual, it wasn’t.
It was slightly less awful, though. We had chances, it was only a 1-0 loss, and a potential penalty at the end could have given us a draw and a bit of hope. Of course, those chances were all missed and the penalty wasn’t given. But I’ll take what I can get at this point.
It’s not the best preparation for the next game, but it’s hard to see it as anything but a writeoff anyway. Defending champions Wolfsburg come for a visit, and while they may not be as mighty as they were at the end of last season, they’re still pretty formidable. Certainly compared to us.
News is that Grafite is taking a mental-health day after his red card in Turkey, so there’s one striker we won’t have to worry about. Not that there aren’t others.
The only good news is that there’s a good chance we’ll see Jaroslav Drobny, by far the best of our crew of goalkeepers. We’ve missed him greatly since he’s been injured, and just having someone of his quality on the field can only help.
I don’t think we’ll get anything out of Sunday, but maybe we can suck just a little less. I hope, anyway.
Category: Team NewsWe’re Hertha and You’re Not
By: Abby | 8 Comments
I have a couple friends here who are fellow Bundesliga fans. When we meet up, we chat about what’s going on in the league, the stories and gossip of our respective teams. It’s usually pretty fun.
These days, they’ve been asking me “what’s up with Hertha?” And every time I reply “I have no damn clue.”
Because really, what else can I say? Every time I think we’ve hit bottom, somehow it manages to get worse. Every ray of hope is a false dawn. And there’s not a good explanation for it. Even the new manager is shocked at the size of the task ahead.
What is clear is that something is very wrong. And it’s everywhere.
The capitulation against Nürnberg, no great shakes themselves, is just another sign of that. I don’t want to say that they can’t get worse, because honestly, I’m sure Hertha will find a way to make it worse, so let’s just say it’s very, very bad and leave it at that.
Even the ultras are fed up. Tensions have been high between Hertha fans and Hertha players since rumors of the players having something to do with Favre’s firing came to light (and earlier, I’m sure). Against Nürnberg, the normal chants turned against the team, things like “we’re Herthaners and you’re not.” The fans, those who have loved this unloveable, unfashionable team, are justifiably angry.
It’s one thing if they’re just not good, but we remember what these players can do. What’s most upsetting, both to ultras in Berlin and me here in Seattle, is that the team seems to have stopped trying. At one point earlier in the season we looked like we were just unlucky- now we just look hopeless.
Where do the fans go in this situation? I don’t like the idea of abandoning your team in their ultimate need. That’s not how fandom is supposed to work. But when the players seem to care so little about playing themselves, what are we supposed to do?
Where do any of us go from here?
Category: Team NewsLet’s Try And Not Suck So Bad
By: Abby | 5 Comments
That’s the message that new manager Friedhelm Funkel has for Hertha fans. It’s the pragmatic sort of message that Funkel’s reputation suggested he would say.
Of course, what else can he say? A team in turmoil, rock-bottom, with a confusing situation in the backroom and nearly an entire squad of injuries (including 3 injured goalkeepers). The only thing that’s realistic to hope for is small changes.
Fortunately, we’re up against a team tomorrow that’s not so hot themselves. 1. FC Nürnberg, while one of the grand old clubs of the Bundesliga with a sterling history, hasn’t been so impressive lately. They were promoted last season after finishing third in the 2. Bundesliga and demolishing Energie Cottbus in the playoffs, and like ourselves were somewhat optimistic going into the season. But like ourselves, it’s not gone to plan. With only two points more than us, thanks to a couple of draws in addition to the losses and one win, this is definitely a cellar duel.
Injury-wise, there was some hope that Jaroslav Drobny would return, but this weekend is proving to be too early for the Czech. The sooner he gets back the better, but there’s always the danger of rushing a player back too soon and setting back them back farther. Maximilian Nicu and Lukasz Piszczek are also injured, as is the damaged for a longer term Florian Kringe and goalkeeper Timo Ochs. That means poor Sascha Burchert will have to face the net again.
In the international break, and now that our handful of internationals are back, Funkel’s apparently been having the players wrestle each other. Or something. Teaching them fierceness or whatever.
They’re going to need all the fight they can get to push past this.
Category: match previewThe Laughing Stock
By: Abby | 4 Comments
So by now, everyone and their football blog-reading mother has seen what happened in Berlin this weekend. In case you’ve been blacked out, it’s all here. Hertha Berlin, against Hamburg, a team we’d had a surprising hold on (particularly in Berlin), scored four goals, but only one in their net. And Sascha Burchert…well, you’ve all seen the footage.
Now, those that are paying attention might remember that last week Hertha went out and signed a new goalkeeper to play backup to the 2 ahead of poor young Sascha that were injured. Timo Ochs was out of contract with Red Bull Salzburg, we needed a goalkeeper, so we had a new player. And…he became the third injured Hertha Berlin goalkeeper half an hour into the Hamburg game.
If it wasn’t farcical at Hertha Berlin before- and trust me, it was- this weekend it became practically a Molière play in the capitol city.
As a blogger, I scarcely know what to say, other than I don’t envy Friedhelm Funkel anything. Turning Hertha into a team with a defense would flummox anyone. I can only imagine how he must have felt after his first game on the Hertha bench. Plus, now Lukasz Piszczek is out for three weeks.
Sigh.
Lucien Favre had his press conference, a private affair at the Hotel Adlon. Berliner Morgenpost has some video and speculation about why he’d do such a thing. He didn’t say much, really, just that he’s made “too many compromises and errors” and wasn’t pleased with the lack of money and the players that came in. He said the players weren’t working against him and he didn’t have anything to do with Hoeness being fired, some statements that rose eyebrows. Generally, he read from cards and looked a bit freaked out. The speculation goes on, with no closure.
I don’t know. Everything’s making me a bit depressed these days, when everyone else is laughing.
Category: Team NewsThe Successor
By: Abby | 10 Comments
It’s official: Friedhelm Funkel is the new coach of Hertha BSC Berlin.
He spent the past five years as manager of Eintracht Frankfurt, before leaving at the end of last season. At Frankfurt, he got them up, kept them up, and even brought them to Europe via a cup final, so he has the sort of firefighter qualities that Hertha are looking for. He was also known for being pragmatic and cautious over all else, more concerned with not losing than with possibly winning.
But, he does know how to keep a somewhat-mediocre, patched together with no funds team together, and in the Bundesliga, as that’s what he did at Frankfurt for five years. Eventually his system and his style quit working there, but they did for long enough to hope that he can turn Hertha around. Style, as always, can wait. His contract, interestingly enough, is just until the end of the season. If he succeeds and Hertha stays up then it’ll be extended.
Of course, he’s saying all the right things- calling Hertha a “top club” and talking about how excited he was when Preetz called him. But he also says how we shouldn’t be expecting miracles and he’ll work on things piece by piece to affect a turnaround.
So that’s it, then. Funkel will be on the bench tomorrow against Hamburg.
In general I think he’s a decent, if perhaps not exciting, choice. His time at Frankfurt shows that he’s what Hertha probably need right now, and he’s certainly a better selection than a few others I heard- Lothar Matthäus, for example. And I’m glad that the search wasn’t drawn out for very long. Having a new coach and a bit of stability going into the next game is better than the alternative. I remember Schalke’s manager search at the end of last season. Better to have it all in place as soon as possible. And “Friedhelm” is kind of fun to say.
The ousted Lucien Favre will be holding a press conference on Tuesday to talk about his future, a subject that I’m still interested in.
But before then, there’s still a game to play. Let’s see if Funkel, or just the motivation of a new manager, can hold back Hamburg.
Someone Heard A Rumor, That Someone Has To Pay
By: Abby | 3 Comments
Claims and counter-claims litter the papers.
The facts: Lucien Favre is gone, after being one of the most feted coaches in Germany. Upon leaving, the also-fired Harald Gämperle, Favre’s long-term aide, said that the players were the reason for his sacking, as they’d “never worked under such a good coach.”
Needless to say, the papers love this.
The rumors center around club captain Arne Friedrich. The 30-year-old from Bad Oeynhausen has not been known to be controversial- rather the opposite. His detractors often say that he’s too quiet, too mild-mannered. He’s written a cookbook. But fans and the newspapers have zeroed in on Arne as the reason behind the sacking.
The troubles started at the end of last season, when he came back from injury with two games left in the season. Favre decided not to play him, thinking he wasn’t quite up to fitness (or perhaps other reasons); Arne was peeved. (Later, Favre was proven right as Friedrich’s injury reoccured on Germany’s trip to Asia.) And while no one at Hertha, bar perhaps the unfortunately-injured Gojko Kacar, has been in good form, his poor form has stood out. Add that to a series of quotes that, while rather mild-seeming at first, aren’t exactly captainly- first saying that the team lacks quality, and then saying that there was nothing he could do about the playing situation (”some understand my language, but not all”) and it does seem that the papers have something.
As Jan touched on earlier, Arne has a bit of a history with this. He says things that on the surface are mild, but when you look at it, are nothing of the sort. A fight with Marcelinho in 2005 led him to note that, while he wasn’t making a comment, respect was the A and 0 of mutual success. He used the drama with the German national team to talk about how rude he found the captain. Looking through Arne’s career, it does seem to be a trend.
Compounding the trend is his recent form, which has been a bit less than captainly to say the least. His poor performances and indifferent attitude were commented on before the sacking. He was even asked by Michael Preetz whether he was playing badly on purpose. Whether he was or not is a damning statement- either he was willing to sabotage the team he’s supposed to be a captain of to get rid of a coach he didn’t like, or that he’s not nearly as good as he’s supposed to be without a strong defender like Josip Simunic next to him.
It’s the latter that seems to be at the crux of it- many sources say that Favre was starting to think that not only was Arne not really captain material – which had been debated for a long time – but he wasn’t strong enough even to anchor the central defense. The dropping of Arne at the end of last season may have not even been fitness-related after all, with some speculating that Favre was planning for a future formation without him. And apparently earlier this season he’d refused to play in the right-back position that he often plays for Germany.
The other question mark is the role of Patrick Ebert, the local starlet. His relationship with Favre was strained due to Favre’s crazy idea that he should be disciplined for his unprofessional actions (such as getting drunk and breaking car mirrors). Bild, who seem to have forgotten how much they loved him last season, paints a more pro-player side of it, saying that he was “destroying the confidence” of players, but particularly Ebert and Friedrich. (Bild also claims that the players complained that they were working too hard.)
Arne says he’s no Trainer-Killer. But it’s hard to know what to think these days.
Oh, and games go on, almost unnoticed in the drama. Today we went to Portugal to play Sporting Lisbon. It was a poor game by most accounts, but we lost by less than we’ve been used to- only a 1-0, and lucky for Lisbon at that.
We’ll see where it all goes from here.
Category: Team News
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