To Bremen!
By: Abby |
2 Comments
The neutral’s darling of the Bundesliga, Werder Bremen has gained prominence for their swaggering attacking play, stream of talented players, and the longevity of Thomas Schaaf’s mustache. (And Schaaf himself, I suppose, a man who has only ever been at one club, starting as a defender in 1978.) They’re one of the teams that people promote to those new to the Bundesliga, because they’re fun and you’re likely to see a lot of goals watching them, as well as some interesting players like Mesut Özil.
These days, though, you’re more likely to see those goals being scored on Bremen rather than by them. From a flying start they’ve now lost 5 games in a row, including to such illustrious teams as Eintracht Frankfurt. The culprit has been a combination of terrible defending, not exactly sharp attacking, and what’s been described as ‘football amnesia.’
Sounds like a great time to head up north, isn’t it?
But that always makes me wary. A good team on a losing skid like this always seems to get back to their regular form against us. We never meet the team as they’re in their crisis. We’re always how they rediscover their confidence.
When Bremen visited earlier in the season, it was a battling 2-3 defeat that made me think we’d turn the bad start around. Of course, I was wrong, but I’m an eternal optimist with this team for some reason. And that was when they were good.
So now could be a great time to play them, or a terrible time to play them. The biggest worry, though, is there is a chance we’ll be without our best player, Jaroslav Drobny. The Czech goalkeeper has some thigh problems, and there’s a chance we’ll be with Sascha Burchert in goal instead. The thought of facing even a struggling Bremen without Jaro is disturbing. Not only has the defense finally stopped being absolutely terrible, but most of our worst moments from the first half of the season were from the time when Drobny was out injured. (And poor Sascha is most remembered for this moment.) Let’s cross our fingers that our main man recovers.
We’re also missing Pal Dardai as he recovers from surgery, Maximillian Nicu, and Gojko Kacar who has apparently been vaporized or something. Fabian Lustenberger is back in training and may feature.
For my fellow Americans, it’s live tomorrow on GolTV, in what will be the middle of my day job. Cross fingers and toes that it’ll be a good Friday night afterwards.
Category: match preview
What was even the point of that?
By: Abby | 4 Comments
Another 0-0 draw at home. And while if we’d started this season with a win and two draws I would have been reasonably pleased, we didn’t. A win and two draws is an extreme improvement on the start that Hertha had, and not terrible, but I can’t help but feel underwhelmed and a little frightened for the future.
Maybe it’s because this most recent 0-0 draw as against Bochum, and this particular game against Bochum seemed like the best shot we had at really pulling out of this. A not particularly impressive team, at home. This was one of the best chances for a much-needed win we had, but we didn’t take it. With Nürnberg taking all the points from a free-falling Hanover, keeping up with both those teams would have been well served by a win of our own.
11 points is better than the 6 we started the second half of the season with. And we’ve still had no one score on us. But I can’t help but feel the early optimism ebb away.
The real story of the game, though, wasn’t even on the field. Rather, it was in the stands, where about 200 fans of Union Berlin unfurled a banner that said “LOSER” and taunted the Hertha fans.
Outstandingly classless, and more than slightly confusing to me no matter how I try and look into it. My memory of the relationship between Union and Hertha is one that is cordial, almost friendly, or at least as friendly as two teams in the same city can be. Just last season, Hertha was congratulating Union on their promotion to the 2. Liga via the stadium television and helping to open their Alte Forestei. Twenty years ago, almost to the day of the Bochum game, the two teams celebrated the reunification of the city with a friendly. Now, for whatever reason, things are different.
I’m not sure why, and I’d like to know. The Union president has disavowed the events at the Olympiastadion (and the fighting between Union fans and BFC Dynamo fans at an indoor tournament that same day), and most Union fans, as far as I can tell, seem to be rather embarrassed. The blame is placed, as always, on young people with too much beer and not enough to do. (Snow cancelled the Union game scheduled for the day, at Rostock.) But that some members of the younger generation, who don’t remember the friendliness between the two clubs, see fit to do this is interesting to me, and I’d like to know a little more about why that is.
Especially since, the way things are going, we’re going to have to deal with this issue more than we have before.
Category: match reportsNo Goals Against in 2010
By: Abby | 6 Comments
I guess I’m somewhat of an optimist, if that’s what I’m taking. Mostly because I’m not sure how to feel about the game on Saturday – is it too little, or is it a continuation in an upward trend?
The game itself was a 0-0 draw in frigid temperatures in Berlin. The home side had more clear chances, but it was ‘Gladbach who perhaps had the best chance to win the game. Four minutes before halftime, Arne Friedrich made a particularly clumsy/ridiculous challenge on Colautti in the box and a penalty was rewarded. And has he has so often in the past, Jaroslav Drobny saved the day, first by saving the initial penalty, and then stopping the rebound as well. Hertha pressed hard in the second half, coming close after a couple of corners, but in the end the draw would stand.
So, where does that leave us? The hero himself says just a point is too little for what we need to accomplish. It does put the team under a lot of pressure for the Bochum game, making it even more of a must-win. And it’s hard not to be disappointed that we didn’t win. Still, though, it’s hard to be upset entirely at a game with a clean sheet and a saved penalty when you consider our defensive record. There have been no goals scored on us yet this year. I’m going to put this in a “we’ll see” category.
Speaking of Drobny, increasing reports suggest that he’s on the radar of VfB Stuttgart. Currently, their number 1 is Jens Lehmann, but as he’s 40 and well, Jens Lehmann, they’re in the market for someone new at the end of the season. Coincidently, Drobny’s contract is up this summer. As much as I hate the idea of him leaving Hertha, and leaving on a free transfer at that, I can’t blame him for wanting to see if we stay up. He’s far too good for the 2. Liga (and one could argue that he’s far too good for Hertha, but that would be mean). But he’s the one thing who’s keeping us from losing hope completely. Remember how it was when he was he was out?
Oh, and B-Z says if we lose to Bochum we’ll have to sell 3 players- Arne Friedrich, Gojko Kacar, and Raffael – immediately. But the Hertha president says that’s full of crap. I guess we’ll see on Saturday, won’t we?
Category: match reportsComeback Starts with ‘Gladbach
By: Abby | 2 Comments
OK, it really started with Hannover 96, but I couldn’t pass up the rhyme scheme.
After the 3-0 win last week, expectations are high at the Olympiastadion. There’s some hope poking through the dirt. Decent results in the next two games mean that we could possibly beat this thing.
Borussia Mönchengladbach are by no means a bad team, notching up wins over Hamburg and Schalke in the first half of the season, but they’ve been a bit inconsistent. Their welcome back to the Bundesliga was a 2-1 home loss to Bochum, which is truly nothing to be proud of. Still, though, they’re in 12th place and probably more of a challenge than a free-falling Hannover. (Twelfth, though, is only 4 points from the relegation zone, another glimmer of hope for us at the bottom.) They’ve also got some American interest, with youngster Michael Bradley a regular in the side.
For once, there aren’t really injuries to report, and the side is likely to look much the same it did last weekend (because seriously, it should). There is a chance that Roman Hubnik will be making his debut, in place of Steve von Bergen. As much as I don’t want to unsettle anything, I am excited to see how the Czech fits in.
They’re expecting a decent crowd at the Olympiastadion, despite what’s going to be a cold day in Berlin. It seems as if the high drama of potential relegation – and salvation – has something of a galvanizing effect on Berliners. There’s a certain sense of scrappiness to Berlin as a city, a sense of defiance, that may be better served by a team in this position than a team comfortably and boringly in mid-table. Of course, being defiant by winning gets more interest, but there does seem to be something appealing in being up for the fight.
Category: match previewAufholjäger Hertha!
By: Abby | 1 Comment
So, by now you’ll all have heard the news: Hertha has won.
It wasn’t just any win. It was a classy, fairly dominant win, 3-0 away from home, with a missed penalty. In front of 4,000 (!) traveling fans, the Berliners showed just the slightest glimmer of life. There’s still a long way to go, but there’s a lot more to feel optimistic about now.
True, Hannover aren’t much good lately, but that just means it was all the more imperative to beat them. We’re unlikely to take points off of the top of the table, but if we want to pull off the improbable, we need to take them from everyone else at the bottom. Now they’re officially part of the relegation battle, and eight points from us.
Two of the three new signings started (Kobiashvili and Gekas), along with Florian Kringe, now seemingly back entirely from his injury. But the opener came from a slightly more familiar source, with Lukasz Piszczek firing in a loose corner after a half an hour. Just a few minutes later it was two- nice interplay between Adrian Ramos and Raffael resulted in the Brazilian scoring. 2-0.
Towards the end of the game, however, Theofanis Gekas did just what we brought him in to do- score. His strike wrapped things up in the 80th minute, making the score 3-0. And there was still time for the lively Ramos to be brought down, and for Cicero to have the resulting penalty saved.
3-0 and now we’ve done the double over Hannover. They responded exactly the same way as they did after we beat them last time, sacking their manager and bringing in a new one.
An impressive win, and I’m still enjoying it, but it needs to be followed up if it’ll mean anything. The next two games are at home and absolutely, entirely crucial. We face Borussia Mönchengladbach and VfL Bochum, both teams that inhabit our regions of the table. If we play like we did against Hannover, and more importantly, win like we did against Hannover, the improbable may just become probable.
In other things that I hope will happen, we’ve apparently offered Moritz Volz a trial. The defender has been unattached since being released by Fulham. He spent most of last season on loan with Ipswich Town, in the Championship, but has struggled with injury. He’s a tireless sort and quite useful when he’s on, although the injuries that have kept him unattached for so long are worrying. But none of that really matters, because it’s his website and general attitude that makes him a star. His most recent blog says that Hertha are not really as interested as they seemed, but damn it, I’m not going to give up hope.
Hertha Wins!
By: Abby | 4 Comments
Just a quick drive-by post- I’m away on business until Wednesday and don’t have time to blog, but this can’t go unnoticed.
Hertha has won their second game of the season, doing the double over Hannover 96. A 3-0 win, away from home, which could have been 4-0 if Cicero hadn’t missed a late penalty. Goals from Lukas Piszczek, Raffael, and new boy Theofanis Gekas secured the win, and by all accounts it was totally deserved.
Congratulations to the players, and may this be the start of many more.
Category: match reportsBack to Life
By: Abby | 2 Comments
The team is back from Spain, which means that we all have to go back to thinking about the league again.
So, there was the training camp in Mallorca. There’s not much to say about it- they trained in weather that’s probably a little warmer than the one in Berlin (although it seems to have snowed at one point). The new players got to run around with their new teammates. They even played a few games, although not exactly impressive ones- they drew 1-1 with second division FSV Frankfurt (Raffael scoring the goal), and managed a 2-1 win (goals from Kringe and Domovchyski) against the reserve side of local team RCD Mallorca.
So, er, we’re unbeaten in the winter break?
Anyway. The team is back now and preparing for Saturday’s game against Hannover 96. You might remember Hannover 96 as being the only team in the Bundesliga we’ve beat this season, but that was a while ago now. Also, they promptly fired their manager after that. Since that game they’ve gone to 14th, with 17 points from their 17 games. Over their winter break, they lost to our neighbors Union Berlin but bounced back by beating Bielefeld.
We may be out a few important players- Gojko Kacar and Max Nicu seem to be injured, and there are doubts about Adrian Ramos as well. We’ll see if the new strike force of Ramos and Gekas actually make their much-hoped-for debuts this weekend.
Can lighting strike twice? Will we double our wins for the season? And is it more likely for Klaus Wowereit to marry a woman than for Hertha to stay up?
Category: Team NewsCould Have Beens, Almosts, and Maybes
By: Abby | Add Comments
It’s January, which means that we’re now in the transfer season. As a team at the very bottom of their league, desperate to turn things around, January is a month that looms large for Hertha BSC Berlin. The slimmest hope that we can escape rests on what we can do in this month.
There has, of course, already been signings. We already knew that Theofanis Gekas, Levan Kobiashvili, and Roman Hubnik were on their way, and they were duly presented with their new shirts on Sunday, right before the team took off to their winter training camp in Mallorca. Gekas will be 17, Hubnik 16, and Kobiashvili will take 21. I wish them all luck- they’ll need it.
It doesn’t seem that’ll be the only newcomer for Hertha, oddly enough. We’re helped by it being a World Cup year. Players whose countries are going want to play, and the one thing Hertha can offer is playing time. It brought us Gekas, after all, and it very well may bring us another international hopeful- the Daily Express is reporting that we’re interested in landing Celtic defender Andreas Hinkel. The 27-year-old German is apparently fighting with his manager there and is eyeing South Africa. With Jogi Löw announcing that no player who doesn’t play regularly for his team will be called up, it might- might being the operative words- possible for us to entice him to the Olympiastadion.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Hertha and the transfer period without some tabloid claiming we’re going to buy Andriy Voronin. This time the Sun does the honors, saying we’re in “advanced talks”, but slightly more reputable sources say he’s off to Dynamo Moscow instead.
There are also talks of possible goings. Kaka and Cesar are apparently already gone, not even traveling to Spain with the rest of the squad. Arminia Bielefeld allegedly want to take Artur Wichniarek home.
Of course, the story is all about our Kapitän, who’s deigning to stay in Berlin until the end of the season. Claiming that he’s “no Judas or quitter”, Arne Friedrich will definitely maybe be staying in Berlin. At least until the end of the year. After that, well.
Other things to look forwards to at the end of the season? The probable departure of Jaroslav Drobny, likely to Stuttgart to replace the probably retiring Jens Lehmann.
Oh, and Dieter Hoeness is talking about how we almost signed Alexandre Pato again. I forget the last time he talked about it, but it doesn’t make us any closer to having Pato partnering Wichniarek up front.
The team’s off in Spain now, having a training camp in the warm weather. It looks nice. I’m jealous. It’s wet here.
Category: transfer newsAudio Hertha
By: Abby | 1 Comment
I’m still working on my year-end wrapup- it’s been some year, so it’s taking a bit.
But until then, I did a podcast with my friend mao over at his blog, mao’s Football. We talk about Hertha, the Bundesliga, and a bit about MLS. Give it a listen here.
(Also, apparently everyone’s going to Wolfsburg. Or something.)
Category: Team NewsFinally, The End of the Hinrunde
By: Abby | 1 Comment
And so much is happening, just in time for some various holidays.
First off, we had our annual collapse to Bayern Munich. Normally, this would be when a person would discuss the differing histories and fortunes of the brothers Hoeness, but that’s no longer something I have to rehash. (That’s a topic for Wolfsburg now, and the defending champions can probably afford all the Brazilians Dieter’s ever wanted.) But just because there’s no longer that storyline, that doesn’t mean we won’t capitulate to the record champions. Duly, a 5-2 scoreline in a snowy Munich was recorded.
For all it was a terrible scoreline, there were some moments of not complete ineptness from Hertha. True, we didn’t have a shot on goal until well into the second half (although Nicu could have had one or two if his aim was better), but there were moments of decent possession and movement. There were moments that the Bayern fans were nervous, judging by their chants calling for Bayern to score a goal. But in the end, the game ended much how you’d expect the game to end, with Bayern scoring a hell of a lot of goals against a Hertha defense that could not at all contain them.
The one plus point, to me, was Adrian Ramos’ goal in the 71st minute, making it 4-1. True, Bayern had pretty much shut off at that point and hardly cared, but his whole move- from taking the long ball, to rounding Demichelis, skipping past van Buyten, and finishing (with Demichelis’ help) past Butt. I think he’s starting to settle into the Bundesliga, and he could be more useful than we realize in the second half of the season.
Which brings me to the actual news. Because let’s face it, losing in Munich isn’t. With Theofanis Gekas already committed, we’ve got two more new additions to speak of before the transfer window even opens.
First, there’s Levan Kobiashvili, arriving from the high-flying Schalke 04. The Georgian is signed until the end of the season, with two more years as an option if we stay up. He’s a Bundesliga veteran at 32, with 289 games under his belt for SC Freiburg and Schalke. Hopefully, he’ll be a solid head for a team that needs it.
And no one can argue that we also need some help in defense, where we’ve been more than hapless most of the time. Our next hope for a savior is Roman Hubník, a young Czech international. He’s being lent to us from FC Moscow, but he’s spent the past year-ish in his homeland at Sparta Prague. He’s impressed quite a lot there, being named one of the best 11 Czech players- in general, not just in the Czech league- and becoming very popular with the fans. If he can shore up the Hertha defense he’ll be just as liked in the Berlin capital as he was in the Czech one. I can see that having a large guy like Hubník next to him again helping Arne Friedrich. Plus, he can already talk to our goalkeeper!
It’s nice to see the management spring into action so quickly. There’s a lot of fixing to be done if we can even stand a chance in the second half of the season. While I’m still almost certain that we’ll be looking forwards to derbies against Union next season, there’s that ‘almost’ bit of optimism still there.
We’ll see on January 16, won’t we?
Category: transfer news
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