We Don’t Need This Pressure On
By: Abby | February 9th, 2009Our chance to go top at the weekend (and possibly hold it, with other results) ended in how I expected/feared- by not happening.
Instead, a 1-1 draw at Bielefeld, combined with a draw for Hoffenheim and a win for Bayern (along with Hamburg’s loss) means that we’re third instead.
Most comments I’ve read have had mentions of the missing Marko Pantelic, but to me, the real problems were missing Arne Friedrich and Gojko Kacar. We’ve been winning games without Pante this season, but we rely on our defense to do it. Arne’s been a rock this season and Kaká…well, he’s not exactly Kaká, is he?
The first goal was taken by Andriy Voronin, on 13 minutes- a combination of skill and route one football. In some ways, that describes Hertha very well. Drobny’s long ball found the Ukrainian, who controlled well and lashed it into the net. He had a chance to make it 2-0 only a few minutes later, but his lob over Dennis Eilhoff hit the crossbar instead.
Still, things were looking decent until Leandro Cufré, on his debut, lost track of who else but Artur Wichniarek. The Polish striker pounded an excellent header into the goal on the 40th minute. Of course, Wichniarek would be the scorer- not only has he scored most of Bielefeld’s goals, he’s an ex-Herthaner.
Cufré came off for Amine Chermiti at the break, but there were no more goals. Chermiti looked bright, though, and fast, so it’s likely we’ll be seeing some from him soon.
So, no first place for us, but we didn’t lose and that’s good. Hopefully we’ll have some of our missing players back for next week’s top-of-the-table clash (that’s still weird for me) with Bayern Munich. We lose heavy to the Bavarians on a regular basis, but maybe we can do it better this time?
In other news, just because the transfer window’s closed doesn’t mean that we can’t still talk about transfers. There’s some talk that Saturday’s goalscorer Andriy Voronin might be on his way back to Liverpool. With Robbie Keane back to London, Torres with injury problems, and Liverpool without other suitable strikers, there’s some talk that he might be recalled this season. Hmmm.
Slightly more worrying is a wholly unsubstantiated rumor that Bayern Munich is sniffing around Gojko Kacar. I’ve always thought that he’d be one of the first to get picked off if we started to do well. I was just hoping it wouldn’t be soon.
We’re also allegedly interested in another Swiss player.
In non-transfer news, there’s apparently been some deal brokered to give Hertha BSC Berlin a women’s club, although not right away. A cooperation agreement with 1 FC Lübars, a Berlin-Reinickendorf women’s team, has been announced, with Lübars adopting the Hertha colors and becoming associated with the existing Hertha men’s team. The deal provides Hertha with good community marketing, and FC Lübars with more money- so they can, for example, get a license for the women’s 2. Bundesliga, which they couldn’t afford before. There’s also some talk that Lübars might eventually be absorbed entirely into Hertha, but that won’t happen before at least 2011. Women’s football is a big deal in Germany, with one of the best women’s teams in the world, and they’re set to host the World Cup in 2011. It’s good to see a women’s club associated with Hertha- hopefully they can improve and provide some players for the German team in that World Cup.
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