Things That Hertha Berlin Are Not

Number 1: a cup team.

At least, in all the time I’ve known them. They’ve not done particularly spectacular in any of the cups they’ve been involved with. Last year was a bit better than others, with us going out from the DFB-Pokal to a Bundesliga team in extra time (Borussia Dortmund), and being not entirely embarrassing in the UEFA Cup (just minorly embarrassing). Still, though, neither of those were triumphs.

It looks as if we’re continuing that trend early, as we needed the last few minutes of extra-time to take out fourth division SC Preußen Münster. Raffael gave us the lead on 23 minutes, only for Patrick Ebert to take it back with an own-goal in the 53rd. It went to extra-time, and the brave Münster-ites were eventually felled in the 117th minute by Domovchiyski and then again in the 119th by Raffael.

So yes, a bit embarrassing, but we were far from the only ones to suck in the first round. Hamburg needed penalties to take down Fortuna Düsseldorf. Bayer Leverkusen barely eked out a win over Babelsburg. Mainz was dumped out by VfB Lubeck (and then fired their coach). Hannover 96 also saw themselves knocked out by a Regionaliga side, going down 3-0 to Eintracht Trier. So, you know, it could be worse.

Still, though, we clearly need a bit of improvement before we face that same Hannover on Saturday (!).

Reinforcements might also be in order. While Ayew didn’t work out, we might be interested in some other Marseilles rejects, as we’re allegedly sniffing around Mathieu Valbuena and Renato Civelli. Valbuena is an attacking midfielder nicknamed “the little bike”, while Civelli is tall and a defender.

We’ll see who actually lines up in a few days. Can you believe it’s only a few days?

Category: dfb-pokal, transfer news