This Year, We’ll Have An Excuse

By: Abby | August 25th, 2008

As I’ve written about before, Hertha have a particular problem with the DFB-Pokal. We lose to lower-level opposition in it on a regular basis, usually early, and tend to be fairly embarrassing. I suppose it’s because we don’t really need a trip to Berlin, do we? For all the other teams, it’s their chance to play in the lovely Olympiastadion. We wouldn’t want to hog it even during the cup final, would we?

Anyway, the draw for the next round was made yesterday, and we ended up in one of the all-Bundesliga clashes. We’re away against a new-look Borussia Dortmund, headed by former Mainz boss and owner of a lovely floppy haircut and stylish glasses Jürgen Klopp. They’ve been in decent form lately, and won the Pokal last year. I’m not saying that Hertha can’t beat them at Dortmund, but I am saying that if we collapse in the early rounds of the cup again, this time we have a legitimate excuse.

Dortmund were one of the other sides to take home the result of this Bundesliga weekend, that being a 1-1 draw. Hertha was also participating in the trend, with a 1-1 draw at home to Bielefeld. Ex-Herthaner Artur Wichniarek (of course) scored their goals, not long after Marko Pantelic (of course) scored ours. Apparently- I didn’t watch, I must admit- Hertha dominated the game but couldn’t quite figure out a way to score. So it goes, sometimes. It’s at least encouraging to see a tie game that we dominated, rather than a tie game that we snatched a point from. Optimism is good, right?

After the game, Dieter Hoeness flew off to Brazil in the hopes of securing one last transfer before the window shuts. The player in question seems to be Dario Conca. He’s a 25-year-old Argentinian midfielder who signed for Fluminense in January. He’s a well-traveled player, starting at River Plate before being loaned out to Universidad Católica of Chile (where he impressed and won a title), Rosario Central, and Vasco before settling at Flu. I can’t say I know much about him, but he does have a good amount on Youtube. Like this!