First up, today’s news. The draw for the first UEFA Cup round- the one we’re in, because of our involvement through the Fair Play table- happened today, and we’re up against Nistru Otaci of Moldova. To tell teh truth, they are not a team I have ever once heard of. According to Wikipedia, they come from the town of Otaci and came in third last season. I love the UEFA Cup because I learn about these teams I’ve never heard of, from places I’ve never considered, and it gives me an excuse to look them up.

It’s not a bad draw- third in the Moldovan league is certainly easier than it could have been. I’m not taking anything for granted, however- this is Hertha, and our cup record his fairly atrocious. The first leg is July 17, then the second on July 31. So Hertha will be in action pretty quickly.

In the Bundesliga, we’ll be opening our season against Eintract Frankfurt, away. Possibly quite difficult, there. Our first home game the week later is against Bielefeld, which is much kinder, before heading out on the road again to take on Bayern Munich and their sure-to-come new superstars. I suppose we have to play them eventually, right? And it’s nice to get a game on GolTV (I assume) early in the season, and Bayern usually provides that where games against Frankfurt and Bielefeld do not.

To that end, and to the point of the UEFA Cup, the team (minus those involved in the Euro) are already back in training. We’ve also picked up another Brazilian, Rodnei, a central defender. He was signed for a year, with an option for two more, from Jagiellonia Białystok in Poland. Hertha’s Brazilian passion remains intact, but like successful Brazilian signing Raffael he’s a Brazilian signing who’s already spent several years in Europe, first at FC Vilnius and then at Białystok. So he’s used to the weather and the rough style of playing.

The Brazilian we signed directly from Brazil, however, has gone back home, loaned out to FC Sao Paolo. Good luck, Andre.

I’m hoping Rodnei is decent, because we’ll need him. Josip Simunic looks just about gone, off to the Premiership to try and prop up Fulham. Hopefully, we’ll get some good money for him, and maybe he’ll be less card-able in the Premiership.

Phew.

Anyway, I’m back now, and as the stories keep rolling in, so will I…

Jens Lehmann thinks that Arne will play, and has been giving him secret pointers about stopping C. Ronaldo. Hopefully, not with his face. Although if need be, at least we know Jens is willing to get himself knocked out for a win.

That Arne wasn’t starting at all until an injury is worrying, though. Das Bild, in the time-honored tradition of newspapers who write their headlines in red, speculate that he might want out of Hertha to somewhere a little more glamorous when his contract runs out at the end of next season. AS Roma are the long-term suitors from abroad, but apparently VfB Stuttgart are also interested.

In less glum news, Hertha have announced a glamour friendly with Liverpool on July 22. Yay?

It’s gone a bit quiet around here, because everyone (including myself) is preoccupied with the Euros. I love a big international tournament like this, so I always get caught up in the excitement even if there isn’t much of it. I’ve been enjoying myself, at least, and keeping an eye on the Hertha players out for their country.

Lukasz Piszczek was the surprise call-up of the Hertha players, cutting his vacation short to head to Austria and meet up with Poland. He seems to be as surprised as anyone that he was called up, and made an appearance in the Germany-Poland game. As a Germany fan (as I have been there), I was excited to see him come on, but I was also hoping that he wouldn’t do much. (He didn’t, and Germany won 2-0.)

However, while Lukasz was playing, our captain Arne Friedrich wasn’t. Manager Joachim Löw (whose name, pronounced in German, sounds like “Joachim Love” and kind of makes me giggle) opted for Philipp Lahm and Marcell Jansen at full-back, but that could change for the next game against Croatia. Jogi is saying nice things about Arne and his fitness.

If he does play, it’ll be against Hertha teammate Josip Simunic, who played 90 minutes in Croatia’s not-hugely-convincing 1-0 win over Austria. He did, however, manage to go without getting booked.

Rudi Skacel, who’s kind of ours and kind of Southhampton’s, didn’t play in his side’s not-hugely-convincing win over Switzerland. Despite our Swiss manager, there were no Hertha players in the Swiss lineup. Although there may have been if Steve von Bergen hadn’t gotten injured. Speaking of Mr. from the mountains, he’s celebrating his 25th birthday today.

Other than that, there hasn’t been much going on.

Josip Simunic, proving that he’s just as good of at singing as he is at being calm and collected.

Other than that, it’s been quiet after the flurry immediately after the season ended. No new confirmed signings to report- Chermiti looks all but announced, but now that I’ve mentioned/acknowledged it it’ll go pear-shaped somehow. (I have a bizarre jinx when it comes to transfer rumors, which makes blogging difficult. Whenever a transfer seems all but confirmed and I mention it, or say that it’s going to happen, it doesn’t. It’s a worrying trend.) We’re also linked with his countryman Yassine Chikhaoui, currently playing at Lulu’s old club FC Zürich- you may remember Lulu signing him for Zürich and then leaving for us before he even got to play him. Now he might get a chance, but I’ve heard that bigger clubs than us are interested, so make of that what you will.

We’ve also got a new addition to the Hertha representation at Euro 2008- young Pole Łukasz Piszczek has been called up to replace the injured Jakub Blaszczykowski. Congrats, Łukasz!

While I’ve been gone, Hertha elected a new president. His name is Werner Gegenbauer, which I think is an awesome name to say. He was also the only candidate standing, so it’s a good thing he won, then. He says the right things about raising Hertha’s profile, qualifying for the UEFA Cup for real, and eventually, someday, challenge for the title.

What’s more interesting to me is the financial statements- a profit of €6 million and a debt reduction to €30 million. It points to, somewhere, there being financial responsibility at the club. Which is something I like to see in my football clubs, and something that has been somewhat lacking at Hertha. A few more years of this and talk about challenging for the title won’t sound so odd.

And in general transfer-like news, this website says that das Bild said that we’ve signed Armine Chermitti, the young Tunisian striker. We’ve been linked to him for quite a while, since the last transfer window at least, with multiple reports that we’ve agreed terms. He’s supposed to be quite decent- he’d better be, if we’re really paying €2 million for him. We’ve also now officially signed Valeri Domovchiyski from Levski Sofia for €1 million- I guess that goal against Bayern was worth it…

Our other loanee, Rudy Skacel, is officially still a loanee, but he’s also been called up to the Czech Republic squad for the Euros. However, Steve von Bergen has had to withdraw from the Swiss squad after a hand injury. I can only imagine how upsetting that is for him, so good luck, Steve.

Hertha went to Munich over the weekend, because someone had to play in the Oliver Kahn Retirement Show and luck of the draw picked us. So we went down to Munich and promptly- and politely- got our butts kicked.

But that’s okay, because it was the politeness that we needed. With a UEFA Cup place up in the air and Hertha apparently leading the pack, the actual outcome of the game only slightly mattered to Hertha. What was important was not picking up any cards and not having any disturbances happen.

Done and done.

The game ended 4-1. Difficult-to-spell Bulgarian Valeri Domovchiyski scored a few minutes from time to ruin Kahn’s retirement clean sheet, but it was a pretty fantastic goal so you can’t fault the kid. Besides, who doesn’t want to be known as the guy who scored the last professional goal on Oliver Kahn? Also, he’s only on loan so he may want to be giving Lulu a reason to buy him.

And we got our reward. Next season, Hertha BSC Berlin plays in the UEFA Cup. Yes, really. Us. Our record in Europe isn’t exactly formidable, and I’ve been on record as being worried about the effects of Europe on a squad that isn’t quite ready for it, but I’m prepared to be excited. We’ve already signed three players to pitch in next season and continuing rumbles about more reach my ears. Maybe with Lulu we’ll finally come good.

Or we’ll crash out in the first round to the winners of the San Marino Cup.

Today brings the news of Maximilian Nicu, signed from SV Wehen Wiesbaden in the 2. Bundesliga. He’s a German attacking midfielder, 25 years old, and has scored 6 goals in 26 appearances for the Hessen club this season. If Wikipedia is to be believed, anyway.

I can’t say I know much about him, having only a passing acquaintance with the 2. Bundesliga, but I wish him good luck here! Many happy returns and all that.

So that’s three new players in total, officially. There could even be more. Lulu’s moving fast, isn’t he?

Granted, this Kaká is a defender. And he’s coming to us from Portugal, not Milan. (He’s still Brazilian, though.) Also, I’d never heard of him until last week. But still. Kaká! This will never stop entertaining me.

Anyway. Claudiano Bezerra da Silva is a 26-year-old from São José do Belmonte. He’s 26 years old, a bit over 6′1″, and we signed him for €2 million from Académica de Coimbra. Apparently, he is a central defender.

I’m not even going to bother looking for Youtube clips.

The Bundesliga had their name pulled out of the hat and gained an extra UEFA Cup place for the fairest of teams. And, with one game to play, that fairest team is…Hertha. (As I said to Jan- I don’t know how a team with Josip “three yellow cards” Simunic became the team with the fairest play, but good job to us.) So despite lying ninth, and losing to Wuppertaler SV in the DFB-Pokal, we very may well, barring a spate of cards and disturbances against already-crowned champions Bayern Munich over the weekend, we’ll be playing in the UEFA Cup next season.

As I’ve said before, I’m not convinced I want Hertha to be playing in Europe. Don’t get me wrong- I like the UEFA Cup a lot. I like seeing all the different teams competing and think it’s a great, fun competition. I’d love to have someone to cheer for next year. But after watching Nuremburg and Bolton crash and burn (although Bolton- to my dismay- got themselves out of it) despite a good run in Europe, it’s not necessarily a good thing for a building team. The current squad isn’t very deep and often falls apart when Marko Pantelic isn’t playing. The strain of having to compete in both Europe and the Bundesliga may take a toll. Either because the players are tired or jaded, it can be a problem for teams that aren’t ready for the competition.

On the other hand, any sort of European money is good. And as we’re attempting to transform the squad, having both the money to spend on new players and the chance to play in Europe to attract them is a good thing.

So as it stands, I’m neutral. Which is a step up from before. If we actually do get a UEFA Cup space, I’ll probably go all for it.

But in my absence, Hertha’s done surprisingly well for themselves. Three wins in a row as of today, and as I type we’re in ninth. One of those wins was even away. As Jan pointed out the other day, in the table just for the second half of the season we’re in sixth. There’s one game left to go and instead of collapsing, we’ve done better. We could still go down horribly to the champions next week, but that hardly counts.

First, there was Wednesday’s away win at Leverkusen. While most of the coverage was focused on sixth-placed Leverkusen’s problems rather than our skills, it still made me happy. It isn’t every day that Hertha beats a top-six team like Leverkusen away from home. While Leverkusen’s awful form of late may have been a contributor to the result, we still got one. Too often this season teams that have needed a win have gotten them off of Hertha.

At Leverkusen, we went one up at 26 minutes from Marko Pantelic, scoring his thirteenth of the season. I don’t need to say again how great Pante’s been for us- it’s a reoccurring theme. (So much so that a €35 million transfer fee has been slapped on him.) Stefan Kießling got sent off for the home team on 62 minutes for elbowing Gojko Kacar- perhaps a bit harsh, considering what the elbow actually did to Gojko (nothing), but the curly-headed striker did retaliate against our young Serb. Things went worse for the home team after Rene Adler brought down Lukasz Piszczek when the Pole was attempting to round him. Sofian Chahed again put away the penalty, and Hertha were cruising. Perhaps a little too much- Leverkusen got one back at 89 minutes, and we could have lost the win we deserved if Drobny hadn’t been paying attention to make a fine save from Bulykin soon after as Leverkusen remembered that they were attempting to play in the UEFA Cup next season.

A bit of luck, perhaps, in some of the flashpoints (Kießling’s sending off and the penalty), but sometimes you make your own luck. We played well and Leverkusen were harmless. A far cry from their win over us in the first half of the season- either they’re slumping or we’re improving. Or both. I’ll take both.

Speaking of all those things, today’s game against relegation-haunted 1. FC Nürnberg was another one where we turned around the result from the first half of the season. It took a while, but finally Raffael scored in the 74th minute for a 1-0 win against the Franconians. Perhaps the team just weren’t used to the new jerseys yet, worn for the first time for the home closer. The result leaves der Club two points from safety, with the possibility of joining Duisburg and Hansa Rostock in the 2. Bundesliga next season looking likely.

As for us? We’re up to ninth, single digits, and 44 points. It’s a nice place to be in. Nice for everyone, but probably especially for Lulu, who apparently gets 20,000 Euros for each point over 40 Hertha get. As it stands, he’ll get an extra €80,000 in his pocket- a result against Bayern next weekend would mean even more. Hopefully that will stand as a counter to reports in the Swiss press that Lulu’s had enough and wants to go either to back to Switzerland or onto France. It’s worrying to be sure, although I can see where this comes from. In Switzerland Lulu had the winning team, the dominant team, in FC Zürich. I don’t doubt that Zürich, for all they’re in a smaller league, were better-organized- dominant teams in a league tend to be managed well. He made far less, but he definitely won far more. It may be frustrating to struggle with a team many tipped for relegation at the beginning of the season, who need a lot of work and investment before they get up to the kind of team that Favre wants to be the manager of.

However, making Hertha a success would do wonders to his (or anyone’s) reputation. So far it looks like he’s taking strides forwards- his signings have been solid and the more time he’s had the better the team has looked. His signings in the winter were good and he’s apparently sending his staff all around to look at new players for the summer. While that doesn’t necessarily mean he doesn’t want to go off to France (he signed Yassine Chikhaoui for Zurich and then never got a chance to play with him, taking off for Hertha before he could), but it’s a good sign that he’s sticking around. Hopefully two good wins should make him feel better.

In other news, veteran midfielder Andreas Schmidt has announced his retirement. He’s been with Hertha since 1993, playing through our triumphs and failures. Recently he’s been a “standby”, playing in the Hertha second team, captaining the youngsters while being on call in case he’s needed. Good luck and thanks for everything you’ve done. (And if anyone wants to check out a seriously Germanic music playlist- and incidentally the only one so far that I’d actually listen to- he’s the featured music collection on Hertha Freundin this month.)

And, since you’ve read though this whole thing, here’s some match highlights.

Hertha v. Bayer Leverkusen:

Hertha v. 1. FC Nürnberg: