So among the press it’s time for random speculation, fluffy interviews, and the occasional attack from an ex-player. Raise your hand if you’re surprised that new Ajax striker Marko Pantelic, now that he’s got a club and is away from the Bundesliga, has some choice words for the manager of his former club? Yeah, me either. In case you’re so inclined to see what he has to say, the quotes are here. It’s basically what you’d expect- he claims that Lulu had nothing to do with last season’s success, and that everyone in Berlin knows and loves Marko Pantelic. Good luck with him, Ajax.

Anyway. In current player news, Rasmus Bengtsson’s girlfriend has arrived in Berlin. (I told you it was a slow news weekend.) The Swede has been getting to full fitness, as the Swedish season is different than the Bundesliga, but we’re likely to be seeing more of him soon. He gives that same newspaper a nice little interview, saying the required nice things about Berlin and saying he could have earned more other places, but Hertha is a good place to develop.

New striker Adrian Ramos’ girlfriend says he is a fighter. Well, she wouldn’t say otherwise, would she? The striker is with the Colombian national team right now, and is unlikely to be back bei Hertha until Friday. We’ll see if he’s ready to play against Mainz at the weekend.

And in case you weren’t yet convinced that nothing is happening, here’s some baby pictures of Florian Kringe. He looks blond.

Tomorrow is more internationals. Kapitän Arne Friedrich is supposed to be set for a central-defense role in the qualifier against Azerbaijan. Maximilian Nicu got his first start for Romania against France over the weekend and is hoping to continue on that. Valeri Domovchiyski came on in the 83rd minute for Bulgaria and scored against Montenegro, but Italy might be a stronger opponent. Jaroslav Drobny, despite how awesome he is, only sits on the bench for the Czech Republic, but at least he’s on the bench now. Steve von Bergen played all of Switzerland’s 2-0 win over Greece, and faces Latvia next. Pal Dardai’s Hungary faces an in-trouble Portugal after losing to Sweden. Also, we’ve got a few kids out in the junior internationals with Lennart Hartmann, Shervin Radjabali-Fardi and Sebastian Neumann all playing for the U19s as they won against Belgium.

Good luck to all the Herthaners out with their countries, and please come back in one piece.

Grumble.

It was a bad day for us. There’s not much more that can be said. Sometimes we’ve been bad and still won; this time, we were bad and just bad. It’s not pleasant, but at least everyone is admitting to it.

We’ve come back well from losses before, so I’m more annoyed at the scoreline than worried. What I am worried about was one of the catalysts of our loss- the leaving through injury of Arne Friedrich after 25 minutes. It’s been the magic of Drobny, Friedrich, and Simunic that’s got us where we are, and judging by results, they all need to be in place for it to work. That was clear against Stuttgart, where Simunic was responsible for both of their goals. Three is the magic number, you know.

It’s frustrating for Arne himself, of course, as he was set to play in the central-defense role he’s so excelled at this season for Germany in their qualifiers. It’s something he doesn’t get to do very often – he’s been preferred at right-back – and he was no doubt looking forwards to it (Bild has him quoted as saying that “it’s total shit”). But the timing for us is pretty good, as today it was announced that if all goes well he should be back in two weeks. Since it’s international break, instead of being without our captain and defensive rock for those games (and losing a lot of ground in the league), we should have been back by the time the league resumes with the visit of Borussia Dortmund. Cross your fingers and knock wood, anyway.

Speaking of international breaks, Hertha is left with a rump squad for the next two weeks while the various qualifiers happen. Drobny’s been called up for the Czech Republic squad, Simunic is off with Croatia, Gojko Kacar and Marko Pantelic are away with Serbia, Pal Dardai is joining up with Hungary, Andriy Voronin is to Ukraine, and it looks like all the paperwork came through to make Maximilian Nicu a Romanian international.

So, two weeks to ruminate and hopefully get over the Stuttgart result. And, hopefully, get the important players fit…

Oh well. It should still be fun, right? And we’ve got representation of our own, with Kapitän Arne Friedrich called up to the German side for the game. He even got to do a press conference! And also, perhaps more importantly, play some ping-pong. His Ping-Pong companion from the Euros, Philipp Lahm, is among the injured list, however.

Arne isn’t the only Herthaner off with their national teams. Goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobný, who’s been in quite excellent form for us, was recalled to the Czech team after the injury to Petr Cech, although he’s unlikely to start for some reason. They have an actual Euro qualifier, rather than a friendly, but it’s against San Marino. Gojko Kacar is with the Serbian team for their friendly against Bulgaria. Veteran Pál Dárdai- celebrating his 107th Hertha win, a new club record- is with the Hungarian squad versus Northern Ireland. And, er, that’s it.

But that means the rest of the squad is hopefully safe from injury, and can train together, and we can continue to produce the results that are stymieing the critics.

The Serbian U-21 had their final game in the qualifying stages of the UEFA U-21 championships on Sunday, needing a win to advance to the play-offs for the final in Sweden. (This seems needlessly complicated to me, but I’m not a UEFA official.) Their opponents were Hungary, who they’d lost to in an earlier round. So it was important, important enough that the Serbian FA pulled our own Mittelfeld-Juwel over to the U-21s instead of the main Serbian squad for their World Cup qualifiers, where he’d been before. The U-21s should be thankful for that.

Serbia won the game in style, racking up an 8-0 win over the Hungarians. And five of those goals belonged to Gojko Kacar. Which is just, well, pretty damn brilliant, especially considering he’s not a striker (although apparently he plays in a more attacking midfield position for the Serbian U-21s, despite UEFA’s website having listed him as a defender). I’d be happy if he scored that much in a season for us, considering his normal position.

Anyway. With international week being quiet as far as Hertha news goes (the newsletter brings news of a golf tournament), I just wanted to congratulate young Gojko on that feat, and hope that he brings some of that back to Berlin with him…

Uertop Hertoplet – Click here for more home videos

Anyway! This time we didn’t, taking care of Eintracht Trier without too many problems. Several players were missing- Josip Simunic is suspended from his last DFB-Pokal game where he got red-carded, Arne Friedrich has back issues, Pal Dardai has a torn muscle, and Gojko Kacar is, for the moment, still at the Olympics. New boy Amine Chermiti started on the bench.

Marko Pantelic opened the scoring in the eight minute, but slack defending on a corner let Trier equalize. The half ended with the scores at 1-1, but after the hour mark little Swiss midfielder Fabian Lustenberger put Hertha in the lead again, and in the 81st minute Patrick Ebert headed in a cross from new boy Nicu (who seems quite handly) to make the score fairly respectable for us. Chermiti got his debut as well, coming in at the 83rd minute.

But we can’t linger on Trier. Thursday already we’re in action again, up against NK Interblock Ljubljana of Slovenia, who seem to have a new manager. I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or not- on the one hand, it means they’re doing poorly, on the other hand, teams tend to play better with new managers, and his first game will be Thursday.

And then, Sunday (we’re busy!), the league starts. It’s upon us again and I’m super-excited. The first game is away to a different Eintracht- this time, Frankfurt. I’ll have a bigger preview when we get close to it.

The question is going to be whether we have Gojko Kacar with us, or not. When we last left the story, we’d agreed to let the young Serbian stay in China provided that Serbia’s federation met certain conditions regarding insurance and salary. Apparently, they didn’t, and we’ve demanded him back.

It’s not the most pleasant situation, but compared to other clubs we’ve been positively genteel. And it seems as if he’s on his way back, maybe. We’ve bought him a ticket back to Berlin, at least, and as it seems he’s always gone with the rulings on this, there’s a good chance of seeing him on Sunday.

I’ll keep you updated.

Whatever the case, he’s in Berlin, at Hertha, and will be wearing the 27 shirt. Why 27? Well, his normal shirt has always been 9, which is Marko Pantelic’s number, and 2 plus 7 is 9. (A bit like Gojko Kacar’s shirt decision- four was already picked, so two fours is 44.)

If you want to learn about the ‘Tunisian Maradona’, and even if you’re not sure you do, check out Rami’s post on the player. It is far more detailed than anything I could dream of, written by someone who’s been following the kid for quite some time. He’s made me pretty excited for a player all of 20 years old.

2. Hertha BSC are through to the next qualifying round of the UEFA Cup. I didn’t write about it last week because I’ve been way too busy in my actual life and frankly, the game was boring. As everyone probably expected, considering the first match was won 8-1. The second was a formality and ended in a 0-0 draw played out in front of 700 people in Chisnau, Moldova. Yay? The exciting news was that 17-year-olds Shervin Radjabali-Fardi and Lennart Hartmann, two of the young stars of the Hertha pre-season, made starts, and were joined by 18-year-old Sascha Bigalke after the break. All Berlin-born kids brought up from the youth system. It does seem as if Favre’s vaunted ability with youth players might actually be true.

Our opponents in the next round are another team from Eastern Europe I’ve never heard of. Let’s hope that NK Interblock Ljubljana prove as easy as FC Nistru Otaci. We do have the advantage of a second leg in Berlin this time, though.

3. Gojko Kacar will be staying in China with the Serbian team, despite today’s ruling in favor of the clubs. While his case hasn’t been nearly as high-profile (or mentioned) as the players at the bigger clubs, it’s basically the same thing. Gojko wanted to play in the Olympics, we wanted him to play for us in our opening games and our UEFA Cup qualifiers. We didn’t let him go, then we did. Now, since he’s there already and pissing him off would be pointless, we bartered with the Serbian federation to pay his salary while he’s there and some insurance for possible injuries.

Gojko’s group contains Leo Messi’s Argentina, but also the Ivory Coast and struggling Australia, so there’s a chance we won’t be seeing him for a bit.

5. We had a ‘keeper question between Jaroslav Drobny and Christian Fiedler, but now we don’t, as Fiedler tore his cruciate ligaments in our friendly win against Newcastle last week. He’s looking at six months out, at least.

6. Work gets in the way of things that aren’t work, and I’ve been lax here. Sorry, everyone.

In actual news, Hertha are apparently interested in raiding manager Lucien Favre’s old club FC Zurich for Tunisian midfielder Yassine Chikhaoui. We’re not the only ones, though, and Bild says that he’s too expensive for us. Sadly, they’re probably right on this.

Roma are allegedly interested in our Gilberto. Damn it, he’s ours.

In internationals, Jogi Löw has been nice enough to rest Arne Friedrich for the mostly-pointless (and goalless) game against Wales. Germany have already qualified and Wales have no hope of anything. We’ve got the Friday game this week, so he’s probably more useful for us right now.

Joe Simunic gave away a penalty while playing against England. Serbia tied Poland (I can’t figure out if Marko played or not), but it’s a moot point as Portugal got their point against Finland to go through at the Serbs’ expense. Hopefully this means we don’t have to send Pante off to play Kazakhstan.

Also, Sweden has qualified, which makes me happy. I have an irrational love for the Swedes and I would have been very sad to not see them next summer. Congrats!

My current issue with snow is that it’s set to deprive Hertha of another one of our major players, as Marko Pantelic’s Euro 2008 qualifier with Serbia against Kazakhstan has now been postponed twice. Snow in Belgrade pushed it to Sunday from Saturday, and as the snow didn’t go away it’s now been set for this upcoming Saturday. As the next Hertha BSC game is on Friday away to Karlsruhe, it sets up a bit of a problem. The club is already without the Brazilians Gilberto and Miniero, as they’re not getting back from Brazil’s World Cup qualifiers in time.

It may end up being a moot point, since Serbia only have a chance of qualifying if Portugal lose to Finland. But it’s equally likely that Serbia will need Pante as much as we do.

In other news, Josip Simunic and Croatia have already qualified despite losing 2-0 to Macedonia. Apparently there were ‘tears of joy’ in the Croatia dressing room. So the anger-management classes are having some effect.

Arne Friedrich was part of the Germany team that thrashed Cyprus. Apparently our Arne didn’t have the best of games, but what can you say negatively with that sort of scoreline? As long as it’s your team doing the scoring, of course. He also may be sent home early instead of playing against Wales, as the Germans have already qualified and we have the Friday game instead of Saturday or Sunday like everyone else. The Brazilians tied Peru 1-1, with both Gilberto and Miniero playing 90 minutes.

Also, there’s this.I’m kind of terrified, but I have this thing about weird puppets/dolls.

Captain Arne Friedrich is off with Germany, who have already qualified for Euro 2008. In fact, the group is already set, with the Czech Republic qualified as well. So his qualifiers against Cyprus and Wales are perhaps not the most important games to be played in the upcoming days. They’re not exactly meaningless, though, as good results will see the Germans top their group and be in a good state for Austria and Switzerland.

Top scorer and alleged Chelsea target (scroll down) Marko Pantelic is off with Serbia, despite a calf problem. They take on Kazakhstan and Poland in a very tight qualifying group, with Serbia four points behind leaders Poland, three points behind second-placed Portugal, and tied with fourth-placed Finland. Poland just need victory over Belgium to qualify, which makes the other spots very interesting indeed. Good luck, Pante.

Josip Simunic is part of the Croatia squad that is looking to spoil England’s Euro 2008 dreams. He’s also pissed at Bild over the way they covered his decision to go to anger management. Please don’t hurt me, Joe, I kid because I care.

The most annoying international departures from the group are that of Gilberto and Mineiro, who are both off with the Brazil squad for their qualifiers against Peru and Uruguay. While it’s always great to have Brazilian internationals on the team, the close proximity of their Wednesday qualifier to the game against Karlsruhe next Friday means that they’re ruled out from the trip to the southwest. Karlsruhe have been surprisingly good since their promotion this season (they were the 2. Bundesliga champions) and feature few, if any, international players in their squad, which means that they will be rested while we will have the squad back for about a day. Also, we’ll be missing two of our best players.

Anyway. Steve von Bergen will join with the Swiss squad for their friendly against Nigeria, while Fabian Lustenberger will be playing for the Swiss U-21s against Serbia. In other youth international news, Solomon Okoronkwo is playing for the Nigerian Olympic team in Ghana, and Patrick Ebert (he of the fan-club T-shirt) will be up against Iceland in a friendly with the German U-21s.

Also, two youth players, Sascha Schünemann and Abu-Bakarr Kargbo, have been called up for the Germany U-16 game against Tunisia, with Tim Scheffler and Maximilian Zimmer on standby.

In non-international news, Hertha is using the absence of a good chunk of the squad as an opportunity to test a pair of young players, Csaba Ponczok of Hungary and Ghanian striker Emmanuel Clottey, who scored twice in a training match this week and seems to have impressed Favre. Clotty is 20, while Ponczok is just 16.

Hertha are also allegedly interested in Andreas Hinkel, the former Stuttgart right back who signed for Sevilla in 2006 only to find himself mostly on the bench. He’d be a good buy for Hertha, in my opinion.

And that’s about it for this Friday evening (it’s already nearly dark in Seattle at quarter to 5). Good luck to all the boys this weekend and Wednesday, and let’s hope they all come home safe!