Tomorrow, we head off to Swabia for a visit. Stuttgart, like us, had a successful last season (making it to the Champions League at our expense), but have been pretty terrible during this one. Not as bad as us, of course, but not exactly great either. The 2007 German champions are sitting 15th with 10 points, with 4 of those coming from draws. True, they tend to often start slowly, but this is not particularly good for them. Their last two games were 0-0 draws, against Mönchengladbach and Bayern Munich specifically.

We’re missing Pal Dardai, Rasmus Bengtsson, and Florian Kringe, of course, but we’re also without Raffael due to accumulations of yellow cards, Sascha Buchert, because apparently red cards gained in the Regionaliga with the U23s transfer to the Bundesliga, and Patrick Ebert, who has the flu.

Our record against Stuttgart is surprisingly good- the game I went to, for example, we’d won 3-1, then won the opposite fixture again. Unfortunately, the hold over Stuttgart we had seemed to be broken once Armin Veh was fired. Without Veh’s help (speaking of: the last time we got a point in the league was against his new team) I’m not sure what we can hope to get out of this game.

Which doesn’t change how I’d probably end any match preview. We’re not all that good right now, if you haven’t noticed, and being away doesn’t help. But we’ve had a break, and that helps, right?

Of course, this isn’t last season and we’re nowhere near the upper reaches of the Bundesliga. We’re in worse form than Heerenveen, certainly, as they won a game last weekend, going 3-0 over Den Haag.

As is so often the case, we’ll be a bit injury-hit for our trip to the Netherlands, with Pal Dardai, Gojko Kacar, and Rasmus Bengtsson (as well as longer-term injuries Florian Kringe and Timo Ochs) not making the trip. We’ll also be without Patrick Ebert, who got two yellows when Heerenveen came to visit and is suspended. This could mean some playing time for some youngsters- Lennart Hartmann, Sascha Bigalke and Fanol Perdedaj are all in the squad- but I’m not holding my breath.

While this is perhaps not as necessary as Saturday’s game against FC Köln, I’d love to have any sort of result. Hopefully the players will as well. Any sort of confidence boost going into the Köln game is a good one. For the players as well as the fans.

As the crisis in the capital goes on, I’m sure we’ll see more and more fanciful suggestions as how to pull ourselves out of it in the tabloids. It’ll be interesting as to how they’ll top what I’ve seen today, though. Bild says that we want ex-Bayern Munich striker Roy Makaay, currently warming the bench at Feyenoord. He definitely knows where the goal is, but he’s also 34 and that number is unlikely to go lower.

Not to be outdone by the Germans, the Daily Mail is reporting that we’ve made a lucrative offer for Sol Campbell. Yes, that Sol Campbell. Undoubtedly talented, undoubtedly eccentric, and just having left the Notts County experiment by mutual consent after playing only one game in League Two. Apparently he’s hoping that the special tribunal that meets next week will let him join a new club, and even more oddly, we apparently have a lot of money to throw at him.

I don’t even know how to react to that kind of news.

If you’re in the States and have DirecTV, you’re in luck. Hertha’s being televised among their list of games. Check your listings and cross your fingers.

Of course, what else can he say? A team in turmoil, rock-bottom, with a confusing situation in the backroom and nearly an entire squad of injuries (including 3 injured goalkeepers). The only thing that’s realistic to hope for is small changes.

Fortunately, we’re up against a team tomorrow that’s not so hot themselves. 1. FC Nürnberg, while one of the grand old clubs of the Bundesliga with a sterling history, hasn’t been so impressive lately. They were promoted last season after finishing third in the 2. Bundesliga and demolishing Energie Cottbus in the playoffs, and like ourselves were somewhat optimistic going into the season. But like ourselves, it’s not gone to plan. With only two points more than us, thanks to a couple of draws in addition to the losses and one win, this is definitely a cellar duel.

Injury-wise, there was some hope that Jaroslav Drobny would return, but this weekend is proving to be too early for the Czech. The sooner he gets back the better, but there’s always the danger of rushing a player back too soon and setting back them back farther. Maximilian Nicu and Lukasz Piszczek are also injured, as is the damaged for a longer term Florian Kringe and goalkeeper Timo Ochs. That means poor Sascha Burchert will have to face the net again.

In the international break, and now that our handful of internationals are back, Funkel’s apparently been having the players wrestle each other. Or something. Teaching them fierceness or whatever.

They’re going to need all the fight they can get to push past this.

A tough stretch awaits Hertha BSC Berlin, a stretch that would be tough even if we weren’t in the position we find ourselves in. It’s off to Hoffenheim on Sunday, followed by a trip to Lisbon, and then we’re back at home against Hamburg. Even if we were in good form it’d be hard to expect anything from that stretch. But we need it badly.

We’ve got some reinforcements, in the form of a new goalkeeper. Sascha Burchert may yet become a good goalkeeper, but he’s only 19. With our savior Jaroslav Drobny out for what might even be 2 months, and official second-choice (and 21-year-old) Christopher Gäng still injured as well, picking up a new goalie is not the worst of plans. So we’ve gone out and signed Timo Ochs. The 27-year-old German was a free agent after leaving Red Bull Salzburg, where he apparently had some issues with fitness that he says are resolved. Still, a new player is a new player, and let’s hope that he can make things a bit better for us.

The importance of a good goalkeeper was clear at the DFB-Pokal game on Wednesday. It was as heartbreaking and frustrating as anything this season. 1860 took an early lead from our own Rasmus Bengtsson, who scored his first goal in a real game for Hertha. Unfortunately, it was on Burchert’s goal, not (ex-Herthaner) Gabor Kiraly’s. American Kenny Cooper gave them a second early in the second half, and we looked as sunk as ever, only to come back in the 77th minute through Adrian Ramos. Just a few minutes later Valeri Domovchiyski found an equalizer, and we were alive again. We bombarded the Bavarians for the entirety of the extra-time, but despite all the world’s chances couldn’t find another goal. And it was man against boy for the resulting penalty shoot-out. Kiraly saved one (Gojko Kacar’s, fortunately back), Christoph Janker sent another high, and we were out of the Cup.

I’m not sure exactly what to take from the game, especially since I was at work and didn’t watch. Going down like that wasn’t good; coming back was. Dominating extra-time was good; not finishing wasn’t. And the penalties, well, they weren’t good at all.

So let’s hope the team at least gets the good stuff from it. There is still quality in the squad, they just have to remember that it’s there. I understand a lack of confidence but I also feel like they just need to get on with it already. Wallowing in self-pity listing to Xiu Xiu doesn’t help anyone.

There won’t be any room for slacking at Hoffenheim. Hopp’s team are in fine form, particularly coming back from 2-0 down at ‘Gladbach to win 4-2. They’ve also got one of the most missed of the ex-Herthaners, Josip Simunic. Joe leaving was only a surprise inasmuch he’d been trying to leave since I’ve been writing this blog and I didn’t think it would actually happen, but after a fine season last year Hoffenheim stumped up the €7 million that was written into his contract as enough to take him, and he left. It was a bit of a surprise, as they weren’t offering significantly more than Hertha, and aren’t in England like he always said he wanted, but there wasn’t much we could do once he decided on it.

Getting anything from Joe and his teammates will be hard. There’s nothing else to say about that. But they do say that teams in desperate situations can be a surprise.

Let’s see.

The news out of the Hertha camp is that two of our major players were causalities of this week’s internationals, the two that no Hertha fan wants to see on the sidelines: Arne Friedrich and Gojko Kacar.

Arne was ruled out of playing before even the game against Azerbaijan, leaving training with an adductor strain. It’s not the most serious of injuries, and it’s likely that he’ll be back in training early next week, but it’s too soon for tomorrow’s game. Arne seems to be jinxed when it comes to playing his preferred central-defending position for Germany- it seems that every time it’s announced he’ll get his chance, something goes wrong and he doesn’t get it.

And now Bild is reporting that Gojko Kacar won’t be playing in Mainz either. The Hertha website describes his injury as a “charley horse” and he apparently sustained it colliding with the goalkeeper in Serbia’s 1-1 draw with France. The Hertha site doesn’t come out and say that Gojko won’t be involved, but I’d be very, very surprised to see him.

This means that we’re likely to see Rasmus Bengtsson make his first Bundesliga start, and we’ll probably be relying on Florian Kringe (who Google translates as Tamas Hajnal for inexplicable reasons) in midfield.

The glimmer of hope here is that we’re not the only team in this game with major injuries- Mainz have some of their own. Perhaps most seriously is that they’re without their first two goalkeepers, which means that there’s a good chance they’ll be starting a 19-year-old. That can either be good for us, with an inexperienced goalkeeper letting in some shots a more experienced one wouldn’t, or bad for us, as past Bundesliga seasons have seen young goalkeeping talent really grab their chance in a situation like that. We also have Cicero and Patrick Ebert back from injury.

Mainz, promoted back to the Bundesliga after two seasons out, have started fairly brightly, with their best result being their last home game where they beat the mighty Bayern Munich, 2-1. They followed that up by losing away to Mönchengladbach. They’re hoping to get back to the form that saw them overpower the mighty Bavarians. As for us, we can’t really afford another loss right now and greatly need to get back on track. With our form and injury list, I can’t say that I’m that optimistic, but you never know…

But that was last season, and this is now, and we haven’t quite got back that mentality that made us so difficult to actually defeat. Still, though, this was an improved performance from the prior two games. Not that that’s saying much. And now it’s been 3 in a row in the Bundesliga without a win.

The first half was fast-paced, if not always noteable. We actually had the first good chance, with Tim Wiese in the Bremen goal saving well from Max Nicu. Our own Jaroslav Drobny got his own chances to shine, saving well from my favorite name on the pitch Philipp Bargfrede and Werder’s new signing, the elf Marko Marin. But the teams were level going into the half.

Emboldened, we came out strong in the second, certainly the better of the two teams. The most noteable moment of the opening bits was the non-call for the ever-unlucky Artur Wichniarek. The Pole looked to be racing through on goal when he was felled by Wiese, but no whistle was given. Watching it from where I was, and the replays, it looked like a clear penalty, and the Spanish commentators on ESPN 360 seemed to agree (although I haven’t taken Spanish since high school, and never learned any football commentary words). But the Pole’s bad luck continued. Another good spell from us ended in a goal from Bremen.

It was a sucker-punch, to be sure, a quick counter-attack resulting in a goal for another one of German football’s great young hopes, Mesut Özil. It threw us for a loop and we didn’t quite recover until after the returned Tim Borowski doubled the lead. Then we seemed to remember that we, too, could once make things happen, and Lukasz Piszczek – helped by excellent work from Gojko Kacar – made it a game again. 2-1 and we looked like we might still get something out of it, only for Naldo to pop up with a goal quite similar to the first one.

There was just enough time for Patrick Ebert to score a fantastic goal with the last kick of the game, but that wasn’t enough for any points and the game ended 2-3. Sigh.

In general, I thought we were better, more lively, but it’s still the same in the end. To me, the most positive thing was that we didn’t give up- up until the very end, we were fighting back. Against a less-strong team, we could have gotten something. We’re still not where we should be, and we are giving away somewhat-soft goals (watching Mesut Özil slice through our defense was depressing), but there’s the slightest cause for hope, right? Right?

Other thoughts: ESPN 360 is amazing. Thank you, Comcast, for adding it. Even though the game was delayed and in Spanish, it was still awesome. Leagues, take note- this is how things should be done. I would also very much like Artur Wichniarek to score a goal. Even though attacks kept breaking down when they got to him, which was frustrating, I kept feeling for him. The more things didn’t go his way the more I wanted them to. I’m softhearted, I guess, but I think a goal for König Artur would be not only good for him, but good for the team. They need that self-confidence.

But that was yesterday. Today, it’s all about the closing of the summer transfer window, with the big Hertha news being that we signed not one, but three new players.

First, there’s the versatile midfielder Florian Kringe, of Borussia Dortmund. The 27-year-old was finding his playing time on the Ruhr restricted, so he’s now to Hertha for a year on loan. He has a website with fabulous pictures.

Next, there’s the striker that we so need, Columbian international Adrian Ramos. The 23-year-old has scored loads upon loads of goals at America de Cali, but of course there are question marks as to how he’ll do in a higher-level league. (And we’re losing him for the international break.)

The third newbie seemed to come out of nowhere. Brazilian midfielder Cesar (the history geek makes me giggle at us now having a Cesar and a Cicero) joins us on a free from Al Ahli. He’s 30 years old, and not quite entirely matchfit, but he was part of Lulu’s title-winning crew at FC Zürich and seems like he could possibly be a useful squad player.

Whew.

Not to mention that we’ve been drawn into our Europa League qualifying group. It could definitely have been harder. Could it have been easier? Hard to say, really- none of the other groups look like it would be better for us. Our opponents are SC Heerenveen of the Dutch league, Sporting CP of Portugal, and the Latvians FK Ventspils. Doable, certainly, if we step it up a notch from, well, now. We begin against Ventspils on September 17, in the Olympiastadion.

And Ajax is the newest club to be linked to Marko Pantelic.

However, it’s becoming clear how much Hertha still needs a striker. You know that, I know that, Michael Preetz knows that. With Wichniarek unlikely to play tomorrow, our strikeforce consists of Valeri Domovchiyski. The young Bulgarian has started brightly – he scored our 1 on Thursday – but it’s still disturbingly light.

That’s most of the news for tomorrow. Domo will be expected to start up front with Raffael. Gojko Kacar and Maximillian Nicu are carrying slight knocks, but are both expected to be fine. The Swedish boy is still not quite ready, having only really trained for 10 days. Bochum will be looking for their first win of the season, having lost to Schalke and battled back for a 3-3 draw with Mönchengladbach. Hopefully, we won’t give it to them.

The other news is, of course, the Search for a Striker. Rumors swirl around Columbian international Gustavo Adrian Ramos and excellent name-haver Jan Vennegor of Hesselink, who’s a free agent after leaving Celtic. And, of course, there’s always going to be talk about Andriy Voronin, but that seems to be receding by the day as Liverpool want far more than we can afford.

For those of us in the States, the game is on GolTV tomorrow. Watch!

Our opponent is Hannover 96, who have been in a bit of a turmoil lately. They got knocked out of the DFB-Pokal by lowly Eintracht Trier, and are struggling with injuries even this early on. (They also managed to lose a friendly to a 6th-division team.) So it’s not an ideal time to be Hannover.

Arne Friedrich says that they’re like a wounded boxer, and that’s certainly a good way to approach it. A team in Hannover’s position are going to either be completely low on confidence or angry and wanting to prove themselves. Let’s hope it’s the former, although I’m going to be expecting the latter. (Oh, pre-game pessimism, I’ve missed you.)

We’ve got the full team ready, minus the injured Fabian Lustenberger, and possibly Piszczek and Stein, who may be facing a fitness test. Wichniarek will probably get the start, with von Bergen partnering Arne in defense. Shaky at the end of last season, and with two young defenders recently signed, von Bergen has a lot to prove tomorrow if he wants to keep that place.

It’s always good to start win a win. It’s particularly important tomorrow as we’ve got two away games right after. A good start would drive us forwards in them. We have a decent starting draw, one that it’s fully possible for us to get three points from, so cross your fingers and hope we do.

One place were we didn’t get a kind draw is in this season’s Europa Cup. The draw was done today, and while all the Bundesliga clubs that finished below us got pretty easy draws (Werder Bremen with FK Aktobe of Kazakhstan and Hamburg with second-division French side EA Guingamp), we’re drawn against Brøndby IF of the Danish league. They were definitely one of the tougher teams in the draw, and it’s just our luck that we got them. Hell, last year we snuck into Europe through the Fair Play League and got a kinder selection. In his way, though, Lulu seems almost pleased with the tough draw- he says that it means the team will actually pay attention to the games. And the silver lining is that we’ve got the second leg at home.

But we can think about that later. Tomorrow, it’s all about the league.

While it’s still unnaturally summery here in Seattle, it’s time for some actually competitive games in Germany. The first round of the DFB-Pokal starts this weekend – in fact, several games have already taken place – and Hertha are up against SC Preußen Münster, of the Regionaliga West. They got there by winning the Oberliga Westfalen, which gave them a place in the new Regionaliga. Effectively, it’s the fourth division of German football.

They’re a club with a long history and some fine players in their past, but I can’t say I know anything about them other than that. Lulu’s been watching their DVDs, though, so the team should be better prepared than I.

On the Hertha side, we’ll likely be without Cicero, who has some kind of knee knock. It seems somewhat minor, and the Brazilian might play, but it’s just as possible that he won’t. Pal Dardai also has a bit of a calf problem and might be replaced by youngster Lennart Hartmann. In defense, there’s a fight to see who partners Arne Friedrich in the center, with Steve von Bergen and new boy Nemanja Pejcinovic duking it out.

(One player who won’t be in the center for Hertha? Rasmus Bengtsson, who’s apparently signed for Lazio.)

It’s early times in it, but the season’s just about here. And we certainly don’t want to be the giants slain in this round.