I was going to say something about the Köln games and the events there, but now is not the time.

RIP Robert Enke, and my thoughts are with his family.

Ahhh.

Instead, the vague hope of a turnaround that I felt after the Wolfsburg game disappeared again, as Hertha fell to an uninspired 2-0 loss to Borussia Dortmund. Neither team were particularly great, but Dortmund were less terrible and eventually came away with the win after a 60th-minute penalty and an injury-time goal.

So, er, basically everything sucks. As a blogger, it’s hard to look at the team and the results and say more than that. It also doesn’t help that the club and Lucien Favre are set for a legal battle, making me even more depressed at the situation.

One could say that there’s nowhere to go but up, but in football there’s always a down.

Anyway.

Hertha are allegedly now looking for investors to prop up the squad in the winter transfer window. The collateral? The one Hertha player with a market value, young Serb Gojko Kacar.

I guess that’s where we are now.

Thursday we play against Heerenveen again, who have actually won a game since beating us before. I’ll have a preview up when we get closer. And knowing me, somehow I’ll be hopeful again.

13,334 showed up to the cavernous Olympiastadion on Thursday to see Hertha lose 1-0 to Heerenveen, a team ranked third from bottom in the Dutch league. Like us, they’d been struggling after a successful previous season (coming in 5th and winning the Dutch cup), and sacked their manager. It would have been the time for us to turn something around, but as seemingly usual, it wasn’t.

It was slightly less awful, though. We had chances, it was only a 1-0 loss, and a potential penalty at the end could have given us a draw and a bit of hope. Of course, those chances were all missed and the penalty wasn’t given. But I’ll take what I can get at this point.

It’s not the best preparation for the next game, but it’s hard to see it as anything but a writeoff anyway. Defending champions Wolfsburg come for a visit, and while they may not be as mighty as they were at the end of last season, they’re still pretty formidable. Certainly compared to us.

News is that Grafite is taking a mental-health day after his red card in Turkey, so there’s one striker we won’t have to worry about. Not that there aren’t others.

The only good news is that there’s a good chance we’ll see Jaroslav Drobny, by far the best of our crew of goalkeepers. We’ve missed him greatly since he’s been injured, and just having someone of his quality on the field can only help.

I don’t think we’ll get anything out of Sunday, but maybe we can suck just a little less. I hope, anyway.

These days, they’ve been asking me “what’s up with Hertha?” And every time I reply “I have no damn clue.”

Because really, what else can I say? Every time I think we’ve hit bottom, somehow it manages to get worse. Every ray of hope is a false dawn. And there’s not a good explanation for it. Even the new manager is shocked at the size of the task ahead.

What is clear is that something is very wrong. And it’s everywhere.

The capitulation against Nürnberg, no great shakes themselves, is just another sign of that. I don’t want to say that they can’t get worse, because honestly, I’m sure Hertha will find a way to make it worse, so let’s just say it’s very, very bad and leave it at that.

Even the ultras are fed up. Tensions have been high between Hertha fans and Hertha players since rumors of the players having something to do with Favre’s firing came to light (and earlier, I’m sure). Against Nürnberg, the normal chants turned against the team, things like “we’re Herthaners and you’re not.” The fans, those who have loved this unloveable, unfashionable team, are justifiably angry.

It’s one thing if they’re just not good, but we remember what these players can do. What’s most upsetting, both to ultras in Berlin and me here in Seattle, is that the team seems to have stopped trying. At one point earlier in the season we looked like we were just unlucky- now we just look hopeless.

Where do the fans go in this situation? I don’t like the idea of abandoning your team in their ultimate need. That’s not how fandom is supposed to work. But when the players seem to care so little about playing themselves, what are we supposed to do?

Where do any of us go from here?

Now, those that are paying attention might remember that last week Hertha went out and signed a new goalkeeper to play backup to the 2 ahead of poor young Sascha that were injured. Timo Ochs was out of contract with Red Bull Salzburg, we needed a goalkeeper, so we had a new player. And…he became the third injured Hertha Berlin goalkeeper half an hour into the Hamburg game.

If it wasn’t farcical at Hertha Berlin before- and trust me, it was- this weekend it became practically a Molière play in the capitol city.

As a blogger, I scarcely know what to say, other than I don’t envy Friedhelm Funkel anything. Turning Hertha into a team with a defense would flummox anyone. I can only imagine how he must have felt after his first game on the Hertha bench. Plus, now Lukasz Piszczek is out for three weeks.

Sigh.

Lucien Favre had his press conference, a private affair at the Hotel Adlon. Berliner Morgenpost has some video and speculation about why he’d do such a thing. He didn’t say much, really, just that he’s made “too many compromises and errors” and wasn’t pleased with the lack of money and the players that came in. He said the players weren’t working against him and he didn’t have anything to do with Hoeness being fired, some statements that rose eyebrows. Generally, he read from cards and looked a bit freaked out. The speculation goes on, with no closure.

I don’t know. Everything’s making me a bit depressed these days, when everyone else is laughing.

He spent the past five years as manager of Eintracht Frankfurt, before leaving at the end of last season. At Frankfurt, he got them up, kept them up, and even brought them to Europe via a cup final, so he has the sort of firefighter qualities that Hertha are looking for. He was also known for being pragmatic and cautious over all else, more concerned with not losing than with possibly winning.

But, he does know how to keep a somewhat-mediocre, patched together with no funds team together, and in the Bundesliga, as that’s what he did at Frankfurt for five years. Eventually his system and his style quit working there, but they did for long enough to hope that he can turn Hertha around. Style, as always, can wait. His contract, interestingly enough, is just until the end of the season. If he succeeds and Hertha stays up then it’ll be extended.

Of course, he’s saying all the right things- calling Hertha a “top club” and talking about how excited he was when Preetz called him. But he also says how we shouldn’t be expecting miracles and he’ll work on things piece by piece to affect a turnaround.

So that’s it, then. Funkel will be on the bench tomorrow against Hamburg.

In general I think he’s a decent, if perhaps not exciting, choice. His time at Frankfurt shows that he’s what Hertha probably need right now, and he’s certainly a better selection than a few others I heard- Lothar Matthäus, for example. And I’m glad that the search wasn’t drawn out for very long. Having a new coach and a bit of stability going into the next game is better than the alternative. I remember Schalke’s manager search at the end of last season. Better to have it all in place as soon as possible. And “Friedhelm” is kind of fun to say.

The ousted Lucien Favre will be holding a press conference on Tuesday to talk about his future, a subject that I’m still interested in.

But before then, there’s still a game to play. Let’s see if Funkel, or just the motivation of a new manager, can hold back Hamburg.

The facts: Lucien Favre is gone, after being one of the most feted coaches in Germany. Upon leaving, the also-fired Harald Gämperle, Favre’s long-term aide, said that the players were the reason for his sacking, as they’d “never worked under such a good coach.”

Needless to say, the papers love this.

The rumors center around club captain Arne Friedrich. The 30-year-old from Bad Oeynhausen has not been known to be controversial- rather the opposite. His detractors often say that he’s too quiet, too mild-mannered. He’s written a cookbook. But fans and the newspapers have zeroed in on Arne as the reason behind the sacking.

The troubles started at the end of last season, when he came back from injury with two games left in the season. Favre decided not to play him, thinking he wasn’t quite up to fitness (or perhaps other reasons); Arne was peeved. (Later, Favre was proven right as Friedrich’s injury reoccured on Germany’s trip to Asia.) And while no one at Hertha, bar perhaps the unfortunately-injured Gojko Kacar, has been in good form, his poor form has stood out. Add that to a series of quotes that, while rather mild-seeming at first, aren’t exactly captainly- first saying that the team lacks quality, and then saying that there was nothing he could do about the playing situation (”some understand my language, but not all”) and it does seem that the papers have something.

As Jan touched on earlier, Arne has a bit of a history with this. He says things that on the surface are mild, but when you look at it, are nothing of the sort. A fight with Marcelinho in 2005 led him to note that, while he wasn’t making a comment, respect was the A and 0 of mutual success. He used the drama with the German national team to talk about how rude he found the captain. Looking through Arne’s career, it does seem to be a trend.

Compounding the trend is his recent form, which has been a bit less than captainly to say the least. His poor performances and indifferent attitude were commented on before the sacking. He was even asked by Michael Preetz whether he was playing badly on purpose. Whether he was or not is a damning statement- either he was willing to sabotage the team he’s supposed to be a captain of to get rid of a coach he didn’t like, or that he’s not nearly as good as he’s supposed to be without a strong defender like Josip Simunic next to him.

It’s the latter that seems to be at the crux of it- many sources say that Favre was starting to think that not only was Arne not really captain material – which had been debated for a long time – but he wasn’t strong enough even to anchor the central defense. The dropping of Arne at the end of last season may have not even been fitness-related after all, with some speculating that Favre was planning for a future formation without him. And apparently earlier this season he’d refused to play in the right-back position that he often plays for Germany.

The other question mark is the role of Patrick Ebert, the local starlet. His relationship with Favre was strained due to Favre’s crazy idea that he should be disciplined for his unprofessional actions (such as getting drunk and breaking car mirrors). Bild, who seem to have forgotten how much they loved him last season, paints a more pro-player side of it, saying that he was “destroying the confidence” of players, but particularly Ebert and Friedrich. (Bild also claims that the players complained that they were working too hard.)

Arne says he’s no Trainer-Killer. But it’s hard to know what to think these days.

Oh, and games go on, almost unnoticed in the drama. Today we went to Portugal to play Sporting Lisbon. It was a poor game by most accounts, but we lost by less than we’ve been used to- only a 1-0, and lucky for Lisbon at that.

We’ll see where it all goes from here.

My mother once told me, when I was new to following football and indeed any sport, that your team will always break your heart. They will always lose. Your favorite player will always get sold, traded, or disappoint you some other way. The management will always do something to anger you. Your moments of happiness will be fleeting. (My mother is a Mets fan.)

Lucien Favre and I started with Hertha at about the same time. My first game in the Olympiastadion was his as well, an unexpected 3-1 defeat of reigning champions VfB Stuttgart. I was in Berlin after graduating college, ostensibly working on my German. He was still an unknown, a question mark from the Swiss league, tasked to take over a falling-apart squad for a team that had delusions of grandeur despite their more grey-mouse status.

In the past two years, away from Berlin with deteriorating German, it’s been Favre that I’ve latched onto. Hertha, as I said yesterday, are not the easiest of teams to love, which has been a problem for them at least since the start of the Bundesliga if not earlier. The team were somewhat ragtag, the biggest star a diva of a striker who scored goals well and knew it. But Favre, Favre, he was someone I could like, a football teacher with a clear concept of the game and the intelligence to communicate it. He was the type of manager I have always liked.

And he’d done so well, taking a team widely tipped for relegation first to a solid tenth-place finish, then to a fantastic season that still defies description. With most of the same squad, but with the useful addition of an unwanted at Liverpool Andriy Voronin and a few shrewd pickups in the transfer windows of summer and January, Hertha climbed the table. And climbed. And climbed. Through team spirit, hard work, and a bit of luck, Hertha were serious title challengers for a time before finishing fourth and barely missing out on those mythical Champions League millions.

It’s too easy to say last season’s success is why Lucien Favre was sacked today, but it’s part of the reason. High expectations combined with high debt meant that not only could certain players not be kept (Liverpool is really getting great use out of Voronin, aren’t they?), but others could just leave- Josip Simunic finally played up to a level that meant someone would buy him out, and did. Their replacements need time to settle that they never got. Injuries to the increasingly important Gojko Kacar and the always important Jaroslav Drobny deprived a thin squad of what class there was. And somewhere in there, the players forgot the fight they used to have (including certain players who should know better).

The results are what they are- six losses, seven games. Four-goal deficits for the last two. Firing Lucien Favre was the obvious route to take. Do I think it’s the right one? No, not really. He’s shown he’s known what he’s doing, he’s done great things for the club, and it all feel so short-sighted to me. But it’s the Hertha way. Build something up, cock it up.

Lucien Favre will land on his feet. Some other club, hopefully for him one with money and a plan, will swoop and he’ll do a good job for them. Hertha, too, will go on. No one man is bigger than any club. Hertha will find someone new, either he’ll keep us up or he won’t (hopefully the former). I’ll move on too, eventually.

Goodbye, Lulu.

The chapter concludes with the Berlin Wall coming down. 59,000 people, East Berliners, came to the next Hertha home game, only to find out later that the directors of the East Berlin clubs, at the time just barely ex-Communist and Stasi chiefs, had been invited guests. Hertha management were proud that they came. 16,000 showed up for the next game. The momentum was lost.

I’ve been thinking of that chapter for the past few weeks. It seems to fit with the trends of Hertha history. Through skill or luck something is built up, momentum is gained and fans attracted, only for incompetence or misfortune to destroy it again.

What looked like a new dawn last season now seems to be just a continuation of that trend. A talented coach, a hardworking team, and management that came from the club and was no longer willing to pile up debt made it seem like Hertha was finally getting its act together. But, well, that’s the thing about football- one should never get your hopes up too much.

So where are we now? I still don’t know. I’m not sure where the team is going or where it can go. I’m tempted to just throw up my hands and say that I need to just start enjoying Hertha as a continuing farce but I know that’s just me trying to detach myself from the hurt. This is a hard club to love, I’ve found. There is beauty and drama, hope and history, if you’re willing to be patient, but it isn’t easy. (Yet I have no intention of giving up. They’re mine.)

Anyway. Another bad loss today. I should have a proper match report tomorrow instead of this sort of rambling. See you then.

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.