Oh Hey, Football’s Happening

I’ve been busy being overwhelmed by awesome, to the point where I can’t quite think about football. Also, I was doing a lot of celebratory drinking/partying.

But now that it’s all over, I can focus on things that aren’t all that important in the scheme of things, but very enjoyable to care about. (I like caring about things that aren’t literal life or death.) Which means that I can quit being stressed about life and go back to being a bit more mildly stressed about football. It’s really kind of wonderful after being majorly stressed about the course of my country.

And Hertha, as if listening to me, gave me something to mildly stress about.

Hertha went off to Ukraine today, taking on Metalist Kharkiv. The Ukrainians were always going to be tough- they’re second in the league right now after Dynamo Kyiv, and Ukrainian teams are always tough. Especially when you’re actually going to Ukraine to play them.

It seems as if we were lucky to escape with a draw. The triumphantly returning Jaroslav Drobny saved us again, along with Kharkiv’s not quite ability to finish. When the group was first announced, I wasn’t expecting anything out of this fixture, so I’m pleased. With Benfica going down at home to Galatasary (our next opponents in the UEFA Cup), our two points from two draws puts us second in the group behind the aformentioned Turks. It’s still a situation that we can qualify from, but a home win against Galatasary next time around- not an easy proposal- is pretty much necessary.

Another not-easy proposal is our next Bundesliga opponents. Sunday we’re home against the table-topping talk of Europe, 1899 Hoffenheim. Much digital ink has been given over to the team from the town of 3,272, from better writers than myself, but suffice to say that they’re a quick, talented team that are very dangerous. And one of their most dangerous? Midfielder Sejad Salihovic, signer of a brand new contract. The Bosnian midfielder was integral to Hoffenheim’s promotion last season and has continued to impress.

And, of course, he signed from Hertha two seasons ago for €250,000. Another one from our youth system that we let away without realizing their worth- we could probably make a team of them right now. It’s always frustrating to see. One of the things I really like about Lulu is that he seems to at least be making an effort to integrate the best of our youth products- while we haven’t seen huge amounts of the teenagers who impressed during pre-season (although Lennart Hartmann has been sidelined after surgery), they’re at least being recognized.

And that’s being noticed by some of the prodigals. Kevin-Prince Boateng, who left for Tottenham for €7 million (at least we got a good price for him) has been going around saying that a few more years at Hertha, under Lulu, would have done him good. He’s probably right- he’s just about disappeared since going to England. There’s talk that we’ll take him back, although I don’t know how true that is.

I’m going to be out of town until Monday evening, so I won’t get to do more of a Hoffenheim preview before the game actually happens. So I’m wishing good luck in advance to the boys from the big city. Let’s hope the country doesn’t embarrass them too badly.

Category: europe, match preview

Tags: europe, match preview

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