I Blame GolTV For This

By: Abby | August 24th, 2009

Bochum hadn’t had a win yet. Politely, we gave it to them.

It’s the story of the first few games. We haven’t been looking too terrible, or at least we’ve been creating chances, but our scoring just hasn’t happened. It’s certainly worrying and it seems to be taking its toll on the confidence of the players. I don’t remember being hugely reliant on our strikers last season – Voronin scored 11 goals, which is a good return, but not massive numbers, while Pantelic’s goals from his random appearances was 7. Last season lots of positions managed to chip in with goals, and our chances to goals ratio was excellent. Now, though, it seems all reliant on the striker we hope is coming.

What can be said? Bochum scored from a free-kick that went through the wall, and that was it, despite our best efforts. I’m blaming GolTV as much as anything because they decided to delay the game by an hour for some reason. When I went to check some other scores I saw that the game that had just started on my TV was actually halfway done, and Bochum had just scored. (Seriously, what the hell? What benefit does GolTV get by showing a game an hour late? Is 9:30 EST worse than 10:30 EST? Who wants to watch a delayed game that isn’t even delayed fully? And can’t they at least not put “live” on the website when it’s not? I know I could have calculated the right time myself and just not inadvertently spoil myself, but math isn’t my strong point.)

Anyway, I don’t know what else to say. We need to start scoring goals, if just to get back the belief that we can score goals. Confidence is a weird and complicated thing, especially with a team like Hertha. The margins for wins and losses for us are so narrow that a slight jar is proving to be a bit more catastrophic than hoped.

It’s not getting any better, either. First Artur Wichniarek got himself injured, and now it looks like Raffael’s broken his elbow. He’s not exactly a striker, but he’s an attacker, and they’re in very short supply in the Hertha grounds.

Unverified rumor says that Scottish striker Kris Boyd is on his way to Berlin to discuss terms and have a medical. He scored 27 goals last season in Scotland and is only 26. I can’t imagine him actually showing up in Berlin, but I wouldn’t be displeased if he did. Other reports have us interested in taking Markus Rosenberg of Werder Bremen on loan. Rosenberg is currently a benchwarmer at Bremen, but he does have talent and could be worth a punt.

The search is on. Hopefully, we’ll catch one before time runs out.