Officially in Europe
By: Abby | May 13th, 2009The stated goal of this season, by Lucien Favre himself, was the UEFA Cup (well, the Europa League, Ibut I’m not used to that yet). Qualification for Europe was a respectable goal from a team that had come in 10th two seasons in a row but still had some ambitions. It was doing better, but not ridiculously so, considering it wasn’t like we had more money this season.
Well, that has been claimed. Two games away from the end of a completely insane season, we’ve officially qualified for Europe. With seven points over sixth-place Borussia Dortmund, we’re guaranteed at least a place in the third qualification stage of the shiny new Europa League. And while at the beginning of the season us Hertha fans (and those Hertha players) would have been very pleased for that qualification, now we have so much more to play for. The question becomes now, with two games from the end of the season, how far can we go?
A 2-1 win against 1 FC Köln was what clinched Europe. As always, it wasn’t as easy as our respective league positions (and Köln’s injury list) would have you believe. Andriy Voronin was on the bench in favor of the returning Gojko Kacar, which meant Marko Pantelic started the game as a lone striker. It took us a bit to break the deadlock, but it was Pante having a hand in it again- doing all the great work down the side before cutting back to Cicero for a fairly easy goal two minutes from the end of the first half. The Brazilian was scoring at a heavy clip in the first half of the season, but he’d slowed down of late- it’s great to see him back in the charts.
The second half had Köln starting brightly, only to find it undone by the sort of odd luck that’s stood by us this season. Patrick Ebert’s sort-of-shot was deflected by an unlucky Giromel to loop over the Köln goalkeeper. A goal in the 90th minute (and possibly a turned-down penalty shot) wasn’t enough for Köln to get back into it, and we came out 2-1 winners. And European qualifiers.
But there’s a chance for more. A sold-out (!) Olympiastadion will welcome Schalke this weekend for the penultimate game of the season. A win from that, and well…
(Oh, and Bild can finally stop promoting Lulu for the Bayern job.)
Category: match reports
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Comments
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Congrats to Hertha. Nice to know that you can challenge for the title but – whatever happens – still look back on a season well played.
And what’s the situation with Voronin? Any chance he’ll want to make his stay permanent?
Posted from
United States
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Thanks, Daryl!
As for as Voronin goes: I do think that he wants to stay (he said so himself a few weeks ago), but it depends on Hertha’s monetary situation. If we hold on and make the Champions League, my guess is that we’ll keep him. If we don’t, I’m sure he’ll have plenty of suitors wanting to take him off of Liverpool’s hands. Bild says Panathinaikos had a scout watching him against Bochum, but that’s Bild.
Posted from
United States -
Hello all, it was a great victory and I enjoyed the experience Tuesday night. The Hertha fans were great, and it was a fun atmosphere. More importantly, we got the three points!
Anyway thanks to Daggi, please translate, thanks for everything. I am sorry I have yet to mail the money, since I forgot – I am in Amsterdam and I will mail it when I return to Germany Tuesday. I hope this is OK.
Thank you.Posted from
Belgium
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