We Didn’t Want Your Stupid Salad Plate Anyway

By: Abby | May 20th, 2009

As I was explaining to a friend of mine, while watching my third disappointing draw of the day, Hertha’s result meant that they’re out of a title race they should never have been part of in the first place.

That doesn’t mean it doesn’t sting.

But it does mean that despite the disappointment, despite the knowledge that it may be another 70-some years before we get this close again, I’m still proud of the team for getting so far. While the nature of our fall may have been disappointing considering it was that final home game of the season, the fact that we were there with a shout in the first place is pretty exciting. The sort of thing that any Hertha fan would have given anything for at the start of this season (or last). And but for a disallowed Pantelic goal…

So, what can be said? The penultimate game was a 0-0 draw against Schalke, a frustrating grinding thing where they had the majority of the possession and not much to do with it. As I predicted, it wasn’t the rollover the pundits were predicting. I’m not surprised, in all honesty, that a draw was the result. Schalke didn’t have much to play for, but that also mean they didn’t have much of a reason to attack, which meant that we didn’t have much of a way to attack.

Much was made of the lineup, with Arne Friedrich and Andriy Voronin starting on the bench. Controversial, but not without sense- Arne’s the inspirational captain and all, but he was out injured for a while and is probably not fully there yet. Voronin’s not quite been back to normal since his suspension and the current attack has been doing things well, especially Pante (showing off to possible suitors?). But in the end, our luck, perhaps, just ran out a bit.

There’s not much to say about the game. Drobny didn’t make a save for 70 minutes. It was boring. It was, well, Schalke. It’ll be interesting, in the future, to see what Magath makes of them.

So, disappointment. But things aren’t over yet. A win on Saturday will get us one of those Champions League spots that can enable us to do so much. A draw between Stuttgart and Bayern would even put us directly there.

In the talk of the Bundesliga run-in this final game was considered to be a walk, as Karlsruhe were considered to be just about relegated. Unfortunately for us, they haven’t been. A win against a distracted Werder Bremen has them still clinging to 1. Bundesliga status, which means a much more fired-up team than we might have faced otherwise. And a severe strain on the Fanfreundschaft that I’ve written so often about. A win for us and we go into the Champions League. A win for them means there’s a chance they can save themselves, thanks to the Bundesliga’s promotional playoffs. There’s only a point between them and 16th-placed Bielefeld.

So we’ll see. We’ll see. Cross your fingers for us anyway.