“A win over Bayern will do for today.”

By: Abby | February 16th, 2009

And a win over Bayern is what we have.

A win over Bayern- deserved, damn it, deserved!- and first place in the table, a point above Hoffenheim (and Hamburg), and two above the Bavarians. It’s the first time Hertha has been on top this late in the season in ever. And we did it all while missing some of our most important players (Pantelic, Cicero, and Kacar), and starting a player at left-back who’d been at the team for half a season and had yet to play (Rodnei, who I’d almost forgot existed, and for some reason thought was a midfielder). On paper, it shouldn’t have happened.

But games aren’t played on paper, games are played on grass, and this grass was on the pitch of the Olympiastadion, where we’ve been impressive. For once, too, it was a sellout crowd, with 74,244 officially there to see news made. These games against the big teams are as much an advertisement for Hertha as it is a game of football- the hope is that some of the Berliners would come back when there weren’t international stars on display.

On this showing, they should.

Me, I spent the game convinced that something would go wrong. Dan Savage has a passage in one of his books talking about how before every flight he takes he imagines it crashing, and he thinks that’s how come his planes never do. I’m somewhat similar with football. I spent the second half trying to clamp down on the feeling that this could happen. After Klose’s goal I was already writing a post in my head about my feelings towards him (in a word: complicated). I was even imagining a scenario where somehow Landon Donovan scored a goal and I’d have to rant against him. But, I’m writing this post instead.

I thought it was a deserved win. Bayern may have dominated possession, but they didn’t start to look dangerous until we were already up. Drobny got a chance to show off in those last twenty minutes, but I don’t recall him making a save until the 53rd. Bayern simply couldn’t get past the Friedrich/Simunic axis, while we were content to try and hit them on the break. The thing was, we actually did. In the counterattack we looked sharp, and we had the first real chance of the game- Pal Dardai (who scored the winner the last time we beat Bayern) having a shot cleared off the line in the 30th minute.

And it was us that took the lead. What can only be defined as inexplicable defending from Christian Lell let in Andriy Voronin, who darted in front of the young German and turned Patrick Ebert’s excellent cross into the Bayern net. Unexpected, maybe. Bayern had dominated possession, but not done much with it, and there are no points given for possession. The teams went into the break with the home side ahead.

They emerged unchanged. Hertha was growing in confidence, spending a little more time outside of their own half, while Bayern grew in frustration. That didn’t stop them from equalizing, though it took a bit- Drobny parried away Lucio’s shot, then saved Schweinsteiger’s shot, only to have Miroslav Klose finally put the ball into the net. Devastating for the watching fans, but to the team’s credit, they didn’t let it stop them. Another counterattack and Raffael found Voronin, who yet again finished past Michael Rensing.

Bayern threw out all that they had, but we have Drobny in the form of his life this season, and nothing else would pass. The minutes ticked down, and…well.

What can you say?

Lulu, not normally one to get carried away with the occasion, described it as “the most beautiful day since I came here,” and you can’t argue with that, can you? The team as a whole played very well. I can’t think of one poor performance. We did what needed to happen- we were efficient, skillful, calm.

Are we real candidates now? I still think it’s hard to say. There’s the feeling that Bayern has to come back, there’s Hamburg doing extremely well. We should probably be focusing on making sure we ensure UEFA Cup (or whatever they’re calling it) qualification, rather than reserving balconies. (Which is setting off my jinx something fierce.)

But this week, I’m going to revel in it.