No Swelling to the Neck Arteries

By: Abby | January 11th, 2008

So the first game of the new year for Hertha has come and gone in Tenerife, and the result was a 0-1 loss to Grasshoppers Zürich. Not much can be said about it, since I didn’t watch it, and it was a friendly at summer camp in Spain, but it is notable that new signing Raffael didn’t play. Lulu considered it “too much of a risk” since he’s only just arrived and has barely trained with the team yet. The goal was scored on a penalty after Chahed (sigh) handled in the area, and Andre Lima had a goal disallowed for offsides.

Lulu, for his part, wasn’t particularly bothered (the title of this post comes from a Google translation describing how un-bothered he was- if Jan or anyone else who has better German than me could explain what “keineswegs zu anschwellenden Halsschlagadern führte” is supposed to mean, I would appreciate it). Basically, he said they’d been working hard, were tired, and this was a training game.

However, that’s not the news I care a lot about- the good news is that Lucio is back in training. He’s got a ball at his feet again, and while he’s of course not at full strength, considering that at one point his injury was thought to be career-ending means that this is really very good news. Also in non-injured news, Patrick Ebert played against Grasshoppers, so he’s back again.

But in injured news, Gilberto stayed behind in the hotel instead of going to training camp, because his leg hurts or something. Or he’s tired. Hard to say with him. He wants to retire in 2010, as well, which makes sense. And Roma is still interested. I wish we could get money for selling him- he hasn’t been in form, he isn’t getting any younger, but I bet we could still get money for him. On the other hand, the team is becoming younger and younger. It’s always good to have an experienced head around when you’re a youthful team, and Gilberto has been good in the past for us. Except that his contract is up in the summer and it’s looking more and more likely he’ll be leaving on a free, despite him saying otherwise.

Oh, and Celtic want Josip Simunic. Allegedly. And Steve von Bergen loves Arsenal (remember, whenever it says “by mountains” in the Google Translate it’s just saying his name). Lulu Favre might also love Arsenal, or at least admire Arsène Wenger, who in my opinion is not a bad role model to have.

And that’s it for today. Still another 3 weeks until the Bundesliga starts. I’m crossing off another day.