Elfs, Gifts, and Transfers

By: Abby | December 9th, 2008

Ah, well. Can’t win them all, right?

$Says it all, doesn\'t it?$ Last I posted, Hertha was riding high, unbeaten in five, with quite a lot of confidence. Now, we’ve lost two in a row. Granted, they were difficult games, and neither were lost by much, but still. I tend to prefer winning over losing.

First up, Galatasaray. A crowd of 62,612 greeted the teams, with much of it made up of Berlin’s Turkish population. Hertha were not all that impressive at first, and it was clear that both the missing players (like Cicero, starting only on the bench) and the flu bug running through the team were impacting the performance. But, it was goalless at the break.

Hertha came out better at the second, although not quite enough to get through, and after about 65 goalless minutes the Italian ref decided that Steve von Bergen had handled in the area and awarded Galatasaray a penalty. It was a very harsh penalty (especially since von Bergen has had his troubles this season), striking von Bergen on the elbow that was protecting his face from Kewell’s cross. I know that if you raise your hand anywhere in the penalty area there could be consequences, but it struck me as a little ridiculous. (Although I may be biased.)

Milan Baros scored the penalty past his countryman Drobny, and that was all Galatasaray needed. We threw everything at them, and possibly could have had a penalty of our own in a replay of their penalty as Kewell did something quite similar to von Bergen with one of our crosses. But in the end it was a 1-0 win for the Turkish giants, and they’ve now qualified out of the group stages. And as for us…

Well, surprisingly, it’s still up in the air. UEFA Cup math confuses the hell out of me, but from what I understand, thanks to Metalist Kharkiv’s win over Olympiacos, which saw the Ukrainian team qualify, we’re still in with a shout. The Greeks are on three points and we’re on two, with Benfica on one. If we beat Olympiacos, we go through, no matter what Benfica and Kharkiv do, as Benfica have only one point and a win for them over the already-qualified Ukrainians would put them at four, to our theoretical five and Olympiacos’ three. If Olympiacos win, they get the spot. If we draw, I’m pretty sure Olympiacos go through, but I’m not positive because I can’t be bothered to remember what the tiebreaker would be between them and Benfica, if they win, as we won’t be involved at that point.

So it’s in our hands. I have to admit, I’m not the most optimistic about our chances. But to advance through the group stages in any competition a team has to actually win games, and we haven’t done that yet. We’ve done better than I think I expected, but all good things and all that.

Speaking of good things ending, our league non-losing streak got snapped this weekend with our visit to Schalke. An uninspiring, and uninspired, Hertha Berlin went down to a 65th-minute Gerald Asamoah goal. We didn’t even do enough to give me enough looks at Manuel Neuer. It was even shown on GolTV, so I got to watch it on my nice TV, but they didn’t give me much to watch. $You\'re welcome.$

Oh well. Lulu admitted that Schalke were the better team, and Arne was rather philosophical. These things happen, I suppose. In fact, this isn’t the first time we’ve relieved pressure for the coach of one of the ‘big clubs’- our away losses this year have come at Bayern Munich early in the season when Klinsmann was struggling, and at Werder Bremen when Schaaf was doing the same. Now we’ve also bought Fred Rutten time as well. These teams should be thanking us, shouldn’t they? Points in the Rückrunde would do nicely.

Anyway, it’s almost the Bundesliga’s interminable winter break, which also means that it’s nearly January, which means transfer time is upon us. The big story with Hertha right now (thanks, Nick, for pointing it out to me first) is that it seems that we’re about to sign our sixth Brazilian. He’s a 26-year-old full-back from Fluminense named Junior Cesar, and his agent says he’ll probably sign for us. Werder Bremen were also allegedly interested, but clearly not enough. He’s small, fast, and a friend of our beloved orator Cicero, who says that he has “an absolutely winning mentality.”

Six Brazilians is a lot. Even though I don’t think one of them (Rodnei) has ever played for us. Still, I hope he’s more of a Cicero type than not.

It isn’t all incoming- rumors continue to swirl around Marko Pantelic. Four Premiership clubs are linked- Everton, Middlesborough, West Brom, and Wigan. In my mind, none of those bar Everton are a big upgrade on Hertha, and West Brom are mired to the bottom of the table. This doesn’t mean that he’s not going to go in January to one of them, mind.

That’s it for right now. There’s one game left, against our buddies Karlsruhe, before the league is out for break.

I wish I had six weeks off work…