Nfter the dreams of a home final in the cup, which were once again shattered early on, Hertha BSC are threatened with the first mood drop at the start of the Bundesliga. Another defeat after the three bankruptcies last season in the explosive capital derby should really hit the Berliners. Coach Sandro Schwarz knows what he has to do until Saturday (3.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky) for the league opener at 1. FC Union.
“We conceded very easy goals. We’ll show the team what we didn’t defend well, especially in those moments,” he said. In Köpenick, Hertha expect “a different game, a different task,” predicted Schwarz.
With the embarrassing defeat on penalties (4: 4, 2: 2, 2: 0) on Sunday evening at second division returnees Eintracht Braunschweig and most recently three friendly defeats in the training camp in England, Hertha is again in a very tense situation. And that in the middle of the celebrations for the 130th anniversary of the club.
“Now we have to regenerate and prepare for the derby,” said defender Marvin Plattenhardt. The fans would have given them courage for this, he also emphasized.
After the two defeats in the championship, the defeat in the cup, the performance of the Unioner in the league by reaching the Europa League and their own sporting struggle for survival including leadership trouble in the club, Hertha really needs a win again in the Berlin duel.
Thanks to a confident performance in the first half, Herthan initially looked like the clear winners in Braunschweig. At the beginning of the second half, however, the game tipped over.
Plattenhardt, who missed a penalty, tried to be optimistic about the Berlin derby: “It wasn’t all bad, there were also a lot of positives. At the end of the day, we’re pretty disappointed that we didn’t progress, but we can still learn from it.”
In a short week of training, Schwarz wants to focus primarily on defending. “We showed a very good face for 50, 55 minutes,” said the coach. “And then we showed a face again where we conceded goals that were too easy. That will be the task of analyzing that – and also taking good things out of the game.” But there was more to it on offense too. “We didn’t convert several hundred percent chances, we have to take them, otherwise it will be difficult,” said veteran Kevin-Prince Boateng.
