Hertha Hold High Hopes

First Team
Friday, 01.12.2006 / 12:17

Prior to Werder Bremen’s upcoming tie with Hertha BSC Berlin, the printing presses in the capital have begun rolling: „Thanks, Ronaldinho“ was the headline in the Berliner Kurier, who believe that Hertha will have a phsycological advantage over the Green-Whites

Prior to Werder Bremen’s upcoming tie with Hertha BSC Berlin, the printing presses in the capital have begun rolling: „Thanks, Ronaldinho“ was the headline in the Berliner Kurier, who believe that Hertha will have a phsycological advantage over the Green-Whites, who they believe will be focusing more on their decisive Champions League clah with Barcelona more than the Bundesliga clash. “That’s not the case”, blasted trainer Thomas Schaaf: “Our only thoughts are on Berlin, we have spoken about nothing else!” Schaaf poin ted to the last Champions League highlight which was sandwiched by successful Bundesliga performances. “I’m not at all worried. After the game against Chelsea we put on a very concentrated performance against Bielefeld.” Also surrounding the Sofia game, Werder picked up ten points from four games and before they last met Barcelona there was a point picked up in Hamburg and that followed by a 3:0 win against Borussia Mönchengladbach. It was only prior to and succeeding the Champions League game in London against Chelsea that the Green-Whites proved less successful with a DFB Cup exit at non-league Pirmasens and a 2:3 home defeat by VfB Stuttgart. The fact is that no opponent could have any reason to expect a psychological advantage over Bremen in the Bundesliga in the hope that the focus may be on the Champions League.

 

“It is important to have positive results now in the final games before the winter break”, explained Tim Borowski. Especially where Hertha are concerned in the midfielders opinion: “They are stronger this season as they were last time around, they are not up there where they are for no reason.” Thomas Schaaf agrees and looking at their fifth place standing is “Not surprised.” How did the club from the capital earn such respect? Determined performances and a strong record. Alongside Nuremberg, Hertha are the only team in the league who have only lost two games (2:4 in Munich and 0:2 in Cottbus). Just as Nuremberg they have also had to be satisfied with sharing the points on a number of occasions, especially on their travels where with a 2:1 in Dortmund they collected the only three pointer away from Berlin. Three of their last four games have been won by the same tight score line.

 

The so called “Old Lady” is now in her ninth year back in the top flight having won promotion in 1997 and have finished in the top six in seven of those seasons, which they intend to remain this season, although the expectations surrounding the club are even higher. The clubs current squad lends all reason for hope with a fine mixture of young enthusiasm and seasoned experience. “Hertha have invested a lot in youth development in recent years and some of that has really come to fruition. Boateng and Dejagah are good examples of that. On the other hand they have players with experience like Friedrich, Simunic and van Burik”, commented Schaaf. The man that Werder will have to have the closest eye on though is Marko Pantelic. The Serb has nine Bundeslga goals so far and is top of the scorer charts. Right on his heals though is Miroslav Klose. Hertha trainer Falko Götz compared the two strikers: “Both are top strikers in the league, even if close gets more of the attention because he played for Germany at the World Cup. Marko is in better form at the moment though.” So far as Pantelic is concerned there is only one thing in Thomas Schaaf’s mind: “He’s scoring the goals at the moment and we’ll have to be wary of that.” An amount of respect and attention must also be left for Yildiray Bastürk who returns the fold this week after a lengthy lay off through injury.

 

Free time for Baumann, Zidan, Owomoyela and Hunt

 

All-in-all Werder can expect a strong opponent from Berlin: “They will demand all we have and we will have to give our all”, said Thomas Schaaf, who can again call on German international Torsten Frings, despite an ankle injury. The 30 year old commented positively: “It’s not all that bad, I could train fully and that’s all that counts.” No-one will be spared but still Werder will have to deal with some exemptions. Frank Baumann, Patrick Owomoyela and Mohamed Zidan are definitely not available with a question mark over Aaron Hunt who is still nursing a knee problem.

 

The unexpected two days off at the beginning of the week did little to help the injured group. “On the whole the two days off did us all good. To take the foot off the pedal and relax the intensity of training was a good move and there’s no question about that.” The visit of Hertha is at the same time the opportunity to break a small yet negative run. Berlin won their last two ties in Bremen. 1:0 in April 2005 and this year with a 3:0 in March floored Werder. With his absence between 2003 and 2005, Falko Götz has an even better record on the Weser. Three games, three wins and no goals against. “Get your shirts dirty for Götz’ clean sheet”, was another headline found in the Berlin press. Thomas Schaaf is not at all disturbed by the positive tendencies of Hertha: “We can’t fix it but we can make it better.” He knows there is no need to be afraid of Hertha despite the recent results – that may give them a true advantage.

 

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