Moaning doesn't help
The disappointment of losing 0-1 at home to Cottbus on Friday evening was written on the face of every Hertha player after the game. They had fought hard and created several chances, but on each occasion, the former Hertha keeper Gerhard Tremmel or match referee Dr. Jochen Drees denied them.
The ref somehow missed a clear foul on Marko Pantelic during the first half, as a Cottbus defender blatantly pulled the Serb striker back by his shirt. Shortly before the end of the game, Ashkan Dejagah finally beat Tremmel but was adjudged to have handled the ball beforehand: "Every decision went against us", fumed the Hertha coach Falko Götz afterwards.
Don't blame Drees
To put all of the blame on the referee would be wrong: "Sure it was a bad decision not to give the penalty, but I don't blame the referee; we only have ourselves to blame", said the Hertha youngster Patrick Ebert. Kevin-Prince Boateng hit the nail on the head as he said: "Moaning doesn't help now; we should have taken our chances."
Whatever Hertha threw at Tremmel he was up to the challenge. The keeper cried tears of joy at the end of the game: "He played superbly"; said the Cottbus coach Petrik Sander of his keeper, who only played because his first choice keeper Tomislav Piplica had concussion.
Walking wounded
After failing to win any Bundesliga games in their last 7 attempts, Hertha were left to lick their wounds, and there were quite a few to lick: Keeper Christian Fiedler took a ball to the face and has a neck problem. Veteran Dutch defender Dick van Burik has a swollen foot, while Kevin Boateng has a bruised calf.
The worst injury was sustained by Boateng's kid brother Jerome, who was kicked in the calf and has had to pull out of the under-19 international between Germany and Georgia on Wednesday. The lad now has two full weeks to recover from the injury and prepare for the Bundesliga round 27 clash away to Nürnberg on March 31st.
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