Hertha BSC Berlin

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The pocket calculators are working overtime in Berlin. After losing 1-3 away to Gladbach in the Bundesliga last weekend, Hertha is no longer chasing a UEFA Cup place. The burning question is: Can Hertha go down to the second division at the end of the season? After only taking a single point from their last five league games, Hertha has a total of 34 points -a seven point cushion to third bottom which would mean relegation, and there are only 9 Bundesliga games to go.

Imagine the following: Hertha takes no more points from their last nine games and finish the season on 34 points. That amount of points has been enough to stay in the Bundesliga on 4 occasions over the last ten years. In the 1997/98 Karlsruhe were relegated despite having 38 points.

The more probable scenario: Hertha has to face average opposition between now and the end of the season. They face the likes of Cottbus and Bielefeld (both at home), Bochum, Aachen and Frankfurt (all away). Surely the capital city side can gather 7 points from those fixtures to reach the magic 40 point mark which would ensure their Bundesliga status. Midfielder Yildiray Bastürk: "We have to make sure that we don't slide into the relegation swamp..."

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Because of the suspensions of Joe Simunic and Malik Fathi, the Arne Friedrich had to grit his teeth and bear the pain for the away game in Gladbach which Hertha lost 1-3. That decision is proving to be costly, because the knee infection carried into the game by the Hertha skipper has worsened, ruling him out of action for possibly 3 weeks.

No chance

Head coach Falko Götz revealed at yesterday's training session that the medical saff had informed him that the infection in Friedrich's knee would have to subside before treatment could begin. Friedrich looks unlikely to play for Germany who face the Czech Republic on March 24th, in a crucial Euro 2008 qualifier in Prague. The Hertha skipper told Kicker magazine: "The way I feel at the moment, I see little chance of me making the game."

van Burik, Schmidt and Bastürk miss session

Dick van Burik, Andreas Schmidt and Yildiray Bastürk all missed Tuesday's training session. The Dutch-born veteran had individual training away from the rest of the squad, but he is expected to resume full first team training on Wednesday (14.03.07). The same thing can be said of the Turkish midfielder to Bastürk, who has a slight knee problem: "I hope to have him training again on Wednesday", added Götz.

Stomach bug

Andreas Schmidt will need a couple of days before he becomes fit again: "He is in bed with a stomach bug", revealed the Hertha coach who added: "Apart from those players everyone else is on board.The players really got stuck into the training session with tackles flying in everywhere. Götz again: "It was a tough session and the tackling was tough which is exactly what will count against Cottbus on Friday night."

Stating the obvious

The players looked determined during training, and seemed to want to prove that no-one should write them off, after they could only take a single point from a possible 15 from their last 5 Bundesliga games: Götz hit the nail on the head as he said: "We need to taste success again."

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Hertha face a Bundesliga home game on Friday night (16.3.07, kick off 8.30 pm), which could be a pointer as to where they end up at the end of the season. The visitors to the Olympic stadium in Berlin are the East German side Energie Cottbus, who are teetering just a point above the dreaded drop zone and will want points from the match.

Skipperless Hertha

The Hertha coach Falko Götz is without his influential German international defender Arne Friedrich. The Hertha skipper gritted his teeth in order to play in the 1-3 away defeat in Gladbach last weekend. His knee infection worsened and he is expected to be out of action for three weeks. Fellow defender Sofian Chahed is also out of action.

Defensive duo return

On the good news side, Götz will be glad to welcome back his key defensive duo of Joe Simunic and Malik Fathi to the team after suspension, which will cushion the blow of losing Friedrich.

Room for improvement

Hertha is in something of a form crisis at the moment, having taken only one point from a possible fifteen in their last five Bundesliga games. They have 34 points at the moment and will probably need a further six to avoid the drop.

Yildi back?

Falko Götz is hoping that his Turkish midfield general Yildiray Bastürk will recover from a slight knee problem and make the Hertha starting line-up. Young defender Kevin Boateng could also start the game. Both players came on late in the Gladbach game. Hertha are hoping that the floodlight atmosphere on Friday night will boost the team who really need a victory to restore their UEFA Cup ambitions.

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Hertha BSC 0-1 Energie Cottbus (47' Radu)

Hertha in crisis, absolutely. 1 point in last 5 matches.

[Oliver_Kahn]

Wow, this was a shocker

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Hertha had hoped that their poor run in form would end at home to Energie Cottbus on Friday night, but that didn't happen. The capital city side lost 0-1 in the Olympic stadium in round 26 of the Bundesliga. The result means that Hertha have not won for 7 games.

Chopping and changing
The 51,831 crowd in the Olympic stadium noted that the home coach Falko Götz rang the changes to his side which lost 1-3 away to lowly Gladbach last time out. Kevin-Prince Boateng operated behind the front two and Gilberto moved into midfield. Malik Fathi returned to the back four after suspension. The visitors had the former Hertha keeper Gerry Tremmel between the posts in the place of the injured Piplica.

Tremmel denies Pantelic
Hertha went for the jugular from the off and created their first chance after only five minutes, as Pal Dardai fired a shot wide from just inside the area. Three minutes later Pantelic was denied by Tremmel, who was in no mood to allow his former team mates to thrive against him.

Hertha controlled the game while the visitors waited for a chance to counter attack. It took Cottbus around 20 minutes to break the Hertha stranglehold. On 27 minutes Rost fired an initial warning shot wide of target, before da Silva headed just wide (31.).

Hertha piled on the pressure but luck was against them, as Gilberto finished poorly after nice approach work with Gimenez (33.). It was end to end stuff and Rost forced a save from Fiedler as he fired a shot from just inside the area.

Hertha denied clear penalty
The best Hertha move of the first half came on 38 minutes, as Pantelic rounded off fine approach work by getting tangled with Tremmel. The referee rightly shook his head as Pantelic demanded a penalty. On 42 minutes, the home side were denied a crystal clear penalty as McKenna clearly tugged the shirt of Pantelic inside the Cottbus penalty area. The whistle remained silent and the game was goalless at halftime.

Radu opens the scoring
Both teams emerged for the second half unchanged. Some spectators had hardly taken their seats as Cottbus took the lead on 47 minutes, as Radu converted a pass from the left to the far post. The Cottbus striker only had to stick his foot out from close range after Simunic slid past the ball.

Hertha threw everything forward without making much impact. On 55 minutes Ebert tested Tremmel with a long range free kick. The former Hertha keeper was in gala form as he denied Hertha time and time again. Kevin Boateng tried his luck with a 30 metre screamer, but Tremmel brilliantly pushed the ball onto a post.

Dejagah handles
Hertha had a lot of possession but remained harmless. Nine minutes from time Dejagah thrashed the ball home at the near post, but the referee had spotted that the Wolfsburg-bound midfielder had handled the ball beforehand.

All out attack
Hertha threw caution to the wind during the final ten minutes and were lucky to to concede further goals as Shao who replaced Baumgart in the 74th minute missed two late chances. Gerry Tremmel cried tears of joy as the ref blew time on this latest Hertha defeat and Cottbus took all three points home with them. After the final whistle, the visitors celebrated with their huge contingent of fans, while the home crowd was left wondering where the next Hertha victory would come from. Hertha travel to Nürnberg in two weeks time where their former coach Hand Meyer will be determined to put one over on his former club.

Match details:

Hertha: Fiedler - J. Boateng (77. Dejagah), van Burik, Simunic, Fathi (63. Bastürk) - Dardai, Gilberto, Ebert, K. Boateng (90. Zecke) - Gimenez, Pantelic

Energie Cottbus: Tremmel - Szelesi, McKenna, Kukielka, Cvitanovic - da Silva (64. Gunkel), Rost, Baumgart (74. Shao), Munteanu - Radu (84. Radu), Kioyo

Goals: 0-1 Radu (47.)

Attendance: 51,831

Referee: Drees

Booked: Simunic, Fathi - Kukielka, Cvitanovic, Baumgart, Radu

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Hertha slumped to their ninth Bundesliga defeat of the season on Friday night, as they lost 0-1 at home to Energie Cottbus. Read here what the coaches had to say after the final whistle had been blown.

Petrik Sander (Energie Cottbus): We can be proud of what we have done here tonight. When little Cottbus wins a six-pointer away at Hertha it can hardly be called normal. We showed character, had some luck and a great goalkeeper. Despite that fact we still haven't achieved much.

Falko Götz (Hertha): We have seen home games here in Berlin where we won without playing well; tonight it was the other way round. We played okay but failed to score. My team battled hard and tried everything. I can't fault the team for their effort. We have to work hard to gain success.

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Hertha extended their winless run to eight matches as they lost 0-1 at home to Energie Cottbus in round 26 of the Bundesliga. Hardly surprising then, that manager Dieter Hoeneß was not a happy man. Read here what he had to say.

Hoeneß: "Pantelic was clearly pulled back in the area and we were denied a clear penalty. The player pulling his shirt should have been sent off, which doesn't mean that the ref was at fault. We had enough scoring chances and we battled well during the first half. We performed well as a unit. But when you create so many chances and fail to put one away, you usually concede a goal like they scored."

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The Hertha coach Falko Götz will not have many players to train with over the next fortnight because several of them are on international duty as the Euro 2008 qualifiers and various friendlies loom.

Joe Simunic will play for Croatia against Macedonia on Wednesday. Marko Pantelic lines up for Serbia against Kazakhstan (March 24th) and then at home to Portugal four days later. The Brazilian duo of Gilberto and Mineiro are in the Brazil squad ahead of two friendlies to be played in Sweden against Chile (March 24th) and Ghana three days later.

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The round 26 Bundesliga home defeat against Cottbus came at a cost. To add insult to the injury of the three lost points, some Hertha players are carrying injuries after the bruising encounter: Kevin and Jerome Boateng have calf injuries, while the long-serving Dutchman Dick van Burik has a swollen foot and will have to take things easy for a while.

Hertha skipper Arne Friedrich is recovering from a knee infection, while midfielder Yildiray Bastürk turned down the chance to play for Turkey against their arch rivals Greece: "After my long injury lay off I need some extra training", said Bastürk.

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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.

[kennethlindheim]

Hertha Berlin are lining up a bid for Newcastle midfielder Emre.
BZ-Berlin says Hertha chief Dieter Hoeness sees Emre as the perfect replacement for fellow Turk Yildiray Basturk, who will leave the club in the summer.

Hoeness said: "If Yili goes, we will get a real star."

tribalfootball.com - Hertha Berlin eyeing Newcastle's Emre

[Oliver_Kahn]

With Basturk leaving, it's a possibility.

Would Emre leave Newcastle though ?

[kennethlindheim]

He might leave because of the racist thing even though he wasn't charged. I wouldn't like to see him go because he is a good player.