Defeat in Dortmund
Defeat in Dortmund
Dortmund - Hertha lost their penultimate away game of the season on Saturday afternoon (09.05.15), going down 0-2 in front of a capacity crowd of 80,667 inside the Signal Iduna Park against Borussia Dortmund on Bundesliga matchday 32. The home side who reached the DFB Cup final by beating mighty Bayern Munich recently, struck with early goals in each half. Nico Schulz returned to the Hertha team after recovering from a bout of flu. Marcel Ndjeng made way for him and reverted to the bench. Soon to leave cult-coach Jürgen Klopp also made a single change to his side, with Kevin Kampl replacing injured team mate Blaszczykowski.
As expected in Klopp's final home game, Borussia took the early initiative and the game to the visitors. On 7 minutes World Cup winner Mats Hummels sent a dangerous header just wide of target. Dortmund would soon go one better. Slack marking by the capital city side at a corner allowed fellow certral defender Neven Subotic to rise unmarked at the near post and easily nod the home side ahead (9.). The corner taker - Henrikh Mkhitaryan had the next decent chance, as he sent a crisp low shot narrowly wide of the far post (15.). After the early Dortmund onslaught, Hertha began to find their way midway through the opening half, as the Europa League aspirants sat back on their lead hoping to hit Hertha with their trademark lightning quick breaks. Berlin keeper Thomas Kraft was called into action as during one such attack he raced out of his penalty area to thwart a sweet through ball to the feet of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (26.).
Despite Hertha having slighty more of the ball they never really looked like breaching the well-organised home defence. The first time they neared the Borussia goal was after 37 minutes. Sebastian Langkamp won the ball on the edge of his own box from where he found Per Skjelbred who in turn crossed from the right to target man Salomon Kalou. His effort however landed safely in the arms of home keeper Mitchell Langerak who had been out of wotk until then. Moments later a cross by Peter Pekarik reached Valentin Stocker, who aimed too high with a shot on the turn (39.). The first half ended with Pal Dardai's side a goal down. They hardly got a look in during the opening 45 minutes.
Dárdai brought Sandro Wagner for Salomon Kalou at the start of the second half, but Dortmund struck again early on. Erik Durm was played in on the right from where he scored his first ever Bundesliga goal with a strike into the far corner of Kraft's net (47.). Dortmund kept up the pressure and Ilkay Gündogan shot too high only two minutes later (49.), before a timely clearance from Langkamp denied Aubameyang a possible third Borussia goal (51.). As if to add insult to injury Hertha's central defender John Anthony Brooks limped off to be replaced by John Heitinga. The capital city visitors were mostly void of ideas of how to break down Dortmund's watertight back line.
Hertha lacked penetration
Dortmund's Subotic failed to properly clear a corner, which allowed birthday boy Genki Haraguchi to get a shot in as he came in from the left. His effort though was deflected wide of target (74.). Peter Pekarik who worked his socks off on the right wing was then found inside the box by Stocker, but the defender failed to hit the target from a tight angle (81.). At the other end Kraft was twice called into action. First he saved an effort by Shinji Kagawa and then the rebound by Kampl (83.). Dardai then brought on Ronny for the final few minutes at the expense of Haraguchi. Hertha's other substitute Wagner narrowly failed to get his head to a ball floated into the far post by Stocker (88.).
Two minutes were added on at the end of the game but the result remained 2-0 to Borussia. After losing to Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach, Hertha lost to a third top team in as many games. Next Saturday for the penultimate game of the season (16.05.15. 3.30 pm), Eintracht Frankfurt visit the Olympic stadium in Berlin. Hertha hope a decent result will keep them clear of the dreaded drop zone. It is by no means over yet.
(rd,war/City-Press)