Fine-tuning

Berlin – Hertha BSC is celebrating its 125th birthday today (Tue, 25/07/17) with various events and a ceremony in the Roten Rathaus. However, the first team squad still trained today, carry out a 75 minute session at Schenckendorff before meeting the city's mayor, Michael Müller, as part of the 125th anniversary celebrations. "It'll be an intense week for us. It's now about fine-tuning and finding a rhythm. Sprinting will also form a part of it," said head coach Pál Dárdai after the session.

Sebastian Langkamp missed the rain-hit session as he injured his lateral collateral ligament and also suffered bruising to the foot at the Cup of Traditions last weekend. "He'll be out for seven to ten days," said Dárdai. Niklas Stark and Julian Schieber were also missing through injury. However, Salomon Kalou, who missed last week's training with back problems, did return to team training today. The goalkeeper situation is also easing as Rune Jarstein has overcome an infection, Thomas Kraft returned wearing a mask after he broke his nose  and Jonathan Klinsmann is back from a knee injury. All three of them worked individually with goalkeeper coach Zsolt Petry on Tuesday. Michael Langer, who is currently without a club, continues to train with Hertha and is adding to the strength in depth at training. Jordan Torunarigha (ankle) and Peter Pekarik (muscular problems) are training individually. Mathew Leckie didn't join the players on the training pitch today because of slight muscular problems.

Few changes against Liverpool

After further training sessions on Wednesday and Thursday (10:00 and 16:00 CEST) and Friday (16:00 CEST), the celebratory game against Liverpool will take place on Saturday (29/07/17). Excitement is building ahead of this friendly match against one of England's finest clubs. "It's a great opponent", said Fabian Lustenberger. It will be a good indication to the coach as to how ready his team is, just two weeks before the first competitive match of the season. "We'll be looking to play our best XI against Liverpool and won't make too many changes," said Dárdai.