The best opportunity to top the league
The best opportunity to top the league
Berlin – Hertha 16th in the league? In normal football terms that would mean the Blues and Whites at the bottom of the table in a relegation fight instead of battling for European qualification. No need to worry, Hertha fans – this league table is merely a statistical ranking. It indicates how many times a club has led the Bundesliga since its founding in 1963. So this is where Hertha come 16th: the Blues and Whites have topped the Bunesliga 16 times in 34 seasons. Bayern München meanwhile lead the way with a grand total of 744 times in 52 seasons, while closest to them are Borussia Dortmund (141 times in 50 seasons).
Victory from the get-go
It doesn’t take much working out to realise that being top of the table is easiest after one league match – or that the table doesn’t actually mean much at this stage either. What is important, is to make a good start to the new season. “We’ve started well in past years and that has always given us belief and confidence to do well over the course of the season,” emphasized Michael Preetz.
The last time the Berliners topped the table was in 2013/14, following a crushing 6-1 defeat of Eintracht Frankfurt. Unfortunately it was in August – not May – and only the opening day of the season. A nice way to kick things off but nothing to get too excited about; something more tantalising occurred in 2008/09 however, when “Voronin has Hertha dreaming of the title”, as the Berliner Morgenpost put it. The Blue and Whites led the rankings after the 20th – and between the 22nd and 25th – matchdays. In the end, the Berliners had to ‘settle’ for 4th, but those weeks remain a golden moment for Hertha in the ranking-topping ranking.
However, Hertha can also draw on golden moments in the past when the club has reached the heights of first place after the opening day. In the 1999/2000 season, a 5-2 win against Hansa Rostock propelled Hertha to top spot, with Ali Daei, Dariusz Wosz, Ren Tretschok and Sebastian Deisler getting off the mark. Hertha ended up finishing 6th that year. Even further back than that, in 1976, a 3-0 victory over Karlsruher SC saw the Blue and Whites end the day in pole position.
Another opportunity to top the table?
“After our DFB Pokal win, we also want a good result from our first league game,” said Pál Dárdai before Saturday’s match against newly-promoted VfL Stuttgart. “We play football because we want to show our passion and celebrate with the fans when we win,” said Per Skjelbred. On another note: Hertha would jump to 15th in the ranking-topping ranking, overtaking 1860 München, were they to top the table for the 17th time this weekend…