Defeats for Darida and Klinsmann

Both Hertha men suffered losses with their national teams in Friday’s (22/03/19) round of fixtures.

Hertha players Vladimír Darida and Jonathan Klinsmann were in action for their national teams on Friday but both came away empty handed. Darida played the first 67 minutes of Czech Republic’s EURO2020 qualification match against England at Wembley, but were defeated 5-0 by a very strong English side. “I have to congratulate England,” said Czech head coach Jaroslav Šilhavý at full-time. “A lot of quality and a strong team resulted in five goals. For us it is very tough to take because we made some silly mistakes.”

The visiting Czech side were forced to defend a lot by the Three Lions, who opened the scoring through Raheem Sterling in the 24th minute. The hosts remained in control of the game but seemed to lack decisiveness in the final third. The second goal game from the penalty spot, as Harry Kane found the back of the net in added time of the first half. Czech Republic started the second half lively, but missed chances to get back into the game through Tomas Soucek in the 51st minute and David Pavelka two minutes later. At the other end of the field, the brilliant Sterling doubled his tally in the 62nd minute before completing his hat-trick in the 68th to take the score to 4-0. Six minutes from time, an own goal from Tomas Kalas rubbed salt into the wounds of the Czech side.

Jastrzembski and Jarstein feature on Saturday

Jonathan Klinsmann represented the American U23 side in their friendly against Egypt U21 as he completed 45 minutes after being brought on at half time. The Americans fell to a 2-0 defeat in Spain, with defensive vulnerabilities capitalized by the North Africans. Egypt took the lead in the 40th minute when USA were unable to deal with a corner ball. The game didn’t change much in the second half, with Klinsmann between the sticks. Despite being the better side, Egypt were unable to seriously test the Hertha man, who was however unable to prevent his side conceding a second goal, after a deep cross was turned in to the far post in the 81st minute.

On Saturday (23/03/19), two more Hertha players were in action. Dennis Jastrzembski faced Norway in an U19 tie with the German team, unfortunately losing 1-0. Tobias Christensen scored the game's only goal, with Jastrzembski having Germany's best chance in the 60th minute. "We're mightily disappointed of course," said U19s coach Guido Streichsbier. "The lads did well on a tough surface and created quite a few chances. We just weren't clinical enough in front of goal."

Rune Jarstein represented the Norwegian first team as they faced Spain in qualifying for the 2020 European Championship. Despite Jarstein making a plethora of saves, Spain eventually went on to win 2-1, with Rodrigo Moreno and Sergio Ramos grabbing the goals for the hosts. Joshua King scored Norway's goal.

Five Hertha players set to feature on Sunday

Ondrej Duda and Peter Pekarik are in action for Slovakia as they face Wales in European Championship qualifying at 15:00 CET. Three hours later, Valentino Lazaro faces Israel with Austria, while America's U23s team and Jonathan Klinsmann are in action against the Netherlands U21s. Niklas Stark and Germany kick off against the Netherlands at 20:45 CET, with the young Hertha defender looking to get his first cap for the senior team.