Packed bags and a packed schedule

Berlin – the 2020/21 season is already a few weeks old, but the traces of last season still remain for all to see. Due to the long interruption of the Rückrunde, the start of the coming season has been adjusted. The tight schedule means that clubs will lose their players to international sides before the first matchday of the Bundesliga Season. Ten Hertha players have been called up for international duty at the start of September 2020, and the UEFA Nations League is one tournament which will be getting underway as it celebrates its second edition. The first matchday sees Slovakia face Czech Republic, as familiar faces go head to head; Peter Pekarik and Ondrej Duda will line up for Slovakia, welcoming Vladimir Darida and his Czech teammates to Bratislava. Rune Jarstein (Norway), Dedryck Boyata (Belgium) and Krzysztof Piątek (Poland) will also be wearing their national colours in the tournament. 

Arne Maier will be looking to pick up points for the Germany U21 side in their European qualifiers, where he will meet head coach Stefan Kuntz, who watched the ‘old lady’ defeat third-division side Viktoria Köln in a pre-season friendly. The trio of Deyovaisio Zeefuik, Javairo Dilrosun and Daishawn Redan have been selected in the Netherlands’ provisional U21 squad for their qualifiers. “The schedule is complicated this year. The players are leaving in the middle of pre-season – that’s problematic and we’ll miss them. Nonetheless, we hope that the boys make appearances for their national sides,” says coach Bruno Labbadia. The schedule has been tightly packed; Hertha BSC travel to Eintracht Braunschweig in the first round of the DFB-Pokal between 11th and 14th September, just a few days after the last players return from international duty. In the following week, the long wait for the start of the 58th Bundesliga season comes to an end. Hertha BSC visit SV Werder Bremen on 19th September 2020 at 15:30 CEST.