Pal Dardai lives near the Olympic Stadium, and it does happen that he is caught jogging there. In the last few weeks, at least that is what Dardai said on the Saturday before the game against Borussia Mönchengladbach on Sky, the physical exercise was also good for the soul. In the end he was always in discussion; the magazine reported last Sports picture of a meeting between the manager Fredi Bobic and the former Schalke trainer Domenico Tedesco, which must have had the characteristics of an exploratory discussion. What, curiously, has led to the fact that every day in the West End has become a kind of Palm Sunday for Dardai.
“I can only thank the boulevard,” Dardai shouted into the microphone on Sky, “the cars stop!” The reason: The drivers would show him “more love than ever”, the city was practically at his feet. That should increase exponentially in the coming days. Because towards the end, surprisingly weak Gladbacher, Dardais Hertha won the fourth win of the season thanks to an uncompromisingly disciplined and focused performance – and pulled through a 1-0 victory, which came about through a goal by Marco Richter (40th), in the table past Mönchengladbach.
“Oooooh, how nice is that …!”, The Hertha fans sang in the Olympic Stadium, which was sold out with 25,000 spectators; It was a great refreshment for Dardai. “The Olympic Stadium is alive,” said the Hungarian happily. His colleague from Gladbach, however, sounded coldly: “It’s just incredibly annoying that we didn’t even take a point,” said Adi Hütter after the fourth defeat in the fifth away game of the season.
Judge executed by side pull
Dardai could look forward to a victory that came about in a downright mysterious way. Because: Judging by the course of the game, nobody could seriously expect Hertha to take the lead – with the first shot on the opposing goal. After the game, for good reasons, Hütter could not remember that Hertha would only have come close to the Gladbach penalty area before the goal. Indeed, they were far from endangering the Gladbach family. But then Hertha caused confusion in the opposing penalty area – not for the first time this season – with a long throw from left-back Marvin Plattenhardt. This time Marco Richter extended it with a head in front of the goal; Krzysztof Piatek started an overhead kick, which he didn’t like, but caused enough confusion. Because: The ball flew back to Richter, and the judge executed it with a sideways puller. Technically not completely clean, but: effective. So everything that had previously been seen in Gladbacher’s optical superiority became mere waste.
The game had started with many whistles for the Gladbach left-back Luca Netz; Hertha fans do not forgive the native of Berlin for moving to the Lower Rhine in the summer. And secondly: with a so-called agitator. Shortly after Gladbach’s first chance – a header from Nico Elvedi after the net cross – Joseph Scally fell in the penalty area. But after the instinctive penalty whistle from referee Benjamin Cortus, the video referee intervened and rightly ensured that the penalty was canceled. Breel Embolo came after two double passes with Lars Stindl in the penalty area from an acute angle, but he put the ball over the goal. That was basically all that Gladbach had to offer in terms of compelling chances. Shortly before the break, Hertha almost made it 2-0 with a header from central defender Marton Dardai.
The Gladbachers expect FC Bayern during the week
At halftime, both Netz and playmaker Stindl had to stay in the cabin, Alassane Plea and Florian Neuhaus came. The guest was largely deprived of his creative moments – in a game that was incredibly dissolute with a total of 32 fouls.
In the end, there was only one shot at Scally’s side netting for Gladbach, a defensive action by Santiago Ascacibar that almost landed in the Hertha goal – and otherwise nothing. In the end, not only Hütter was upset, but also the national player Jonas Hofmann: “If you want to be in the top six again and again, you can’t catch a goal like that,” he said, looking at the goal from Richter. “To put it in good German, that pisses you off.” But then he tried to metabolize the anger quickly, with a view to the next task that is due during the week: In the second round of the DFB Cup, Borussia will meet FC Bayern Munich: “We are really looking forward to it. Wednesday evening Floodlights. I think 48,000 may come. We’ll knock everything out – and want to beat them, “said Hofmann. But that requires a much better performance than against Hertha.