The first victory of Berlin’s Hertha in the current calendar year was only a few minutes old on Saturday, so it was already clear that there had been another result. Hertha BSC has a new cult figure: Mark Fotheringham, assistant coach and representative of Felix Magath on Saturday due to corona. A working-class child in Scotland, the 38-year-old is clearly part of a football culture that doesn’t dwell on the academic intricacies of the game. Tactics? Chain of three, four, five? 4-1-4-1 system? Fotheringham didn’t want to talk about that. Neither before the game nor after the game.
“Tactics and such, I’m not interested in any of that. Sorry,” said the Scot. Work, presence, passion, courage, intensity, joy – these were the buzzwords he was wearing these days. “Leave the handbrake off!” he shouted. His new team solved them – in the absence of the “boss”, as Fotheringham says when he talks about Magath. Because the boss could only examine from the hotel – and probably enjoy – how Hertha left 17th place in the table and thus a direct relegation rank and climbed to the relegation place.
Fotheringham coached all Herthaners with verve – even the larger-than-life plush mascot
Fifteen minutes before the end of the game, you could see what that can do to people who feel connected to Hertha. And listen. See because the sector of the east curve, where the ultras usually cavort, was flooded. In the end he was always symbolically orphaned – as a sign that he wasn’t Everyone allowed into the stadium. After the 3-0, however, hundreds ran into the Ultras block and sang with the rest of the stadium the same song that they had sung against Frankfurt two weeks ago: “Oh, how beautiful that is.” With a difference.
What was biting mockery at 1:4 now sounded like reconciliation, joy and pride. Learn: The sound makes the music. And that has not only changed in the ranks at Hertha. But also on the pitch. Through Fotheringham, who is the voice of the champions on the training ground and constantly coached everyone against Hoffenheim. Even the larger-than-life plush mascot named Herthinho. “The guy is amazing,” said Niklas Stark of Fotheringham.
Magath and Fotheringham, who know each other from days together at the English professional club Fulham, inherited Tayfun Korkut, who was on leave on Sunday. “A shock Bundesliga role” fell to the two, wrote The Courier, a newspaper distributed in Fotheringham’s native town of Dundee. What the two of them noticed these days: That Korkut had left a team that was in top shape after all. So the basics were there to act like Hertha did against Hoffenheim on Saturday: full of energy. And compact.
Hoffenheim made it clear that they were trying to play a more cultivated game. But every ball possession of the guests eventually led to a melee, and the Berliners often had the upper hand. The first shots of the game were signed by Niklas Stark (5th minute), Marko Richter (8th), Ishak Belfodil (18th) and Maxi Mittelstädt (20th). Only then did the Berliners show a hint of vulnerability.
Niklas Stark makes it 1-0 after a free kick.
(Photo: Taeger/Fotostand/Imago)
As with a long pass from Kevin Akpoguma to Jacob Bruun Larsen, who had crept behind the last line of defense of Berlin, but then warped. “Our chain slept a bit there,” said Fotheringham. What would have been a reason to have a destabilizing effect a few days ago did not show any lasting effects this time. On the contrary: In the 39th minute, Hertha scored the lead – with a standard hit that felt like the first since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Plattenhardt crossed into the penalty area, Niklas Stark completed the header to make it 1-0 at half-time.
There are fraternization scenes in front of the train: between grateful Hertha fans and Scots in kilts
Magath joined in during the break. Via Facetime and presumably with a freshly brewed tea. Fotheringham marveled at the amazing things that can now be done with modern technology. He refused any information about the content of things that Magath said, citing a vow of silence that applies in his home country. “In Scotland we always say: ‘What is said in the dressing room stays in the dressing room.'” Marco Richter sniffed: “Half time was quiet. He brought us down and knew exactly what he was saying. He pushed us. ” Whichever way it went, it showed results.
Because in the second half, Hoffenheim tried to tug at the statics of the game. Only: Even after a free kick from national player David Raum, which was not at all harmless, Hertha remained a team that, in contrast to the past few months, did not look for alibis, but in every situation for the ball. Above all, the small, poisonous Argentinian Santi Ascacíbar and – listen and be amazed – his French midfield colleague Lucas Tousart.
They symbolized that Hertha did not lose an inch of ground and showed a determination that had been missing for a long time. But it was even more outrageous that goals two and three came from standards: At 2-0, Plattenhardt hit the ball on Marc-Oliver Kempf, who headed it to Belfodil. The former Hoffenheim player pushed the ball over the line (63′). Captain Dedryck Boyata headed in the third goal; this time it was Tousart who got the ball towards the goal (74′).
Hoffenheim was finally defeated because Hertha, which was also new, stayed focused for 90 minutes. That was one side. The other is that something like hope has returned to the West End of Berlin – and new friendships have been formed. A couple of Scots had – in kilts! – went to the Olympic Stadium and were hugged by Hertha fans in front of the S-Bahn. Out of gratitude. “I’m very proud of the lads,” said Fotheringham, assuring that the team still has more going for it. It is said that a short training camp is coming up soon. Magath may be in quarantine. But there can be no more doubt: He is back. Triumphant for now.