The magic of the first time: Pal Dardai knows it well. When Hertha BSC hosts Werder Bremen at the Olympic Stadium this Saturday (3:30 p.m., live on Sky), it will be Dardai’s third debut. He experienced one as a player, two as a head coach. A review.
Hertha 1-0 Wolfsburg
Pal Dardai laughed. In many years, when he is already a grandfather, he will tell his grandchildren that the viewers have all come only because of him. Of course not entirely true. A large part of the audience in the Olympic Stadium will come this Saturday because of Werder Bremen. Estimates range from 12,000 to 25,000 Werder fans. That’s another reason why the huge bowl is sold out.
On March 3, 1997, a Monday evening, things looked a little different. Exactly 14,877 people want to experience Hertha against VfL Wolfsburg live in the stadium. Second division sadness. It is after all the duel of the second against the third. Everyone who was there can at least claim to have experienced a historic moment: the first competitive appearance of Hertha’s future record player.
Dardai, 20 years old, auditioned for the Berliners in the summer; in winter, Hertha finally made the signing of the then attacking midfielder perfect. “At his age, he does an incredible number of things intuitively right,” says coach Jürgen Röber. “Furthermore, he has good duel behavior – also when moving backwards.”
Because he has the same advisor as Dardai, Hertha’s goalkeeper Christian Fiedler takes on the newcomer. “I looked after him a bit and helped him,” he recalls. They speak English to each other. Or with hands and feet.
Fiedler no longer has any concrete memories of the debut of the new midfielder. Against Wolfsburg, Dardai came on for Marc Arnold in the second half when the score was 0-0. “It was his first assignment in a Hertha jersey,” writes the Tagesspiegel. “And one with a groundbreaking effect.” Because Dardai, at least indirectly, prepared Hertha’s winning goal. After Wolfsburg’s goalkeeper Uwe Zimmermann was able to fend off his shot with the last effort, Sixten Veit made it 1-0 after exactly one hour.
Mainz – Hertha 0:2
Dardai dressed up for his first appearance as head coach. He is wearing dark jeans, a white shirt, a gray down jacket and black suede shoes. “It was a real new experience,” recalls Dardai, who previously coached Hertha’s U15s and is also the Hungarian national coach.
Ante Covic was actually supposed to take over the pros after Jos Luhukay had to go after a 0-1 defeat against Leverkusen. Ultimately, manager Michael Preetz decides for Dardai.
On his debut against Mainz 05, the Hungarian made five changes in the squad, including Marvin Plattenhardt, who came from Nuremberg in the summer, and is allowed to start for the second time. “Pal got us really hot with his speech in the changing room,” says Nico Schulz, who is also new to the team. “He was a fighter as a player and he has remained that way as a coach.”
“4-4-1-1 and bunker” is what Dardai describes today as the basic tactical order he chose for the game in Mainz. He mirrors the opponent’s system, lets you play man against man. This has the advantage that the players know what to do. “They did really well,” remembers Rainer Widmayer, the Dardais assistant coach.
Before he gets involved, Hertha’s head coach told his assistant, he should first take on the role of the silent observer.
In Mainz, Widmayer can see that Hertha is very lucky. After a botched ball acceptance, goalkeeper Loris Karius brings down Valentin Stocker. There is a red for Mainz and a penalty for Hertha. Jens Hegeler converted to 1-0. And before the 2-0 Roy Beerens is just offside. The goal still counts.
Hertha jumped to 14th place in the table with the 2-0 win. “I’ll sleep very well tonight,” announced Pal Dardai after his debut. “I always do that when I’ve done my job.”
Frankfurt – Hertha 3: 1
When he makes his comeback at the end of January 2021, things are not going quite as well as in Mainz six years earlier. Hertha lost 1: 3 at Eintracht Frankfurt. And yet Dardai does not quarrel at least with the performance of his team: “Everything was okay, just not the result.”
Compared to the last game of his predecessor Bruno Labbadia (1:4 against Bremen), he has radically rebuilt the team. Six players are new, including Santiago Ascacibar and Lukas Klünter, who have not played a second before.
Rune Jarstein also makes his season debut. The now 36-year-old goalkeeper replaces, somewhat surprisingly, Alexander Schwolow, who came from Freiburg just before the season for at least seven million euros. “Alex is a good goalkeeper, but he’s not lucky as a goalkeeper at the moment,” explains Dardai.
His team, on the other hand, lacks luck in Frankfurt. After Krzysztof Piatek gave Hertha the lead in the middle of the second half, the equalizer almost came in return. In the final phase, the Berliners conceded two more goals.
And yet Dardai can successfully complete his mission the second time around. He leads the team in 14th place, despite some adversities. Awakening the team spirit was the most difficult task of his career. He couldn’t have guessed that the third time as head coach it would be much more difficult.
