When the eight-minute stoppage time began in the Arena Auf Schalke, the previously well-filled guest block was already as airy as the Hertha BSC defense during the game. A large part of the more than three thousand Berlin fans had already fled, including the Ultras in the best seats. Which according to their code is actually an absurdity.
But Hertha’s supporters have been doing their bit in advance for a long time this season. He supported the team to the best of his ability, even after adventurous underperformances there was no angry tone to be heard.
That seems to have changed fundamentally on Friday evening, after the most adventurous of all adventurous underperformances. Hertha lost 2:5 against the former bottom of the table Schalke 04. The Berlin players were then whistled at for the first time this season.
Patience is finite, the mood changes. But that is at best a marginal problem for the club, which is now not only a financial case for restructuring.
A team that isn’t
Perhaps it would have been good for Hertha if the fans had reacted a little earlier in relation to the game. If they had made their displeasure known rather than lulling the club and themselves into an ‘it’ll be alright’ attitude. Maybe that would have sharpened the senses at the right time. Because Hertha has fooled itself for far too long. In every sense. It’s paying off now.
Of course the team didn’t get relegated on Friday night. There are still six games left, the gap, at least on the relegation rank, is still manageable, and the competitors from Schalke, Bochum and Stuttgart are anything but overpowering.
But the defeat in Gelsenkirchen was not a normal defeat that a team just shakes off their clothes. And a team like Hertha, which is not a team, certainly not at all.
0.78
The team scored points under coach Sandro Schwarz on average
The defeat was reminiscent of the games in Bochum and Hoffenheim, two other relegation candidates, in which Hertha also seemed nervously overwhelmed with the demands of the relegation battle. What good is the – on paper – lightest remaining program compared to the competition?
It’s such recurring appearances that make any hope of staying up in the league disappear. It is the constantly recurring individual dropouts in an accumulation that can at best be endured with sarcasm. It’s a team that doesn’t have a viable structure and hierarchy even in the final stages of the season.
The fact that Kevin-Prince Boateng, who is 36 years old, walks like on eggshells and is no longer physically suitable for Bundesliga football, that this Boateng was in the starting XI three times in a row, says it all. The team needs an assistant coach on the field to take their hand during the game.
Of course, all of this falls back on Sandro Schwarz, the trainer. Hertha made a serious effort to get through the relegation battle together with him to the – possibly bitter – end. Black is valued in the team, his footballing approach is at least conclusive. But the yield is now less than meager. 22 points from 28 games, 0.78 on average, that’s not enough.
The support for Schwarz also resulted from the realization that the coach at Hertha BSC is not the biggest problem. Whatever that has to say for the near future.
