Hertha In Europe: Sensible Bites

By: Dan | May 24th, 2009

Remaining objective about the team you support is one of the great challenges in football. Even if you aren’t writing about it, there’s always the impulse, as a fan, to view every decision against as a grave injustice, to confuse the affection you have for a player with a realistic assessment of his skills. In short, our hopes sometimes get the best of our reality based expectations. This somewhat schizophrenic conflict has been especially virulent throughout Hertha Berlin’s remarkable season, so it’s with some disappointment that I admit, realistically, I am relieved that Hertha have finished the season with Europa League qualification.

Even though Hertha were not nearly as hapless as their detractors would have you believe, they are an obviously limited side. A defensive unit that proved above average by Bundesliga standards and some intelligent counter attacking was the basis for a lot of narrow league victories. It was not going to win a lot of neutral admirers, but I still don’t know why the nature of Hertha’s success was questioned so often when calling us ugly would have sufficed. At any rate, the prohibitive UEFA Cup campaign demonstrated that these tactics didn’t necessarily translate to European success, although I do expect (or should that be hope for) a stronger showing next season.

Other than fast cash, it’s difficult to see what a Champions League showing that, in all likelihood, end up being a fight to drop into the Europa League would do for the club. I didn’t buy any of the arguments that Hertha potentially performing badly in the Champions League meant that they somehow owed it to the rest of Germany not to qualify, as Bayern Munich is the only team in Germany with a chance of surviving in the ten thousand dollar minimum bet VIP room in the first place. My biggest concern is that a poor showing would undermine the progress that Hertha have made this season and even, in a severe enough panic, cost Lucien Favre his job, which would be a bigger disaster than any on field loss right now.

There’s no doubt that 2009-10 is going to be a stern test for Hertha Berlin; they certainly aren’t going to take anyone by surprise next term. Now that the potential for achievement has been so superbly unearthed, chalking up whatever future successes or failures occur to the crazy old Hertha Berlin rollercoaster ride that human machinations have little to no influence over isn’t going to cut it. As far as Europe is concerned, competing against clubs of a similar stature, absent the three ring circus hype of the Champions League will benefit Hertha no matter what.