Much in life is just a matter of perspective. What is meant by this can be perfectly illustrated using the example of Hertha BSC. It’s been a good two months since the club seemed as good as lost.
The team was on the penultimate place in the table and staggered unchecked towards the second division. Sports director Fredi Bobic couldn’t help but react again. Coach Tayfun Korkut had to go, Felix Magath, 68, took over. It seemed like an act of desperation. “I started here, we were relegated there,” said Magath this week, looking back on the mood at the time. Even the relegation place seemed to be a long way off for Hertha at the time.
In fact, Magath has led the team to 16th place in eight games. The chance of rescue is still there. That’s more than anyone could have hoped for two months ago. And yet: At the moment it is difficult to really see the relegation as an opportunity.
For everyone involved, for players, coaches and club management, but above all for the fans of the club, participation feels like a disappointment: Hertha did not save itself in relegation. Hertha fell into the relegation from above, so to speak.
The team had plenty of opportunities to avoid this annoying detour: against the second direct relegated team, Bielefeld, when Hertha threw up the safe 2-0 shortly before the end and conceded the equalizer in added time. Or a week later at home against FSV Mainz 05, for whom it was no longer about anything. Shortly before the end it was 1:2.
Also against Borussia Dortmund, in the final act, Hertha seemed saved for a long time – before two late goals, one from BVB and one from the competitor VfB in Stuttgart, turned everything upside down.
drama babe It’s as if Hertha couldn’t help it. And so the team now goes into the confrontation with the third in the second division with the feeling that they have lost something. This is not without risk, because relegation is often tighter than would be expected nominally; because then it is not necessarily about the quality of the game, but also about nerves of steel. Two games decide millions. You have to deal with this pressure first.
Hertha’s performances this season are not necessarily designed to look at the whole thing with confidence. But luckily Hertha still has Felix Magath.
