Number 22. 1. FC Union will be the 22nd opponent against which Hertha opens a season. The Berliners have met ten clubs so far only once on the first matchday, six clubs twice, and 1. FC Köln, 1. FC Nürnberg and Borussia Dortmund three times each. At the start of the season, Hertha played four games against Werder Bremen (2 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss) and Eintracht Frankfurt (2/0/2), which is the most frequently.
Because it was so beautiful. The Frankfurters are also the only opponent that Hertha had to face twice in a row on the first day of the game – both times in Frankfurt.
In 2007, in the first game under new coach Lucien Favre, the Berliners lost 1-0 to Eintracht. A year later they successfully took revenge with a 2-0 win. In both cases, the Frankfurt coach was Friedhelm Funkel, who later became Favre’s successor at Hertha.
Frankfurt for the third time. And unity again. In August 2013, in the first game after their last promotion for the time being, Hertha BSC scored the highest opening win in their Bundesliga history against SGE. The Berliners won 6-1 in the Olympic Stadium and thus secured first place in the Bundesliga, for the only time after a first matchday.
High victories (and defeats) at the start are rather the exception for Hertha. Only four times have they won by more than two goals and only three times have they lost by more than two goals.
overall balance. Hertha can point to a positive overall balance at the start of the season. The Berliners won the first game 16 times, lost 10 times and the season premiere ended in a draw 13 times.
In their own stadium the record is: 11 wins, 6 draws, 4 defeats, on a foreign pitch: 11 wins, 7 draws, 6 defeats. Since the promotion in 2013, Hertha has almost developed a soft spot for the start of the season. The Berliners won six of the nine matches, four of them in a row between 2015 and 2018 alone (longest winning streak). Only one game was lost. That was a year ago in a 3-1 draw against 1. FC Köln.
The premiere. Hertha played the first game ever on August 24, 1963 in front of 47,911 spectators in the Olympic Stadium against 1. FC Nürnberg. “This team is not a relegation candidate in the Bundesliga, if they come together even better in attack, they will definitely be able to have a serious and important say,” wrote the Tagesspiegel about the start of the Berliners in the newly founded Bundesliga. “Hertha is not a victim; I’m sure more teams from Germany will leave the Olympic turf without a win.”
On that Saturday in August 1963, Hans-Günter Schimmöller scored Hertha’s debut goal. In the 59th minute he scored a hand penalty caused by world champion Max Morlock to make it 1-1. Morlock had previously given the guests the lead.
“When Schimmöller got the ball ready, there was an icy silence,” said the Tagesspiegel. “The defender stepped up and shot the ball into the net to make it 1-1, making it impossible for Wabra to start in the wrong corner. Great cheering from the Berliners and above all from the spectators, who yelled ‘Ha-Ho-He! Hertha BSC!’
It was the first of six penalties that Hertha converted on matchday one. Besides Schimmöller, Lorenz Horr (1970), Luggi Müller (1974), Erich Beer (1975), Marcelinho (2005) and Salomon Kalou (2015) scored.
The second before the first step. There was a special constellation at the beginning of the 1982/83 season. Three days before Hertha started the new season with a 2-2 win at 1. FC Kaiserslautern, there was already a duel with Borussia Dortmund in the Olympic Stadium, which was supposed to have taken place on the second matchday. Since BVB wanted to take part in a tournament in Spain, he had asked the Berliners to bring the game forward. Hertha agreed, lost 3-1 and was relegated at the end of the season.
In 1990, also in the first game after promotion, the Berliners were again ahead of the rest. Hertha already played FC St. Pauli on Thursday because the Olympic Stadium was otherwise occupied at the weekend. The game was lost 1:2, at the end of the season Hertha was relegated.
fair deal. Only once was a Hertha BSC player sent off the field on the first day of the game. In 2015, in an away game at FC Augsburg, Roy Beerens saw yellow-red after a little over an hour for an illegal tackle. Blessing in disguise. Shortly before the break, Raul Bobadilla was also sent off from Augsburg. And just after the break, Salomon Kalou scored the goal that gave Hertha a 1-0 win.
Masterly. Since 2002, the previous season’s champions have enjoyed the privilege of opening the new season with a Friday night game. Since then, no title holder has started the season with a defeat. In view of this, Hertha’s record is quite impressive. In 2002, in the first opening game ever, the Berliners beat champions Borussia Dortmund 2-2, in 2019 they had to play at Bayern Munich – and played 2-2 again.
In the previous years there were two more seasons in which Hertha met the German champions on the first day of the game. While the Berliners lost 4-1 to Bayern Munich in 2000, they managed a real coup in 1964. At 1. FC Köln, the first Bundesliga champion ever, Hertha was 2-0 down until the 70th minute and won 3-2 in the end.
Faster than ever. The game at champions Dortmund in August 2002 was also special for Hertha BSC for another reason. Bart Goor gave the guests from Berlin the lead after just 54 seconds.
Not only was it the only time a Hertha player had scored the first goal of a new season, it was also the earliest ever by a Berliner. Julian Schieber achieved the latest in 2016. After SC Freiburg equalized to make it 1-1 in the third minute of added time, Hertha’s striker scored in the fifth minute of added time, shortly after his substitution, to make it 2-1.
Schieber, not exactly a club icon, is also the player who led Hertha’s top scorer list on matchday one with three goals. Jürgen Weber, Lorenz Horr, Erwin Hermandling, Erich Beer, Wolfgang Sidka, Ali Daei, Marcelinho, Adrian Ramos, Sami Allagui, Mathew Leckie and Dodi Lukebakio scored twice each.
In 1977 (3-1 against Borussia Dortmund), Sidka was the first Hertha player to score two goals on matchday one. Later, Ramos and Allagui (both 2013), Schieber (2014) and, most recently, Mathew Leckie (2017) did the same. The Australian had two shots and two goals on his debut for Hertha against VfB Stuttgart, having failed to score for FC Ingolstadt the previous season.
There were a total of 51 different Hertha goalscorers on the first matchday. There are also Dietmar Schwager (1. FC Kaiserslautern, 1970) and Uwe Ehlers (Hansa Rostock, 1999), who both scored in their own net.
Good tip. 1:1 or 2:1? The experts are still arguing which result is the most common in the Bundesliga. That can be said clearly for Hertha’s start to the season: neither. The first game in Berlin ended 2-2 six times. There was no other result so often. It follows: 1-0 (five times, both away and at home) and 0-0 (four times).
Happy too soon. In the first game of the 2004/05 season, Hertha already led 2-0 against VfL Bochum in the Olympic Stadium. Nevertheless, in the end it was only enough for a 2:2. Aggravating. And doubly annoying that the Berliners made the same mishap again in the coming season. At Hannover 96 they were 2-0 up and had to settle for a 2-2 win in the end. And triple annoying that this happened a third time in 2014, this time again at home and against Werder Bremen.
Always away. Hertha will open the new season this Saturday with a game in their own city, but not in their own stadium. With the derby against 1. FC Union in the Alte Försterei, Hertha’s season begins with an away game for the fourth time in a row. That was the case between 2005 and 2008.
Hertha also played four home games in a row twice, but with interruptions because the Berliners were not consistently first-class: from 1990 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2014.
