Hertha only stops Lewandowski
Bayern’s six-man monster eats up Berlin
By Stephan Uersfeld, Berlin
01/24/2022, 10:09 am
Overnight the league dreams wild championship dreams again. Then Bayern start in Berlin with a wild six-man attack. Hertha BSC is far too scared and has no chance. Even if some fans want to take away the fear of the players by storming the training ground the day before. A strange idea.
When Leroy Sané put the bracket around the game between Hertha BSC and Bayern Munich with his beautiful goal to make it 5-1 for the record champions, it didn’t matter that the goal didn’t count. Julian Nagelsmann’s team remained 4-1 (2-0) in a Berlin Olympic Stadium once again deserted by people and joy, where only a lonely DJ on the track wanted to convey the semblance of normality. He didn’t succeed either. What doesn’t work off the field, however, is no problem at all for FC Bayern on the pitch. With a breathtaking performance, especially in the first half, they continue to circle lonely at the top of the table.
Borussia Dortmund had traditionally put Bayern Munich under pressure the day before. The 3:2 (1:1) in Hoffenheim was BVB’s third win in the third game in the second half of the season. “Should we give up now, or what?” Marco Reus whispered into the camera right after the cup loss at FC St. Pauli, only to finally hit the goal again with the lucky win in Kraichgau. After that, luck had carried BVB to the away win. Three points behind Bayern. The usual suspects immediately announced a title race in the Bundesliga with great joy. Not because it would happen, just because it has to.
“Title fight” over after a few seconds
But just a few seconds after the kick-off, it was clear to every observer: Bayern Munich would be able to free themselves from the already very loose grip of BVB this time as well. With passionate pressing, the power of six offensive players and driven by a strong Joshua Kimmich, who was whistled at by the Berlin spectators at corners, they crushed Hertha BSC. They didn’t even want to succeed in creating a tie on the defensive. Corentin Tolisso, Leroy Sané, Serge Gnabry, Thomas Müller, Robert Lewandowski and Kingsley Coman were too much for Hertha, who, saved by VAR in the second minute, mysteriously kept the game 0-0 for 25 minutes could. But Bayern’s six-man monster attacked without ceasing. The fear of the hosts was felt to the last unoccupied seat in the stadium.
Then Tolisso scored, who played like a player fighting for a new contract and Thomas Müller followed up just before the break. After a free kick from the right half field, he simply ran behind the defense. “Our players were extremely sharp in counter-pressing, so we put a lot of pressure on that,” Nagelsmann praised his team for the first half.
And even though Hertha came into play a little better in the second half, Bayern only scored two regular goals through Sané and Gnabry, and the home side was even able to shorten the score after a Dayot-Upamecano dropout, Bayern stormed contentedly after 90 minutes Cabin of the Berlin Olympic Stadium. There, world footballer of the year Robert Lewandowski had to endure the jokes of his colleagues. At least trainer Nagelsmann “couldn’t imagine that he laughed along too much”. Lewandowski was only without a goal of his own for the fifth time this season. The 17-year-old Hertha starting XI debutant Linus Gechter usually had him well under control and blocked an attempt by the Pole who was frustrated.
Qatar lags behind
Lewandowski or Lewandowski: Bayern, as their performance at the Berlin Olympic Stadium showed, are doing their thing. You just win the games. In Berlin against a completely overwhelmed Hertha. Bayern will not collapse under the pressure of a title fight proclaimed by desperate pundits. In their perception it doesn’t exist. And so they can even afford a few smaller skirmishes. Still badly hit by the refusal to take off after midnight on their last year’s Club World Cup mission, they avoided BER Airport on the trip to Berlin. They dodged like a defiant child to the Schönhagen airfield between the Brandenburg nests of Ludwigsfelde and Luckenwalde.
“It’s possible that it was due to last year’s flight to Qatar,” said Julian Nagelsmann after the game, but was otherwise completely unconcerned. Schönhagen or Schönefeld, the main thing is going to Munich, he thought and said: “I’ll get on the bus and get off again where it stops and get on the plane and then I’ll fly home. I’ll make sure I have my suitcase with me and my backpack.” So the Bayern coach might later stow his backpack at Schönhagen Airport. On November 24, 2008, it was the landing spot for the last plane to take off from Tempelhof Airport. But while the large area in the center of Berlin has become a landmark of the capital in the past 13 years, even the biggest Hertha supporters are far from saying this about their club.
Hertha surrenders
With a 3-2 win at VfL Bochum on the day before Tempelhof’s last flight, Hertha was able to keep the gap to Bayern by a point. The team coached by Lucien Favre at the time even had dreams of winning the championship for a long time and ended the season in fourth place. They could never soar so high above the clouds of mediocrity again. Despite the change of coach from Pal Dardai to Tayfun Korkut, the club from the West End still lack a game idea, train to goal, a plan to defend the opponent. Just the lack of ideas of the team around the eternal Vladimir Darida, who are always fighting hard, is a constant outside the gates of the capital. After the international break, they welcome VfL Bochum. In 2022, unlike 13 years ago, a 3: 2 would not capitulate towards the top of the table, but rather only at a distance from the ranks, which would mean falling into second division.
After the derby defeat in the cup, a few fans turned up at the Berlin training ground. They had let their displeasure run free and although the police who had been summoned no longer had to mediate, a touched sporting director Arne Friedrich was critical of his own supporters before the game. “It’s one thing if you’re not satisfied with our performance,” Friedrich said on ESPN: “But how you did it then wasn’t correct. We expect the fans to treat us differently, even if we obviously didn’t deliver the results we all wanted, but that’s in the past now.” Friedrich was still hoping for a sensation against Bayern. As is well known, that didn’t work. The problems of the past are the problems of the future.
At the “Olympia-Eck”, a restaurant in front of the gates of the stadium, a few scattered fans stood after the game and drank their last beer next to the Covid-19 immediate test station. “What did the weirdos actually want to achieve yesterday?” One complained about the Ultras: “We played against Bayern.” And the 3,000 participants agreed that they had delivered one of their best performances of the season.