Giving up is not for Pal Dardai. That’s why the Hertha BSC coach is looking for the positive in the almost hopeless fight to stay up in the Bundesliga.
“There is nothing to lose, but of course you lose a lot if you have a blockade on this match day,” said coach Pal Dardai ahead of Berlin’s relegation final against VfL Bochum. “So give it your all and be really dangerous.”
With five points behind the relegation place and only two games left, hardly anyone believes in Hertha. The team itself has nothing left to lose.
If there is no victory against the Revierklub, the seventh relegation in the club’s history can no longer be averted. “No one has given up here and giving up is not an option either,” said Berlin’s sporting director Benjamin Weber, but also: “Nevertheless, of course we have to be realistic. We want to win and then see if we can still get a final in Wolfsburg”.
Hertha BSC does not have fate in its own hands
Because the capital club (18th, 25 points) no longer has its fate in its own hands. If Schalke (16th, 30 points) and Stuttgart (17th, 29 points) win their games this weekend, Hertha will be relegated.
A win against Bochum (15th, 31 points) would then be worthless in the table. In addition, the license for the first and second leagues is not yet certain. The financially ailing club must meet DFL requirements by June 7th. Otherwise there could be an even deeper fall down to the regional league.
But Dardai does not want to allow such thoughts in the first place. It is also about showing respect for your own fans and the employees in the club with a fighting performance. The appendix is loyal. As in the past few weeks, well over 60,000 people will stream into the Olympic Stadium.
The performance fluctuations of his professionals still puzzle the 47-year-old a month after the start of his third rescue mission in Berlin. “It’s not nice to talk to your own players at the end of the season: Please walk a meter,” he said.
VfL Bochum take advantage of Hertha BSC’s situation
“I’ve never worked with a team where the will, the work against the ball, the basics disappear along the way,” said the Hungarian. They were there against Stuttgart. A week later against Cologne untraceable. “You have to make something positive out of the negative. We’re trying to tease that out,” said Dardai.
The opponent from Bochum wants to take advantage of the predicament of the Berliners. “Hertha have to take a certain risk, even if it’s a draw. That could be our chance,” said striker Philipp Hofmann to the newspapers of the “Funke Mediengruppe”. Almost 10,000 VfL supporters are expected in Berlin.
With a win, VfL could even secure a place in the league if the competition has the right results. In the event of a defeat, however, you can also slip back into the relegation zone yourself and come within striking distance of Hertha. And on the last day of the game, Bayer Leverkusen is another contender for the international starting places on Castroper Strasse.
Tension in the relegation battle
“It’s about the final decisions, so a certain amount of tension is normal. But we’re also happy about the good starting position, which we want to use,” said coach Thomas Letsch.
The tension in the relegation battle is no less in Hoffenheim (14th, 32 points) – no time for secondary events. Pellegrino Matarazzo said his wife recently asked him what they should do in the summer after the season. “You, I have no head for it at all, I’m not there at all,” he answered her. “How am I supposed to discuss this if I have no feeling for it at all? I’m in the tunnel.”
Hoffenheim welcomes Hertha’s local rivals Union Berlin on Saturday, who could qualify for the Champions League with a win. And on the final day of the game, there is a trip to Matarazzo’s former club VfB Stuttgart, which is currently three points behind Hoffenheim.
His coach Sebastian Hoeneß certainly doesn’t want to go into the second division or relegation with a point loss against his former club.