Hertha BSC is once again putting itself under pressure

The circumstances: The Berlin second division football team was 1:2 behind at KSC. For 40 minutes of the game, Leitl’s team had been trying in vain to equalize. To increase the pressure, Hertha’s coach brought in a second striker in Dawid Kownacki and a fresh force for the offensive wing in Jeremy Dudziak. Cuisance moved back a row to structure Hertha’s game from a deeper position.

This is how Kevin Sessa’s working day ended after 65 minutes in the Karlsruhe wildlife park. Hertha’s midfielder was in Berlin’s starting line-up for the first time this season in a league game and replaced Kennet Eichhorn, who was probably missing for many weeks.

Compared to his previous, often erratic performances for Hertha, Sessa did his job decently – and not just because he won the ball in the opening quarter of an hour and passed it to Fabian Reese, setting up his fourth goal of the season to make it 1-1.

But Stefan Leitl wanted to see more power from his team in the last quarter of the game. Hence the changes and why Sessa’s substitution. Despite all the injury problems, Hertha’s coach still has enough opportunities to influence the game from outside.

In any case, Christian Eichner, the Karlsruhe coach, watched the lively interaction on the sidelines with increasing horror. “At some point I wanted to call over to Stefan: ‘Now that’s enough with the players you’re throwing in!’ It felt like Stefan was improving in quality more and more.”

Dudziak in particular brought new impetus to the guests’ game. A good ten minutes before the end, the 30-year-old completed a perfect attack initiated by Michael Cuisance to the deserved equalizer and the final score was 2-2. After Reese’s pass, Dudziak tunneled his opponent Marcel Franke. Hans-Christian Bernat in the KSC goal had no chance of defending.

Just a week ago, in a 0-0 draw against league leaders Schalke, Dudziak celebrated his comeback for Hertha’s professionals after a break of almost a year and a half; On Saturday in Karlsruhe he scored his second goal for the Berliners and showed – as he did against Schalke – that he can give his team a lot.

Dudziak was already described by his coach in the summer as one of the best midfielders in the second division. Blessed is the person who can bring such a player off the bench. The fact that Hertha’s squad has a lot of individual quality was also evident in Karlsruhe.

Not least thanks to this quality, the Berliners dominated the action in the second half, they dominated their opponents and did not allow Karlsruhe, who were at least equal before the break, to develop. “We had to suffer a lot,” said KSC coach Eichner.

In the end, Hertha’s equalizer and the resulting point gain were more than deserved – but at the same time far too little. In every respect: both in terms of performance and in terms of the table situation. “I can’t do too much with that point,” said Leitl.

The KSC made more of its chances

As against Schalke, Hertha fell victim to its own inadequacy in finishing. Before the break, Luca Schuler ran alone towards Bernat – and put the ball past the goal. After the break, Luca Schuler ran towards Bernat alone – and was denied by the Karlsruhe goalkeeper.

While KSC, based on the quality of their chances, made almost twice as many of their opportunities, namely two goals out of 1.02 expected goals, Hertha’s return of 2.59 expected goals was once again clearly too thin. “We are depriving ourselves of the wages we deserve – week after week,” complained captain Fabian Reese.

After the Berliners made contact with the promotion places in the autumn with a courageous intermediate spurt and seven competitive game wins in a row, they are now in danger of losing touch again. Their winning streak was followed by five games without a win. The most recent four matches all ended in a draw – and Hertha could, and indeed should, have won every single one.

The team had to suffer from a weak start to the season in the preliminary round. It wasn’t until the fifth matchday that she won for the first time. After the winter break, Hertha faces a similar fate, with concerns that their dream of promotion could be over all too quickly.

Coach Leitl wasn’t really happy about the late goal and the point – “because we put ourselves under pressure with the two results in the second half of the season”. His team “will have to win the next game to stay at the top”.

Second-place Darmstadt 98 will be coming to the Olympic Stadium on Sunday. The Darmstadt team suffered their last defeat in October.