Significant defeat – Hertha BSC loses the DFB Cup quarter-finals against Kaiserslautern 1:3
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Video: Morning Magazine | 02/01/2024 | Sebastian Meyer | Image: www.imago-images.de
Hertha’s dream of the final at home has shattered. In front of a sold-out crowd, the Berliners clearly lost 3-1 against Kaiserslautern. Coach Pal Dardai had to adjust his line-up at halftime. This change came too late.
Dardai surprises with his lineup
Pal Dardai caused the first surprise with his starting eleven: Marius Gersbeck replaced Tjark Ernst. “It’s about respect,” the coach explained before the game. Maybe he wanted to use the motivation of the original Hertha player Gersbeck to tickle the last few percent out of his team: Hertha’s big dream has been the cup final at home for years. Every Berliner knows that.
Another surprise emerged immediately after kick-off on the newly laid pitch: Dardai had ordered his son Marton from defensive midfield to the defense. The usual four-man chain became a five-man chain with the high-positioned wing defenders Michal Karbownik and Jonjoe Kenny.
Hertha quickly fell behind
None of this helped to prevent a bad start: In the sixth minute, Hertha was only able to clear a free kick from outside the penalty area, but Kaiserslautern’s Jan Elvedi got to the ball after a failed follow-up shot from his teammate Tymo Puchacz and converted it flatly from twelve meters the bottom left corner. The first shot at Gersbeck’s goal was there: 1-0 for FCK.
It took about ten minutes for the Berliners to recover from this shock: In the 16th minute, Haris Tabakovic appeared in the Lauterer penalty area for the first time, but his harmless shot went wide of the goal. But the guests knew how to keep Hertha away from their goal through physical play and a lot of intensity.
Deserted space between central midfield and the back three
Although the Berliners had the ball more often, the bosses on the pitch were the Lauterers, at least in this phase. Kaiserslautern’s Ragnar Ache also had the next chance, testing Gersbeck from a tight angle in the 29th minute.
Hertha’s unusual formation was particularly noticeable when the Berliners lost the ball while moving forward. The deserted space between central midfield and the back three offered enough space for the Red Devils’ attackers. Marlon Ritter prepared Richmond Tachie’s 2-0 from exactly this zone before the attacker increased the score with a powerful shot into the bottom left corner (38th minute).
Dardai changes
At halftime, Dardai reacted to the problems in his defense. Andreas Bouchalakis replaced Marton Dardai and from now on played in defensive midfield. Hertha returned to their usual back four. Hertha’s best offensive player Fabian Reese also came into the game and was supposed to create more of a goal threat from the left side. This plan seemed to work quickly: in the 48th minute he crossed into the middle after a deep run. His colleague Tabakovic failed to score against Kaiserslautern’s goalkeeper.
Hertha was finally really in the game. Not only did the Berlin team’s game with Reese work better in possession, they were also finally more present in the duels and thus gained control of the game. Unfortunately, these good minutes remained wasted: despite a few good crosses into the penalty area, there were no compelling chances.
On the other hand, Kaiserslautern were just waiting for Hertha to make mistakes, which paid off in the 70th minute when Filip Koloc coolly converted to make it 0-3 after a bad pass from substitute Bouchalakis.
The Berliners also lacked penetration in the following minutes. Reese only made it 1:3 in stoppage time. This goal came too late.
The voices for the game
Pal Dardai (Hertha BSC): “I can only accuse the team of one thing: Why did we hide so much with the ball in the first half? Why didn’t we show ourselves? Both sixes didn’t want to have the ball. That’s not possible . Our only strength is playing football together and we didn’t do that.”
Toni Leistner (Hertha BSC): “It was simply not enough. We have to talk about why we couldn’t do it and we will do that tomorrow.”
Fabian Reese (Hertha BSC): “We missed all the basic virtues in 45 minutes, so we gave up this huge opportunity without a fight and went into halftime with a big mortgage.”
The voices in the audio
The game can be read in the live ticker
Broadcast: rbb24, January 31, 2024, 9:45 p.m