Hertha BSC secured its first points of the season against VfL Bochum. The decisive factor was a brace from Serdar before the break and merciless effectiveness.
Hertha coach Pal Dardai had used the international break to give his team a new system. The defense was to be strengthened with a three-man or five-man backline. The newly formed back line had to prove itself right from the start, as the Bochum side repeatedly ran the visitors high and forced them into mistakes in the build-up.
Zoller misses
However, the promoted team, whose coach Thomas Reis brought on Stafylidis and Löwen for Bockhorn and Pantovic after the 2-1 defeat in Cologne, was unable to capitalize. The most dangerous chance came from Zoller, who sent a free header past the goal.
Defensively, however, the VfL was almost not challenged by the Old Lady, where compared to the crashing 0-5 defeat at FC Bayern Belfodil, Richter, Klünter, Torunarigha, Darida and Jastrzembski started for Jovetic, Selke, Ascacibar, Mittelstädt, Zeefuik and Lukebakio, who was loaned to Wolfsburg. Much too timid were the offensive efforts of the Berliners .
Serdar is let run
After 37 minutes, however, Bochum defended simply inadequately: first Losilla let Stark steal the ball from him, then several VfL defenders just watched Serdar go solo – 1:0 for the Berliners. And it was to get even more bitter for the promoted team, which had actually played a spirited first half: Bella Kotchap struck over the ball after a throw-in and again Serdar obliged, increasing the lead to 2:0 before the break (43rd).
Bochum, however, did not give up even after the unfortunate deficit and came out of the dressing room with a lot of momentum, but it remained initially: too often the last pass was missing and also a variety of standards did not bring any danger.
Holtmann’s solo leads to connection
Similar to the Berlin lead, it took a solo effort to score the goal: Holtmann fooled Zeefuik and Boyata with a body trick and also shook off Gechter, who was only 17 years old, in the penalty area. Schwolow made a save, but was then helpless against Zoller’s follow-up shot (59th).
Bochum too careless
After the goal, Hertha pulled back even further and almost didn’t dare cross the halfway line, while Bochum continued to run. The longer the game lasted, however, the more unstructured the home side’s actions became – and defensively they were again too careless. As in the case of the 0:1, there was again only Bochum’s escort for Hertha’s newcomer Maolida, who provided the first Berlin goal of the second half for the 3:1 final score (78th).
