Preventable defeat for SVE in Berlin – efficiency was the key

Hertha BSC gained a decisive win in their home game against SV 07 Elversberg. However, the game could easily have gone a different way.

Berlin was bitterly cold, and also played host to a bitter defeat for SVE. Things actually started well: during the furious initial stages, Paul Wanner scored an early goal, but this was then disallowed due to a handball – a refereeing error. Even TV images did not offer any clear evidence of the offence. Then things started to turn wild: after several missed chances for SVE, Hertha took advantage of their first and then also their second following Thore Jacobsen’s equaliser – taking them into the break with a fortunate 2:1 lead. 

This half-time lead seemed to spur Berlin on as much as it unsettled Elversberg. In any case, the second half turned out to be clear cut. Pal Dardai’s protégés, who were now looking much more confident, set their opponents up and then literally shot them down. Florian Niederlechner even managed a hat trick within the final 1:5 score. Hertha ultimately took home three points, meaning that the promoted team’s courage went unrewarded. 

‘Our opponents had the efficiency we were lacking. We then gave the ball away too easily without really being under pressure. This enabled set pieces and thus the first two goals. The second half is then something we would like to forget’, coach Horst Steffen said after the game. Efficiency should return in Sunday’s game against 1. FC Nürnberg.