The hard work begins ahead of the derby

Before the players started their first training exercises with the ball at the beginning of the training week, they serenaded the birthday boy Jurgen Ekkelenkamp with a rendition of happy birthday. They had to make time for that. Afterwards, however, attention turned to putting in the hard work at Schenckendorffplatz. Felix Magath set the tone ahead of this Saturday’s Berlin Derby, as the preparation for the game gets under way: “The team approached the game against Leverkusen in the wrong way. We should’ve shown more commitment, not been so passive. I think the players understood this and will do it differently in the next game,” said the coach.

Four players ruled out, three train individually

In order to put in a better performance and more importantly pick up points in the derby, the foundations had to be laid down on Tuesday. However, Alexander Schwolow, Dedryck Boyata, Niklas Stark and Marco Richter were unable to join their teammates on the training ground. Scholow suffered a tendon injury in his thigh against Leverkusen and is out for the forseeable future and Stark misses out due to a sprained ankle, which will be assessed over the coming days. Captain Boyata and winger Richter missed out due to illness. In addition, Myziane Maolida (rested), Marvin Plattenhardt (muscular problems) and Kélian Nsona (rehabilitative training) all trained individually. Julian Eitschberger, the right-back from the u19s, also featured.

The fired-up Fotheringham

After a warm-up under the watchful eyes of the coaches and a singing interlude for Ekkelenkamp, the team took part in exercises with the ball, both with and without goalkeepers. Mark Fotheringham provided the motivation and barked orders when necessary. “Build triangles! Very good, now flat! Press!” are examples of just some of the commands that echoed across the training ground. The session lasted around 70 minutes and was the first in preparation for this weekend, when we face our noisy neighbours from Köpenick. With hard work and commitment, the boys in blue and white will give everything to make sure that it’s the Herthaners who are celebrating after the final whistle on Saturday night.