Back on the ball!
Around 500 Hertha fans were in attendance to applaud our players onto the training pitch on Wednesday morning. It was the first public training session of the new season and preparations for 2022/23 continued. “It was a good first session. You could see how happy the lads were to be back on the ball and the coaching team were pleased to be finally on the pitch with the players,” commented head coach Sandro Schwarz after his first session in charge at Schenckendorffplatz.
28 players in training
23 outfielders took part in the session which lasted around 85 minutes in 29 degree heat. There were also four goalkeepers present in Oliver Christensen, Rune Jarstein, Tjark Ernst and Robert Kwasigroch, whilst Jessic Ngankam worked individually with Markus Hödl. Dongjun Lee and Suat Serdar were in the gym on bikes as well. The nine players who were on international duty recently, plus Santiago Ascacíbar (extended holiday) and Eduard Löwen (in talks with another club) were all missing.
Schwarz and his assistants led the warm-ups before a number of drills involving the ball, whereby Prince Boateng, who has just extended his contract until 2023, and his teammates could show off their skills. “It was great to be back on the pitch with a ball at our feet. We did a number of drills and most involved a ball – that’s just what you want to start,” summed up Maximilian Mittelstädt.
[>]We’re motivated for pre-season and we’re happy to be back. We’re all well up for it and you could sense that today, there was a good atmosphere within the squad.[<]
The Hertha players are going to be busy over the coming days, as they will train twice on both Thursday and Saturday (23rd and 25th at 10:00 and 16:00), plus once on Friday and Sunday (11:00 on 24th and 26th). The squad will then travel to Kienbaum for the first training camp of pre-season on Monday, 27th June. “We’re motivated for pre-season and we’re happy to be back. We’re all well up for it and you could sense that today, there was a good atmosphere within the squad. Nevertheless, I’m still a bit scared of all the running to come,” said Mittelstädt with a smile on his face.
130th anniversary celebrations at Olympiapark
Coach Schwarz echoed those sentiments from Mittelstädt: “Now we need everyone to get to know each other better. We’ve got lots of work ahead of us over the coming weeks and we want to lay the foundations for a successful season.” Just before the first competitive game on 31st July away to Eintracht Braunschweig in the first round of the DFB-Pokal (18:00 CEST), the club will celebrate Hertha’s 130th anniversary with a party for fans at Olympiapark. More details will be announced about this event in due course.