As a former striker, Uli Hoeneß has a well-developed nose for the positions a goal-getter needs to take up at exactly the right moment. Fundamentally, Bayern went into Saturday’s meeting with Hertha Berlin in the perfect position. Leaders Hoffenheim had lost the day before, and a win in the capital would have sent the champions to the top of the Bundesliga. But there are days when the simplest of chances go begging, and Bayern had one of those days.
“If you don’t accept the kind of opening supplied by Hoffenheim, you have only yourself to blame,” Hoeneß fumed after Munich’s 2-1 defeat at the Olympic stadium. “I don’t understand why we didn’t make more of the situation.” The result sent Hertha to the top instead. “The table’s not right yet,” Jürgen Klinsmann commented. His team will now have to wait for their next opportunity, “and it’s getting on our nerves.”
Well in control
“We’re disappointed, but more than anything else, we’re angry,” the head coach reported on Sunday. His team controlled 62 percent of the possession, and won the shot count 18-8 in Berlin. “We had the game completely under control, but conceded two goals on the break,” Klinsmann analysed. Andrey Voronin clinically finished off the two chances that came his way on 38 and 77 minutes to seal the points.
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