Hertha wins 2:0 against Bochum

Bochum boss Funkel made two changes to his side which beat Frankfurt last time out, replacing Concha and Saglik with Yahia und Maric. His Berlin counterpart Markus Babbel raised many eyebrows ahead of the round 12 second division clash. Ronny and Lasogga played in place of Ramos (suspended) and Friend who had failed to score in any of his team’s last five matches and according to Babbel was “Putting too much pressure on himself”. They were the only changes to the Hertha starting line-up which suffered their opening league defeat of the season 0-1 in Paderborn last weekend.

Bochum started brightly enough. The game was barely 2 minutes old as stand in home keeper Sejna parried a Frederico shot into the path of Dobrowski, who blazed the ball well over the open goal. Hertha began to get a grip on things and first threatened when Lassoga rushed a header (8.), and keeper Luthe did well to deny Raffael (12.). Bochum’s keeper was to grab the spotlight yet again as a misunderstanding between the himself and Yahia almost gifted Hertha their opening goal. Luthe came out and flapped at a ball and Lasogga waited a split second too long, alowing the Algerian defender to clear his lines. Only seconds later the Bochum shot stopper did well to take the sting out of a Ronny rocket from distance (18.).

The home side were simply more awake and much fresher than the visitors, and an opening Hertha goal seemed to be only a matter of time. Bochum struggled to clear their lines at times, but all of a sudden the ball was in the Hertha net at the other end following a Dedic effort. Luckily for Hertha, the linesman had raised his flag (rightly) for offside (24.). Two minutes later Ronny went close with a stunning free kick which fizzed just past the left hand upright.

Hertha attacked Bochum as soon as they had possession – a ploy the Ruhr Valley side did not enjoy to say the least. The Berliners were hardly recognisable to the team which performed so dismally in Paderborn last time out. Hertha won a corner on the right. Up stepped Raffael to curl it to the far post. Out came Luthe but sailed past the ball. Lasogga rose to almost back-head the ball into the back of the net, before running off to celebrate with Hertha fans in the east stand (32.). Hertha dropped down a gear or two after taking the lead, which allowed Bochum more possession. Not that they were able to capitalise though. On the contrary: A wayward Frederico long distance effort (37.) was all they had to show before the good match referee Winkmann ended the opening half with a blast on his whistle.

Both coaches kept faith with their respective first half line-ups and it was Bochum who would enjoy the opening goalmouth action of the second half as Dabrowski forced Sejna into a fabulous reflex save, after slack marking allowed the Bochum skipper to get a dangerous header in (51.). VfL were better organised and had more presence all of a sudden, while Hertha seemed content to wait and see what the visitors would throw at them. A superb solo run by Rukavytsya had the huge crowd (28,973) holding their collective breath as he crossed low into the middle and Lasogga missed the pass by a whisker (59.). Hertha doubled their lead on 69 minutes as Luthe parried a fierce Rukavytsya shot from 25 metres to his right. Only problem was Lasogga was lurking , waiting to pounce and pounce he did firing the rebound home with a crisp left foot shot. What a goal and no more than Hertha deserved.

Luthe prevented young substitute Schulz from opening his Hertha scoring account on 71 minutes with a fine save. Bochum half chances for Saglik (74., 77.), Kopplin (75.) and Korean hitman (79.) followed, none of which were converted. The scoreline remained at 2-0 to Hertha, who are in action again on Friday night (19.11.10, 20.30 CET), as Babbel and his table-toppers take on VfL Osnabrück in their own back yard. The latest victory saw Hertha restore their two point cushion at the top of the second division table.

Match details:

Hertha BSC: Sejna – Lell, Hubnik, Neumann, Kobiashvili – Niemeyer – Rukavytsya, Domovchiyski (65. Perdedaj), Raffael (88. Djuricin), Ronny (65. Schulz) – Lasogga

VfL Bochum: Luthe – Yahia, Mavraj, Maltritz, Kopplin – Dabrowski, Maric (60. Saglik) – Freier, Federico, Johansson – Dedic (67. Tese)

Goals: 1:0 Lasogga (32.), 2:0 Lasogga (69.)
Booked: Lasogga, Raffael – Federico, Kopplin, Luthe, Dabrowski
Att: 28.973
Referee: Guido Winkmann