It's fair to say Hertha Berlin's season has been somewhat remarkable, and Jos Luhukay's men may even be looking at what could have been. The newly promoted side started their return season to the Bundesliga in supreme style, picking up 28 points out of a possible 51, starting with the 6-1 demolition of Eintracht Frankfurt on the opening day and then capping off a brilliant Hinrunde with a fantastic 2-1 away win at the Signal Iduana Park against Borussia Dortmund. However, you can't help but feel that 'The Old Lady' could have seriously pushed on and contended for a European spot had their Rückrunde replicated their first half of the season form-wise.

Berlin endured a season filled with many ups and downs, memorable performances, impressive victories and disappointing defeats. The Dortmund win, and their opening day thrashing certainly will be the highlights, but Luhukay took his team to the Allianz Arena at the end of October to face the Bundesliga, German Cup and UEFA Champions League holders, the magnificent Bayern Munich, now under Pep Guardiola, and really showed what they were made of, going in at half-time all square at 1-1 and left having narrowly lost 3-2. Looking back on that result now, it signifies the real intent they had in causing as many upsets as possible in the league in order to help secure themselves as a respected side, and had more guts been shown from January to May, the blues could have gone onto greater things for sure.

Hertha picked up only 13 points from the 17 games in 2014 including three wins and four draws, and it condemned them to an 11th placed finish in May. Fantastic right? Well, you’d think so. But considering Berlin genuinely and realistically could have kept it up and found themselves in a Europa League spot come the end of the season, 11th seems disappointing. Furthermore, Columbian star forward Adrian Ramos, who scored 16 goals and finished second in the overall scoring rankings, has completed a switch to Borussia Dortmund and will fill Robert Lewandowski’s place playing in front of the Yellow Wall next season, so Hertha certainly have work to do in the summer to cement their place in Germany’s top division for years to come. On the whole, a brilliant season.

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About the author
James Smith
Aspiring journalist and feature writer. Unbiased Liverpool fan, follower of Atletico Madrid and football in all European divisions.