Salomon Kalou has scored twice now in two competitive matches to start this season as his side, Hertha BSC, defeated Augusburg by a score of 0-1 at the WWK Arena.
Kalou got the first decent chance of the evening, his header though was hit a little hard as it sailed over the top of the goal just five minutes into the match. Other than that opening header from the Ivorian striker, there was not much action in the attacking third of the pitch in the openining quarter of an hour.
The Hertha striker had another good opportunity to break the deadlock, this time in the 15th minute. He was about eight meters away from goal when Verhaegh made a game-saving tackle to advert the danger away from goal. As the first half wore on though, Augsburg were starting to dictact the pace of play, moving the ball around and making it difficult for the visitors to get any piece of the ball.
Hegeler and Stocker combined excellently down the left side of the pitch with 23 minutes gone, the end product though was not very good at all and Augsburg were able to get control of the ball back.
Frantic start turns stale
After an intense start to the match, the pace slowed down immensly as the first half was winding down with neither side really being able to get a good look at goal.
New signing Darida played a great ball in towards Beerens, in the 33rd minute, who was in miles of space down the right hand side, but his first touch let him down and Augsburg regained possession in their final third of the pitch. After that attack, the hosts countered down the other side of the pitch. Plattenhardt though would take down Bobadilla to stop any potential danger.
With a few seconds to go until half time, Bobadilla was sent off for gettting his second yellow of the game. He had a tustle with Lustenberger and apparently, used too much aggression and Mr. Welz gave Bobadilla his marching orders.
HT: Augsburg 0-0 Hertha BSC
Overall, it was a fairly dull first 45 minutes. There were plenty of half-chances from both clubs, but the lack of quality and creativity inside the final third of the pitch. Hertha had the better of the chances, but it was Augsburg who controlled the play.
Hertha strike first
Then, Klavan tried to catch up to Kalou inside the area, slid and brought down the striker from behind. The 30-year-old stepped up to the spot and slid the ball excellently in behind Hitz to open up the scoring.
Six minutes after the hour mark, Hertha would be reduced to ten men after Bereens picked up his second yellow for a tackle from behind on Feulner; both sides would play with ten for the remaining of the match.
With both sides down a man, the visitors started to take the game to Augsburg as they now played with the lead and looked double it to ensure the three points. Unforuntately, they were never able to get their second goal but secured all three points to start the new campaign.