Hertha hoping coach Dardai’s birthday brings extra luck

Hertha Berlin is hoping birthday wishes for coach Pal Dardai bring some extra luck in its unlikely push for Champions League football.

Fifth-place Hertha is just two points off the Bundesliga's last qualification place for Europe's premier competition and three points off Borussia Dortmund in third.

Dardai, who turned 41 on Thursday, watched his side beat Dortmund 2-1 last weekend, underlining its position as the league's best team at home this season — better even than runaway leader Bayern Munich — with ten victories and one draw from 12 games at its Olympiastadion.

Hertha's problems have come away from home, however. Five defeats in a row should have ended hopes of Champions League football, though rivals have not taken advantage.

"Nine points are too few," acknowledged Dardai, whose side has won just twice away this season and next faces a trip to seventh-place Cologne on Saturday. "It's about time to change that."

Dardai has introduced an efficiency to Hertha since taking over, initially on an interim basis, from Jos Luhukay after a 1-0 loss at home to Bayer Leverkusen in February 2015. Hertha was second from bottom at the time — ahead of Dortmund, then in a spiral of uncertainty under previous coach Juergen Klopp.

Dardai, a former midfielder and youth coach at Hertha, was also coaching the Hungarian national team, but he gave up that position to focus on the club. He brought tactical discipline to the side and convinced the underperforming players to up their game. In short, he rekindled belief in the side, showing them that much can be achieved, despite limited resources, through hard work and commitment.

Dardai even turned down an offer from Bayern in 1999. The Berliner Zeitung newspaper reported that Bayern president Uli Hoeness was speaking on the telephone with Dardai's wife Monika as the player was negotiating with Hoeness' brother Dieter, then Hertha general manager, next door. It was a rare defeat for the older Hoeness brother.

Altogether he made a clubrecord 286 Bundesliga appearances for Hertha over 14 years and also played UEFA Cup and Champions League football, endearing himself to the fans with his unconditional commitment.

As coach he saved the club from relegation in 2015, led it to seventh the following season, and is wellplaced to do better this year — if the side can address its troubles on the road.

"The capital club is fifth and the strongest team at home in the league," Hertha said. "An end to this development is nowhere near in sight!"