Hertha boss Jos Luhukay has kept a club in the Bundesliga before, can he do it again? Source: augsburger-allgemeine.de
With the new season fast approaching over the next week and a half I’m going to do a few posts leading up to the start of the league campaign on August 9. I thought I’d start by taking a look at the two clubs that have been promoted to the Bundesliga this past season, their transfer activity, their danger men and whether they are good enough to stay up.
Hertha Berlin
Ronny will be key to Hertha’s chances of staying up. Source: goal.com
The capital club return back to the Bundesliga after a season away but two relegations from the top-flight in three seasons still live fresh in the memory of Hertha fans who will just want to stay up this campaign.
They picked themselves up from the relegation play-off loss to Fortuna Dusseldorf last season to run away with the 2. Bundesliga title, managing to only lose two matches all season. They also were both the most prolific attack with 65 goals and the meanest defence with only 28 goals conceded.
However, the Bundesliga is a big step-up in competition and if they are to stay up they will need a better second half of the season than in 2011-12, where they managed just 11 points out of a possible 51 after the winter break.
They will be heavily reliant on their Brazilian attacking midfielder Ronny, who last season top scored for the club with 18 and assisted with another 12, a league best. Signings such as former Schalke midfielder Alexander Baumjohann, who managed 11 assists with Kaiserslautern last season, will help increase Berlin’s options to try and find goals this campaign, whilst the capture of Leverkusen utility man Hajime Hosogai will help add to their defence that was so impressive last season.
Manager Jos Luhukay managed to get FC Augsburg promoted in 2010-11 and kept them up, so Hertha at least have someone with that experience to help them this time. It’s not going to be easy, but they have a much more stable set-up than in previous years.
Eintracht Braunschweig
Braunshweig need Kumbela fit and firing quickly if they are to give it a go this season. Source: Bundesliga
Braunschweig return to the Bundesliga after a 28 year absence in hope that whilst they may realistically only spend one season back in the division, they are determined to do it with people believing they played the right way.
Last season they managed to claim the second spot in 2. Bundesliga behind Hertha by nine points but also above third place Kaiserslautern by nine points. They got off to an outstanding start by going unbeaten for 14 games before losing to Energie Cottbus and if that could be replicated this season the club would be in dream land.
The club tried to bring in as much Bundesliga experience as they could, with Marco Caligiuri signing from Mainz and Torsten Oehrl from Augsburg, but the club hope most that last season’s 19-goal 2. Bundesliga top scorer Dominick Kumbela can return to full fitness soon after surgery on a thigh injury in May.
A familiar name to English fans has also joined the Lower Saxony club, with former Norwich player Simeon Jackson coming in to replace the injured DR Congolese striker. The Canadian international would like to perform better in Germany than he did in the Premier League, where he managed only four goals in two seasons.
Eintracht Braunshweig’s manager Torsten Lieberknecht has managed to pull the club up from the 3rd division all the way back to the big time and he believes that anything above playing well will be a bonus. When asked what were the club’s targets this season, he said: “We want to be a team who are appreciated for the way we play – win or lose.” And I think that’s a great philosophy to go by, but winning would be nice too.
The Bundesliga Bloke 