For Davie Selke, the goal for the 2-0 win against Arminia Bielefeld was “pure joy, pure relief for the team and for me”. For Hertha it was the first league win since 23 October – and for the striker the end of a long dry spell.
804 goalless minutes of action in the Bundesliga Selke had accumulated, then there was the explosion in the last minute of injury time on Saturday: a determined turn after Alessandro Schöpf’s misplaced pass, a dry, precise finish into the right-hand corner of the Bielefeld goal – and the sprint to the bench including a salute. Selke sank into a grape of jubilation.
“Personally, the goal was very, very important. Because the past few weeks have not been so easy. Not everything went as I had planned,” said the man who had last scored in the Bundesliga on 23 January 2021 – for his loan club Werder in a 4-1 win at his regular club Hertha. Because Werder were relegated, the purchase clause for 12 million euros that had been fixed in the event of Bremen staying in the league twice (2019/20 and 2020/21) did not take effect. Selke ended up back in Berlin in the summer and, thanks to a good preparation and after the clear cut in the offensive – Jhon Cordoba, Matheus Cunha, Dodi Lukebakio, Jessic Ngankam and Javairo Dilrosun were sold – temporarily rose to become the number one striker.
In Meppen (1-0) in the first cup round at the beginning of August, he became a last-minute match-winner, in the league he strung together several unfortunate performances. On the day before the 3rd Advent, Selke made himself a much-needed present – and also received a compliment from the currently outstanding Stevan Jovetic: “Ishak Belfodil and I harmonise well. But Davie and Krzysztof Piatek are also still there and are very good strikers. “
While Piatek, one of the wild cards, missed a great chance to make it 2-0 on a pass from Jovetic, the other wild card struck. And Jovetic, already substituted at the time of the 2-0, was the first to jump into the arms of Selke, who had been rushed to the bench, as he cheered.“We saw that the entire bench worked, praised coach Tayfun Korkut. “Everyone dug in when they came in. Everyone made a contribution.” Hertha’s strikers, rather unimpressive in the first third of the season, are currently blossoming and benefiting from the more offensive basic orientation under the new coach. 15 shots on goal on Korkut’s debut in Stuttgart (2:2) were followed by 20 against Bielefeld. Hertha had last managed more (23) in a 2-2 draw against Gladbach on matchday 28 of pre-season. Hertha, it seems, are gradually getting into their stride.
