Pal Dardai almost suspected it a little.

“That was the lightning strike I've always talked about,” said the Hertha BSC coach on Sunday after their 3-1 defeat at 1. FC Köln.

"I'll wait, when will the lightning bolt come," said the Hungarian after the almost suspiciously smooth preparation: "It's not normal when everything goes so well." And the Bundesliga had barely started when Hertha felt elated The End.

Which is why Dardai “didn't really feel like talking”: “The preparation doesn't matter. When the season starts you will know. ”But when it counted, Hertha lost. What had never happened to her in preparation. Not even against Liverpool. Dardai's concerns came true. “Now we have it behind us. It's going to be a tough week with a lot of analysis, ”he announced. And made one thing clear in advance: "There will be no excuse."

Actually, everything had played into the cards for the Berliners.

They took the lead early on thanks to new signing Stevan Jovetic.

And then, as Dardai's Cologne colleague Steffen Baumgart confirmed, everything was under control for the first half hour.

“But then we started to be casual,” complained the Hertha coach: “We completely lost direction.

I just don't know whether physically or mentally. "

"We have to work hard"

He saw the disaster coming, “called in five times that they counter us and that we have to show more aggressiveness.

But they didn't take it seriously. ”So the Berlin team gave FC the chance to find their way back into the game and, on the first day of the match, to give them a taste of the power football demanded by the new coach Baumgart.

Kevin-Prince Boateng, who was brought in as the leader and was well in the game until he ran out of strength, was annoyed by the clearly deserved and yet unnecessary defeat.

“We were the better team for 30 minutes.

Then we lost each other and broke in, ”he said.

And came to the conclusion: "We have to work hard."

The native Berliner, too, at least physically.

"I felt good.

But it's a lot of work before the defense, ”said the 34-year-old, who returned to his youth club after 14 years and 13 positions from AC Milan to FC Barcelona.

In Cologne he left the field after 58 minutes.

"I keep building up so that I can stay on the pitch longer," he said: "I hope that I can manage 90 minutes against Wolfsburg."