Hertha Berlin trains in Florida during the Bundesliga winter break
Hertha Berlin will train in Florida in January in preparation for the second half of the 2022/23 Bundesliga season.
Hertha, currently ranked 15th in the Bundesliga, has four friendlies scheduled in Florida in early 2023. On January 8, they face Club de Lyon Orlando of the United Premier Soccer League. On the same day, Hertha will play against The Villages SC from USL League 2. Three days later, they will face SIMA Montverde Academy, before ending their tour against the Colombian superpower Millonarios FC later that night (US time).
“We have grown closer as a group in recent months,” said Sandro Schwarz, head coach of Hertha Berlin. “Nevertheless, the extra days together will help us to work even better together.”
Hertha Berlin’s squad for the Florida trip is as follows: Oliver Christensen, Tjark Ernst, Leon Cuk, Tim Goller, Peter Pekarík, Agustín Rogel, Filip Uremović, Suat Serdar, Jean-Paul Boëtius, Myziane Maolida, Dodi Lukébakio, Jonjoe Kenny, Maximilian Mittelstädt, Wilfried Kanga, Stevan Jovetić, Marc Kempf, Marco Richter, Jessic Ngankam, Lukas Ullrich, Prince Boateng, Lucas Tousart, Márton Dárdai, Ivan Šunjić, Deyovaisio Zeefuik, Derry Scherhant, Chidera Ejuke, Julian Eitschberger and Pascal Klemens.
Hertha BSC will return to action in the Bundesliga on Saturday 21 January.
Hertha Berlin in Florida is not the only Bundesliga team in the United States
FIFA’s decision to move the 2022 World Cup to November and December caused major changes to the football calendar of clubs around the world. In Germany, this meant that the winter break became considerably longer than it otherwise would have been.
The Bundesliga sent the third largest number of players to the tournament of any league (behind only the Premier League and La Liga). This still created a strange dilemma for clubs on how to maintain players’ match fitness, when the vast majority of them would not have a competitive game between mid-November and the end of January. In general, the clubs usually decided to train for a long time during that time, while giving their remaining players some time off when play stopped in November and again for the winter holidays.
There were also a handful of teams that decided to go on overseas trips quite soon after the start of the winter break. Some of them went to the United States.
Bayer Leverkusen remained in St. Louis, Missouri. There they took on new local MLS expansion side St. Louis City and beat them 3-0 in what was the opening game at the stadium named CITY PARK. Meanwhile, 1.FC Köln and VfB Stuttgart both went to Austin, Texas where they faced each other with the latter coming out victorious 4-2.
Even Bundesliga 2 team Hamburger SV settled in California before the start of the winter break. They defeated the Orange County Soccer Club 1-0.
The DFL, the administrative organization of the Bundesliga, is trying to popularize the competition mainly in North America, given the great potential for additional TV and sponsorship income from there.
Photo: IMAGO / Kirchner-Media
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