Marco Richter had the east curve in front of him with the Hertha BSC fans in all its glory when he got the ball in the penalty area. He took his slightly weaker left foot, fired it and presented a real challenge to the Borussia Dortmund goalkeeper. Marwin Hitz couldn’t do anything anymore. The ball flew past him into the goal.
That’s how it was in December, when Hertha defeated BVB 3-2 in their home Olympic Stadium and Richter scored two goals for the Berlin side’s success. On Saturday, history repeated itself – with a small but crucial difference.
Richter got the ball again in the Dortmund penalty area; again in front of the east curve; again he took his slightly weaker left foot and again he presented a real challenge to the Swiss goalkeeper of Borussia Dortmund. Only this time Gregor Kobel got his fingertips on the ball and directed it to the crossbar.
“It would have been the i-point today,” said Hertha coach Sandro Schwarz about Richter’s crossbar. The offensive player had only been on the pitch for four minutes when he almost equalized to make it 1-1 against the runners-up Dortmund. So it remained 0-1 – and Hertha’s fourth defeat in the fifth competitive game of the season.
Nevertheless, Marco Richter couldn’t really be sad. When the team said goodbye to the fans in the corner after the game, he took a prominent position. Richter stood in the middle, three or four steps in front of his colleagues, and while his teammates wore miserable expressions, Richter had a smile on his face. The curve called his name. “I’m obviously very happy,” he said. “That was something very special.”
After Richter had been back in the squad for the week before, in the defeat in Mönchengladbach, he celebrated his comeback against BVB on Saturday – just 47 days after he was diagnosed with a testicular tumor. The 24-year-old said the feelings he felt when he came on were “hard to describe”.
His fate and history left no one indifferent. “Such a diagnosis is a shock at first,” said coach Schwarz. “It’s an extraordinary story, first and foremost for Marco as a person. We are really looking forward to it.”
Dortmund midfielder Jude Bellingham was standing on the track in the Olympic Stadium after the final whistle, giving a television interview when Marco Richter flashed through the picture behind him. Bellingham jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the Berliner and just said, “Hero.”
Richter was lucky that the tumor was discovered early enough. Unlike Timo Baumgartl from 1. FC Union and Sébastien Haller from BVB, he was spared chemotherapy. “Everything is out of my body,” he said when he returned to the training ground. “The chance that something will come up again is small.”
He has now caught up on the training deficit. “It’s looking very good, but I can tell there’s still a little bit missing,” he said. “It’s not much anymore.” Trainer Schwarz also sees Richter “in very, very good condition”. Sooner or later Richter could become more than just a substitute.
After his move to Berlin a year ago, the offensive player had a strong first half of the year, with the appearance against Dortmund at the end of the first half of the season as the highlight. In this form, Richter would also be an enrichment for the current Hertha – although his preferred position on the right in the offensive row of three is currently occupied by Dodi Lukebakio. The Belgian is one of the positive surprises at the start of the season. On Saturday he had to leave the field for judges.
Hertha can only do good with more power in the attacking game. The team have been without a goal for 268 minutes since Suat Serdar’s early 1-0 win over Frankfurt, and the three chances against BVB all came from shots from outside the box.
Missing occupancy of the penalty area, wrong decisions, lack of conviction: a lot comes together. Chidera Ejuke tends to exaggerate when dribbling, center forward Wilfried Kanga is often on his own in the penalty area, but is also obviously alien to the new environment. Coach Schwarz doesn’t think that’s unusual. “He’s new, didn’t take part in much of our preparation and comes from the Swiss league. That it needs development time is completely normal.”
With Marco Richter, Black now has another option for the offensive. “We need this competitive situation. It’s good,” he says. “But that doesn’t mean that Marco doesn’t play when Dodi plays. There are also constellations where both will be on the pitch.”
The next opportunity comes next Sunday, in the away game at FC Augsburg. So against the club where Marco Richter grew up and for which he celebrated his Bundesliga debut.
