Hamburger SV
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Oy Vay
Not the most professional title for not the most professional showing from our Hamburgers. After being so excited to see the Bundesliga return this weekend, I couldn’t help but feel extremely tepid about this one. Yes, we won our friendly matches – but far from super convincingly even though they were against much weaker opponents than all but the relegation battling Bundesliga squads. The thing that I was most concerned about was the fact that our offense still didn’t look fluid, and we were still very dependent on hucking the ball into box from our full backs. But a few more weeks of training could only help, right?
1/16th of the times that Marcell touched the ball.
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What a turbulent first few months of this season, eh? Though I guess that’s commonplace for a team with such good infrastructure, a huge fan base, a proper city behind it, good sponsorship deals… but never the results to go along with it. The past few seasons were filled with seemingly right steps – a spot in the champions league (and subsequently getting embarrassed in it), then a couple of very good runs in the Europa League. But HSV want to – and can be – something better than a good Europa League team. Like many Bundesliga teams not named Bayern München, there is the constant feeling that we are better than the Europa League but not quite good enough for the Champions League. Last season, HSV were expected to make a run at a Champions League spot, and with a solid team of experienced internationals, it looked like they could at least do decent in a hypothetical group stage if they were to place.
"I'm gonna go get fired over there guys brb"
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Fink remains unbeaten, but points were ultimately dropped.
Almost a sublime moment in the game.
Hamburg dropped a couple of points against a fairly weak Augsburg side at home today, tying 1-1 with a shouldered-headed goal from Paolo Guerrero after Augsburg had gone ahead in the second half after a deflected shot fell to the feet of FCA striker Torsten Oehrl, who made a nice play to keep the ball and finish calmly into the corner of the net past Drobny. This game was generally characterized by Hamburg shooting close range in the box and Augsburg players clearing off the line or their goalie making some good saves. Augsburg were clearly happy and perhaps somewhat surprised to have tied, even though they had an occasional chance of their own. Even so, this was a game that Hamburg could have and should have won. Let’s look more in depth at the players:
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Albrecht Dürer is Upset by Nuremberg’s Failure to Stop It
Art jokes aside, this was a nice win that catapults HSV up to 11th in the standings, four points away from 8th place Hannover yet three points away from the relegation playoff zone. These sorts of games are vital, and today Hamburg delivered with a hard fought though not entirely comprehensive victory. Paolo Guerrero latched onto a long kick from Jaroslov Drobny, the Nuremberg centerback inexplicably dove when the two were haggling for the ball, and Paolo slotted it home with a nice finish. Later it was Marcel Jansen who had a nice finish after Töre and Ilicevic combined nicely to give the big German space in the box. There were chances for Nuremberg, and a better team probably finishes one or two of them. Drobny had another good game, as did Guerrero – but let’s look deeper into the individual efforts.
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So many chances, only two goals.
An entertaining northern derby between the twho “HSV”s of the league provided only a point for each side in the end, but it could have been more for Hamburg who dominated long spells of the game (though had very shaky moments in defense on Hannover’s counter attack system). In the end, it felt like Hamburg could have gotten out of there with all three points since they were leading through 79 minutes, but a tie is probably a fair result given the occasional acres of space that Hannover would find themselves in.
Paolo is caught sneaking chocolates out of a box that wasn't even his!
Both teams had chances, but it wasn’t until the 64th minute that Jeffery Bruma was able to dent the scoreline. A bit of pressure forced Hannover’s American RB Steve Cherundolo into a questionable clearance (there was nobody around him) that gave Hamburg a corner. Töre whipped in a good cross, Bruma stuck out the very tip of his boot, and the ball was in the net. Another good goal off a corner for Bruma, who is showing his offensive skills more and more.
It looked like Hamburg would be able to hold off Hannover, but a wonder strike from Jan Schlaudraff from outside the box tied things up in the blink of an eye. Hamburg had a couple of good chances late on – including one where Tomas Rincon found himself basically one on one with the goalie, only to slip and fall – but a tie away to a team in Europe is not necessarily the worst thing. The team is playing well in attack, but the magic from Jansen and Guerrero wasn’t there today. That and Son still just makes every wrong decision – he’s still not mentally quick enough to start, for me. I think Petric puts Hamburg up 2-1 in this game, to be honest.
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This is clearly the picture of the year.
Fink’s System Begins to Take Hold
Today, for the first time this season, we saw an HSV team that looked like a top half of the table Bundesliga team. Now, that not’s to say they looked like a team ready to play in Europe yet, but they did play well, and finished with perhaps a slightly fortuitous 2-0 win. It was a good game overall between a couple of good teams, and there were plenty of chances on both ends (especially the final ten minutes of the game – it would have been nice if HSV could have just shut down the game then… but, baby steps, right?).
Both teams had chances early, and both teams miffed them. It wasn’t until the 25th minute that Hamburg finally got a lead: a bunch of great, first time passes (as well as a deflection off a defender) had Guerrero in on goal – he hit the post. But luck was on Hamburg’s side for once, and the ball came right back to Paolo’s feet – this time he made no mistake, and gave Hamburg a deserved 1-0 lead. Later, in the 65th minute and after some good buildup play, Jansen sprinted into the box and slotted another goal for the home side, sending the HSV supporters into a delighted frenzy.
The final ten minutes were a bit too wild for a team that perhaps should have just set up shop and passed it around considering the score line, but it made for an exciting finish. Drobny pulled out several excellent saves (including an absolutely fabulous one) to keep the score the same, and Dennis Aogo nearly made it three on the last play of the game off of a curling free kick. To be honest, HSV also started ripping shots from distance over the goal during this time period, which was bad for a number of reasons – mostly because it immediately ceded possession.
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Good Enough, Right?
Yesterday Hamburg managed an uplifting comeback to pull even with Champions League hopefuls Bayer Leverkusen, 2-2. After an Andre Schürrle free kick was deflected into the net by Dennis Diekmeiers lame head, and then a good set of attacks from Leverkusen finally paid off after a period of pressure, HSV found themselves down 2-0 within the first half hour. Seeing how bad this season has gone, how good talented Leverkusen is, and how bad Hamburg had looked in the game, it looked like things might spiral into a rout.
Töre evades another tackle.
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A win, a draw, and a Pokal Game
Hamburg have officially gotten above the last spot in the league for the first time since week four, and since Oenning was fired, have been playing much more to the talent level that the Hanseatic City team possesses. We won, somewhat fortunately, at Freiburg (Cissé missed that penalty, and there were a few more chances that could have gone in if not for a great game from Jaroslav Drobny), and then tied somewhat unfortunately, at home to Wolfsburg. HSV were the better team in that match, but juuuust couldn’t quite get past the last line of a staunch Wolfsburg defense.
Quite the array of emotions here.
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Frank Arnesen: Renaissance Man and
EDIT – Fink has been officially named the new coach of HSV, starting on Monday. Woohoo! (more on him below).
Fink tells Oenning to stay back! He can handle the team without his help.
It’s been a couple of weeks since the last post – and for this I apologize. This blog will not fade into obscurity like so many other Offsides Bundesliga blogs (Wolfsburg, cough)! So what the hell has happened in the past couple of weeks? To recap:
We beat Stuttgart, from a miraculous strike from Robert Tesche. We’ve talked about this game in the comments fairly extensively, but it’s good to mention a game where HSV actually managed to win, for once. It was a game that could have really gone either way, but for once the ball dropped on Hamburg’s side. The image of Cardoso and Arnesen leaping out of their chairs in joy will always be in my memory.
Then, we lost to Schalke at home. This was a tough game, as many people felt it was one of the best games HSV has played this season. Unfortunately, Schalke are a very good side with a clinical striker in Klaas Jan Huntelaar, who had two very nice goals to make Mladen Petric’s strike all but forgotten. There were plenty of positives from this game, but the end result doesn’t help the fact that Hamburg are still rock bottom in the table.
The international break has happened since, and Hamburg hasn’t had, ya know, tons of interesting news from that aspect. Most notably, Jeffery Bruma started both Holland games – one of which was good, but then the Oranges lost somewhat embarrassingly 3-2 to Sweden. Rajkovic apparently had some decent performances, Töre came on against Germany and showed some talent but couldn’t quite make anything happen, and Dennis Aogo sat on the bench against Belgium. Tomas Rincon and Paolo Guerrero also had good performances down in South America.
Rollin into town lookin Gangsta.
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So, Oenning is gone. The tears of the citizens of Hamburg have successfully exited the canals and are now on their way, much like Oenning, into the annals of history.
Oenning is presumably leaving Hamburg on this boat.
However, Rodolfo Cardoso is just an interim coach, and doesn’t even possess the correct license to take over HSV permanently. Therefore there is still much speculation around who the next coach will be – so many names were mentioned in the last post, and so many new names have been mentioned in the media since. A brief look at the news since the last post, considering the coaching front:
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