HSV 1:0 FC Bayern
Petric-72

Having seen the highlights, it seems we deserved the win, besides that shot that just missed/went off the post, most of the good chances were against Butt, who didnt play up to his name (I’ve always loved that name, byyy the way).
Also, it’s nice to hear the opposing coach/Hoeneß talking about how “they deserved more from the game.”
That’s loser talk fellas, you only “deserve” what you get for yourself.
And we got ourselves three more points and another week on top of the world!!! (Of German football).
And we get Hapoel coming into town, which should end better than the Wiener-debakel.

Hamburger SV v Bayern Munchen
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In pre-game news, Ze is going to start or be on the bench, with Tesche replacing him. Olic is coming back to Hamburg for the first time (I wish we had kept him…), and Ze will hopefully get to play Bayern for the first time since he came over to the winning team.

In what i saw of the Osnabrück game (I was watching Lübeck’s hopes get dashed in Konferenz), Tesche didnt impress (Who did…), so lets hope Ze gets healthy, huh?
Seeing as how we’ve done quite well against the top teams this year, I’m not too worried, despite the bad form. Jaro is back, which should help in midfield, and bump the number of ex-Bäyerische in the starting 11 to 3. Stick it to them guys!
Noteworthy: A Bayern win and Bayer loss would be the first time in 497 days that Bayern was on top. Dream come true…
HSV.de says:
Hamburger SV: Rost – Demel, Boateng, Mathijsen, Aogo – Jarolim, Zé Roberto (Tesche) – Trochowski, Elia – Berg, Petric
Bench: Hesl, Tavares, Rozehnal, Pitropia, Castelen, Arslan

FC Bayern München: Butt – Lahm, van Buyten, Badstuber, Pranjic – Müller, Tymoshchuk, Schweinsteiger – Robben, Gomez, Olic

I’m going to go ahead and predict 3-1 for die Hanseaten, with Elia, Troche and Berg scoring the important goals. Der Kaiser seems to agree with me.

Monday past saw Die Rothosen being their Pokal chase with a match away versus 2. Bundesliga side Fortuna Dusseldorf. As Jan mentioned in his Pokal wrap-up, HSV were more Swiss than German in the first half–Swiss cheese, that is. The second half brought some stability and clear thinking to the defense, but Fortuna would not go quietly into that good night, scoring the tying goal in the final 3 seconds of the second extra period. The match went to PKs where Hamburg slotted 4 home, while Frank Rost stood on his head and saved 2 of the 3 shots he faced. Whew.

Yesterday, the return leg of the Europa League 3rd qualifying round took place at the ‘Bank against Danish side Randers FC.  HSV dominated the first leg in Randers the week before, scoring early and scoring often and leaving with an insurmountable 4-nil victory. With advancement to the next round assured, Bruno took the opportunity to field a side of players who had not seen action so far this season, with Joris Mathijsen and David Jarolim the only regulars (and thereby cementing their roles as the irreplaceable guys on our roster–God help us if they get hurt) who started the match. And they played like a bunch of guys who hadn’t played so far this year. Here’s the lineup that took the pitch last night:

Hesl

Benjamin    Mathijsen    Rozehnal    Jansen

Jarolim    Tavares

Castelen    Ben-Hatira

Torun    Berg

The match ended with Hamburg on the short side of a 1-nil decision, but I think it gave Bruno the opportunity to see some of the bench players in a game situation without any negative consequences. For their efforts, they were drawn with French Cup holders Guingamp of Ligue 2. Guingamp is notable not only for being just the second club outside Ligue 1 to win the French Cup, but also as the club that gave current Chelsea stars Didier Drogba and Florent Malouda their starts in Continental football. Here’s Bruno’s take on Guingamp.

And now we get down to business. Sunday, Hamburg take on newly promoted SC Freiburg to start their Bundesliga campaign.  Freiburg dominated the 2. Bundesliga last season, wrapping up the championship and assured promotion by Matchday 31 (pretty damn impressive. . .). Still, you have to believe that HSV are poised to get a favorable result and take the full 3 points.  Following what can graciously be described as a tumultuous offseason, we appear to have the deepest and most talented group that I have seen in my almost 3 years as a supporter.  Here’s the XI I think will be on the pitch on Sunday:

Rost

Demel    Mathijsen    Boateng    Jansen

Jarolim    Ze Roberto

Trochowski    Pitropa

Guerrero    Petric

Bottom line:  HSV gets the season started on the right track. Make mine 0:2 for the HSV, and give me a cold Holsten to wash it down.

Readers, help me out here:  I am pretty sure that beginning in 2010/11, the Bundesliga gets 4 spots in the CL. Am I correct?  This is leading to my season prediction. This is the year we finally make it back to the Champions League. I think the top 3 teams in the league are Bayern, HSV and Stuttgart, and you can throw Schalke and Wolfsburg in for the last CL spot. I have long maintained that more than anything, I want to watch HSV on the biggest stage and see them back in the Champions League, just as I did one night in September 2006 (before I was a supporter of the club), when I watched them get drubbed by Arsenal while in the lounge of the Bexleyheath Marriott in Kent. If we win some silverware along the way, so be it–that’s the icing on the cake.  I say we finish a very close second to Bayern’s first, with Stuttgart ultimately prevailing for third over Wolfsburg and Schalke. What are your predictions?

There really hasn’t been much to report on since the last post (and by the way, I am putting out an APB for co-blogger Evan–I haven’t heard from him in weeks. Seriously, I hope his pic isn’t showing up on milk cartons in Auz. . .), until yesterday and I decided to write two posts rather than one.

What happened yesterday? HSV finally completed the transfer of center back David Rozehnal from Lazio. The deal would have been done a LOT earlier except Lazio’s batshit-insane owner Claudio Lotito wanted a bigger transfer fee than was previously agreed to. The two sides finally settled on €5million. Rozehnal did not travel with the side to Denmark and will likely make his debut Monday evening versus Fortuna Dusseldorf on August 3 in the opening round of the Pokal.

Randers FC are based in–you guessed it–Randers Denmark, and finished fifth in the Danish SuperLiga in 2008/09. They qualified for the Europa League via UEFA’s Fair Play rankings Here’s how that business works:

The three highest placed national associations in the UEFA Fair Play ranking will each automatically gain an extra qualification berth for the First Qualifying Round, providing they have exceeded the threshold of games played, and have a minimum average score of 8.0. These berths will then be allocated to the highest placed club in that association’s own Fair Play league that has not yet qualified for either the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League.

Randers have advanced by defeating Northern Ireland outfit Linfield FC 7:0 on aggregate in the first round and FK Sūduva of Lithuania 2:1 (agg.) in the second round.

Here’s the likely starting XI for tonight’s match. Don’t worry if you don’t see a new name or a familiar name–I’m getting to that.

Rost

Demel    Boateng    Mathijsen    Aogo

Trochowski    Jarolim   Ze Roberto   Pitroipa/Castelen

Guerrero    Petric

First, I hope that Romeo Castelen gets the nod over Jonathon Pitroipa tonight–dude has been through a shitload of rehab and hard work to get back to playing condition following successive knee injuries.  Eljero Elia bruised his knee and will be out for three weeks.  Marcell Jansen is hurt, too (his ankle), and did not travel with the side. Marcus Berg is just getting to match-level conditioning and was left home as a result. All, with the exception of Elia, should be ready for the Cup match on Monday and the return leg against Randers next Thursday.

SWAG prediction: Make it 3:1 HSV, with goals by Guerrero, Ze Roberto and Trochowski. Who knows–I haven’t seen any of the matches so far. . .

Quick hits:

-David Jarolim was retained as captain; Joris Mathijsen is the deputy.

-Tonight’s match was not going to be televised in Germany; now it is (on HSV TV–go to the club web site).

Brazilian international Ze Roberto appears to be on his way to Die Rothosen–get this–via free transfer. The soon-to-be-ex-Bayern midfield star had been negotiating a new deal with the Bavarians but the sticking point of the deal was that Ze Roberto wanted a two-year contract and Bayern were only offering one year. His agent promptly turned to HSV and said, Hey, are you interested? To which Herr Hoffmann most likely said Hells yeah! 

Ze Roberto will get his two year deal with an option for a third from HSV at around €4m per annum, which is steep for a guy who is 35.  BUT . . . this is one of the top midfielders in the Bundesliga who has been capped for mighty Brazil 83 times. So the high salary is offset by the fact that HSV are not paying a transfer fee–his contract with Bayern expired on 30 June.

Other News: 

Eljero Elia of Twente is still on the wish list of HSV, but the sticking point in the transfer negotiations is the fee–Twente want €12m and HSV are offering €8m . . .

Jerome Boateng opened some eyes at the U21’s as a central defender and his agent has been contacted by the Special One and representatives of Inter. Boateng, to his credit, has publicly stated he’s staying put.

And finally, a fond birthday wish to Hamburg Offside fave, goalkeeper Frank Rost, who turned 36 yesterday.

Die Wölfe have made a €9 million offer for Petric, he of 20 goals in 41 matches this season.  This is all necessitated by Milan’s flirtations with Edin Džeko.  Naturally, Petric, his agent, and HSV management all replied “Fuhgeddaboudit.” So far.

But what happens when Wolfsburg comes back with an offer of €14 or  €16 million, or more? They have that kind of cash to splash around now that they are in the Champions League next fall.  Didi Beiersdorf was a bit more coy when that question was posed to him. His response? Let’s see the offer on paper before we decide what we are going to do.  Wolfsburg, for their part, have a second option lined up:  Luca Toni.

Petric was a key acquisition for HSV last summer, and with the departure of Olic, I would find it very difficult to believe that HSV would let one of two remaining strikers on the roster be sold. But I thought that about Vincent Kompany and Nigel de Jong, too.

Why misery? Supporters of Die Rothosen don’t need to be told that rock bottom looks a whole lot like giving up a 2-goal, second half lead to a side that is relegation bound. But instead of being told about it, we had to witness it, as KSC managed to stage a comeback for the ages and defeat HSV 3-2. The first goal came on a swing-and-a-miss clearance from new guy Michael Gravgaard. But the killer was Sebastien Freis‘ header goal just as time expired to give the victory-starved KSC a much needed three points. HSV, for their part, blew a gift-wrapped opportunity to go top of the table (albeit temporarily). And the defeat didn’t *only* cost points in the table–Mladen Petric received a straight red when he shoved KSC midfielder Marco Englehardt. The DFB have subsequently upheld Petric’s 2 game suspension and he sat out the following match versus another bottom feeder, Bielefeld. I can imagine the disciplinary hearing at the DFB: 

DFB: The video evidence shows you committing a foul for which the consequence is ejection from the match and a suspension, as defined in the rules. Do you have anything to say on your behalf?

HSV:  Yeah, I mean, c’mon–it’s not like he pulled a gun on him or anything. It’s a little shoving. You all did it yourselves with your mates as you waited for the school bus each morning. No harm, no foul. Am I right, or am I right?

Well, Petric sat out the Bielefeld match Sunday (UGH, and will also miss the crucial match with Leverkusen), but Ivica Olic returned (in more ways than one–he was back to his old running-around-around-the-pitch-like-an-ineffective-madman-for-90-minutes self) from suspension, and as-full-a-squad as we’re going to see took the pitch to take on struggling Arminia. Samba mëister Alex Silva (fully recovered from hernia surgery) was back to manning the midfield, while BMJ gave Michael Gravgaard another shot to redeem himself at central defense. In the sleet and snow, HSV started slowly sans Petric, and did well not to fall behind, as a howitzer blast from Jonas Kamper in the 24th minute was neatly pushed aside by Frank Rost.  In the 32nd minute, the Hanseaten broke the deadlock on a free kick by Piotr Trochowski from 30 yards out. Bielefeld keeper Dennis Eilhoff did just get a hand on the ball, but couldn’t keep it out of the net.  The turning point of the match came in the 55th minute after Alex Silva fouled Robert Tesche in the box. Bielefeld’s ace Artur Wichniarek stepped up to the spot but his low shot down the middle was turned aside by Rost. Five minutes later, Peruvian party boy Paolo Guerrero knocked home an insurance goal with a sublime shot that curled into the upper left corner of the goal.

When the dust (or rather the snow and ice -and sorry Hamburgers, you get no sympathy from me. I live in the US Midwest I get snow and ice several times a week from November to April.) settled, HSV were even on points with the suddenly average Hoffenheim (who fell 4-1 to Leverkusen–HSV’s opponent next week), though in 3rd place on goal differential. The crappy part–if HSV would have won last week versus KSC, they’d be alone in first place.

Wednesday brings the knock out stages of the UEFA Cup with a trip to Eredivisie side NEC Nijmegen. Nijmegen for their part are currently 9th in the table on 32 points–an astounding 25 points behind leaders AZ Alkmaar (remember last season when Louis van Gaal was rumored to be a candidate for the HSV job?). I’ll have news and notes ahead of the Nijmegen match, but I will leave you with this little gem, which makes my heart sing.

As I wrote to a friend earlier, this match had everything–quality shots, up-and-down action, crappy officiating, the works. Hamburg forced the play most of the evening on the Bavarians. I am not going to go into the details of the match–there’s a fairly good recap here. Let’s get right to the news then.

News and Notes:

Bastian Reinhardt left the match at the 64′ mark with a foot injury, further depleating an already thin HSV back line. The diagnosis is a broken metatarsal, and Basti will be out of action for a minimum of 3 months (surgery to repair the fracture was successful this morning). Jerome Boateng came off the bench to replace Reinhardt, but apparently will not keep that spot (see below) for very long.

HSV were very busy at the close of the transfer period, signing 5 new players (in addition to the loan of Marcel Ndjengs, which was completed last week). The new guys are as follows:

•Venezuelan giant Tomas Rincon, on loan from Deportivo Tachira.  

•Mickael Tavares, defensive midfielder, purchased from Slavia Prague (through 2012). I am pretty sure that Tavares is cup tied for the UEFA Cup, but will be invaluable in the DFB-Pokal and the Bundesliga campaigns–a nice pickup for HSV.

•Michael Gravgaard, central defender, on loan from FC Nantes of Ligue 1. He will likely be taking Reinhardt’s spot in the long term. His contract is up this summer and he has stated that he would like to sign a permanent deal with HSV. I don’t know what BMJ has against Jerome Boateng, but he either needs to play him or loan him out. With as little depth as HSV has right now on defense, it would seem natural for Boateng to be called upon. Boateng will likely start at right back versus Karlsruhe with Guy Demel moving inside to replace Reinhardt until Gravgaard is ready.

•Khalid Sinouh, goalkeeper, free agent (last club-AZ Alkmaar).

•Albert Streit, midfielder, on loan from Schalke.  Streit was banished from the dressing room last autumn shortly after joining Schalke from Frankfurt. He comes to Hamburg to fulfill the #10 role that was vacated both by VDV and Thiago Neves. It sounds like Streit got a bad rap as a troublemaker early on at Schalke and never had the opportunity to redeem himself.  REALLY looking forward to seeing this cat ‘ball.

•Speaking of Neves . . . The sale of Neves to Saudi side Al-Hilal was completed at the transfer deadline. The major stumbling block for HSV was the proposed loan from Al-Hilal back to Fluminense. HSV felt that playing in Brazil again would only increase Neves’ value on the transfer market this summer and that they did not want to lose out on any additional revenue that would be generated by him displaying his talents in Brazil for another season. In the end, HSV caved and sold Neves to Al-Hilal for the previously agreed sum of €7 million. So long Neves–truly, we harldy knew ya . . .

Anis Ben-Hatira was loaned to MSV Duisburg of the 2. Bundesliga.

HSV have drawn SV Wehen-Wiesebaden for the quarter finals of the DFB-Pokal. This is another great draw for Hamburg as Wiesbaden are the only 2. Bundesliga side left in the competition. The match will be played at the ‘Bank either 3 or 4 March.

Good news from the training room: Alex Silva (you know, the Brazilian who didn’t suck), resumed training on 3 February following surgery to repair a hernia. He is nowhere near ready to resume playing, though.

HSV come in to tonight’s match following a pretty convincing win (3:1) over the other Munich side (that’d be 1860) on Tuesday with a hat trick from Munich bound Ivica Olic. Meanwhile, the Bavarians are flying high themselves following a 5:1 demolition of VfB, in a match that wasn’t that close.

When these 2 sides last met waaaaaaay back in August, Bayern had been struggling, had a number of injuries (of particular note were Toni and Ribery) and were playing their first Bundesliga match under Jurgen Klinsmann.  Fast forward 5 months and it’s smooth sailing for Bayern, who are presently second in the 1. Bundesliga table on 35 points, have advanced to quarter finals of the DFB-Pokal, and made it through to the knockout stages of the Champions League. There’s plenty of talk of a treble in Munich these days, but I don’t see anybody knocking Barcelona off in the CL (or United for that matter. But I digress. . .).

Contrast that with HSV, who, at the time: Had plenty of their own missing men (via injury and transfer, notably VDV and a pouty Kompany, who was just returned from the Olympics); were playing their first B’liga match under Jol; and had yet to sign now-leading-scorer Petric.  The match ended 2:2 with Hamburg having fought back from a 0:2 deficit with goals by Guerrero and Trochowski (PK). It was a great result for a short handed Hamburg, and one we will be very fortunate to repeat tonight versus a fully-manned Bayern.

Because Olic is suspended for tonight’s match, Paolo Guerrero looks to start up front. Jan opined in a comment on the last post that BMJ prefers to have Guy Demel start at right back over Jerome Boateng (due to the former’s offensive potential), and maybe due to his history of playing against Ribery. I would like to see Marcell Jansen move to left back and replace Dennis Aogo (who was Atouba-esque, circa 2007/08, against 1860), pair new guy Marcel Ndjengs with David Jarolim in the DM,a nd put Hamburg Offside fave Jonathon Pitroipa with Piotr Trochowski on the wings. The good news is that we do now have Petric up front.

Bottom line–HSV can’t afford the poor defensive play tonight they showed at times against 1860.  I am always the optimist, but we will be fortunate to leave the pitch tonight with a draw. SWAG Prediction: 2-2, with goals from Trochowski and Petric.

•Mladen Petric is still nursing a tender calf and missed training again. BMJ expects that he’ll be ready for the DFB-Pokal match with 1860 Munich (I don’t). If he’s not good-to-go for the match, HSV are going to have to go with Jonathon Pitroipa (always a fave at The Hamburg Offside) or Paolo Guerrero (probably Guerrero).

•Alex Silva is due to return to Hamburg from Brazil today following hernia repair surgery. He is in the first week of a projected 4-week recovery period.

•A sad anniversary in the training room–It’s been a year now since Romeo Castelen injured his knee in training. Good news:  He’s finally healthy enough to train on the ball again.

•Finally, some good news from the trainers:  über stud Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting is also back to training on the ball this week. Choupo-Moting, as you may recall,  suffered a knee injury (torn cartilage), had the knee surgically repaired, started rehab-ing the knee, suffered a similar injury to the same knee during the rehab process, and had that injury repaired as well. The Hamburg Offside *loves* Choupo-Moting–he’s a local kid who came up through the youth ranks and is the future face of the club.

•No news from the training room on the status of Thiago Neves. Neves suffered a thigh strain in training camp in Spain. My prepsumption, then, is that he is healthy.

•Nigel de Jong’s departure only means good things to Bastian Reinhardt’s contract negotiations. Reinhardt’s camp have been seeking a 2 year extension to his current deal. There was speculation in the Hamburg media that HSV were dragging their feet on the extension because Reinhardt is getting a little long in the tooth (he’ll be 34 in November). Due to the lack of depth on defense and in the defensive midfield presently, Reinhardt’s bargaining position is a whole lot stronger now that De Jong’s flown off to City.