Oh my freakin' leg!

News today that in-form striker Mladen Petric is out until the Winter Break following an ankle injury suffered in the Hertha match Sunday. So, no, I am not sorry at all the their shitty 3rd string keeper gave away two goals–we’re going to need all the points we can get with both our starting forwards out. Oh, and Petric is having surgery tomorrow in Basel, Switzerland to repair tendon damage. So if you’re keeping score at home, that’s our top 2 strikers both down with injuries until January and February.

So who’s going to fill in? Likely Tunay Torun, who has been playing quite well as of late, and Tolgay Arslan, who has not yet made an appearance this season. More news as this plays out.

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.

•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.

De Jong did not return with the team to Hamburg following the conclusion of the training camp in La Manga, Spain (he travelled to Manchester for a physical) and did not play in yesterday’s 3:0 victory over Hansa Rostock. And as a complete aside, has there been a more precipitous fall in recent memory than Rostock? Two years ago they were in the 1. Bundesliga, then were relegated after last season, and now are in danger of being relegated from the 2. Bundesliga. Yikes.

So our attention now can turn to three topics: 1) New transfers; 2) the DFB-Pokal match versus 1860 Munich on Tuesday; 3) the Bayern match on 30 January.

For new transfers, there have been a number of rumors reported in the comments of the last post regarding players from Belgium, notably Steven Defour of Standard Liege and Lucas Biglia of Anderlecht.  In today’s online edition of Kicker.de, the name of Stade Rennes defensive midfielder Stephane Mbia was bandied about and HSV are reportedly negotiating a transfer. From what I found on the Rennes club website, I like this Cameroon international. Mbia is 22 years old and is under contract with Rennes until 2012. Mbia has been capped 12 times scoring 3 goals, and his national coach says he is the real deal/next big thing/all that and a bag of chips/etc. He is also being scouted by Newcastle (who isn’t?). Christian Paulson and Demy de Zeeuw are still rumored to be in the mix.

As for the Cup tie with 1860, Ivica Olic still does not know his status following the red card in the Hoffenheim “friendly” last week. A suspension looks likely, but since the match was a friendly (and not a DFB sponsored contest), there is some speculation that only a fine to be donated to charity is in the offing. Mladen Petric sat out the Rostock match with a sore calf, but is expected to train and play versus 1860 Munich.

That’s all well and good, but what should HSV do with the dough? I’d love to hear your comments on:

•Replacement for De Jong. The name we continue to hear is Mark van Bommel of Bayern, but lately we also are hearing Christian Paulsen of Juve, *and* newly trialed Marcel Ndjengs (formerly of ‘Gladbach). The old Demy de Zeeuw rumor from the fall doesn’t appear to have any legs, so I don’t know what to make of it. Personally, I’d love to see Van Bommel.

•Replacement for Olic. My good friends at the Abendblatt say that Serb striker Milan Jovanovic of Standard Liege would be a good fit and is available for around €7M. I have *no* idea on this one.

•Any other moves before the 30 January match at the ‘Bank with Bayern. I think we need some additional depth on defense. When Alex Silva comes back, he may take De Jong’s spot (he was outstanding there while De Jong was rehabbing his knee) and we may be looking for more defense. There is another rumor swirling around that Rafael van der Vaart may be coming back to the fold, but it wouldn’t be until this summer.

Bear in mind that Alex Silva is out until approximately the first week of February and that Atouba is done for the year.

MoPo opines that De Jong and Hamburg should take the money and run.  I am really confused about how I feel about this. For one thing, I think we’ve got a side that can challenge for a CL posiition–seriously, Hertha is only ahead on goals, so any slip up by them and we are in the qualifying spot, and how will Ibisevic’s knee injury affect TSG’s chances of hanging at the top? For another, I am just getting over VDV’s and Kompany’s transfers (and now Olic’s)–I don’t know if I could take it if De Jong leaves too (he has always been one of my favorites). BUT, the money the Citizens (rather, the sheikhs) are offering is almost as much as the fees paid for Kompany and VDV combined.  And HSV have already targeted Mark van Bommel (what is this Dutch roulette?),  Christian Paulsen of Juventus, and old target Demy de Zeeuw as a potential replacements, and have already trialed former ‘Gladbach midfielder Marcel Ndjengs. Not too shabby. Could HSV qualify for the CL with either MVB or Paulsen manning De Jong’s midfield spot? Probably.

Quick Hits:

•Yesterday was BMJ’s 53rd birthday. Cheers!

•If you haven’t heard, Olic and Carlos Eduardo got into a fight in the friendly versus TSG (HSV won 2:0). Seems Eduardo took offense to Olic’S very hard charge when he was without the ball near the touchline. Both guys were given straight reds and now are left waiting to see if the DFB will suspend them.

•Alex Silva’s hernia surgery was successful.

Since we last checked in, HSV laid a pretty good beating on the Aston Villa reserves at the ‘Bank, with the final being 3:1 for Die Rothosen. As a result, HSV won Group F and drew a third place side from the UEFA Cup (and not one of the CL dropouts), and lo and behold, we have NEC Nijmegen in the knockout round. Nijmegen finished third in Group D behind Udinese and Spurs. They currently sit eighth in the Eredivisie table on 26 points, 15 points adrift of surprise leaders AZ Alkmaar. Winner of the HSV-Nijmegen matches take on the winner of the Bordeaux-Galatasary.

News:

•We are still waiting on Ivica Olic’s “decision” about whether to transfer to Bayern this summer or to stay with HSV. Olic’ agent, Gordon Stipic, originally told the press that Ivi would make an announcement on New Year’s Day, but here we are a day later and still no news. When the announcement comes, if anyone is surprised that Olic chooses Bayern, he/she shouldn’t be–Bayern has offered a 3 year deal worth €4.5M per year, with mutual options for 2 more years, plus a €4M signing bonus. Contrast that with the extension HSV has on the table at €3M per year (up from the €2.5M he earns now and no signing bonus, for a whopping €8M less than Bayern. . .), and it’s easy to see why Olic is outta here. If there is any good news in this story, it’s that he is not going to transfer in January but will wait until his contract with HSV is up and move on in the summer. Good luck, Ivi, it was fun while it lasted.

•Thimothee Atouba has rejected a contract extension from the club and now the club has withdrawn the offer. Another very poor decision by Atouba, whose contract expires at the end of the season. Those of you who read this blog with any frequency know that I have no love lost for Atouba. I think that BMJ coming in really rejuvenated him. BUT, his contract was up and HSV did not owe him an extension adn was really doing the right thing by offering him an extension when he was hurt so he didn’t have to worry about not getting a contract while he was rehabbing. And frankly, a guy who is recovering from a pretty severe injury is not, IMO, going to get too many good deals on the open market. Really stupid move by Atouba’s camp. Atouba has released his agent and that agent has told the MoPo that he will sue Atouba and his new representative if he does end up re-signing with Hamburg.

•The side are in Dubai for their annual winter training camp and play a friendly versus AC Milan on Tuesday 6 January. And yes, Becks is expected to dress and play for Milan. While in Dubai, HSV management hope to negotiate a new shirt sponsorship deal with Emirates Airlines. The current deal, which expires later this year, pays €5.5M per year, and the club had hoped for a 3 year extension with a significant increase in value. Instead, the sheiks are said to want a new deal, probably for only €7.5M per year. This will be an interesting story to follow for a couple of reasons: One, Emirates already is the primary shirt sponsor for (in no particular order) Arsenal, PSG, and aforementioned Milan as a co-sponsor, and they could balk at HSV’s demand for more dough; On the other hand, HSV are a staple in European competition now and are contending for the Bundesliga crown regularly (if not winning it, SIGH). Add to that the fact that ‘Gladbach and Hertha both have endorsement deals ending and the market for both clubs and sponsors would appear to be, to coin a financial term, fluid.

•Nigel de Jong continues down the road to recovery after rehabbing his sore knee. He looks to make his comeback against Milan on Tuesday and play15 or 20 minutes according to BMJ. In an interview with Bild, he says he looks to sign a contract extension in early January. BMJ has stated that there has been no continuity in the midfield since his injury. My feelings exactly.

•An HSV player made an all first-half team–Surprise! It’s Thiago Neves . . .

•A nice little rumor story in Bild last week about current German national and Hannover goalie Robert Enke leaving when his contract is up in 2010. That happens to be the same year that current HSV ‘keeper Frank Rost’s contract runs out .  .  .

And finally, Happy New Year’s to everyone who reads the Hamburg Offside. If you celebrate Chinese New Year, you may want to use some of your red envelopes to place a wager on HSV. Over at Statto.com, Hamburg are getting 21:1 odds, which are high, considering Bayern are going at 3:2 right now and Hoffenheim and Leverkusen are 7:1 and 13:1 respectively, but oh what a payout you’ll get. By the way, Statto, while arguably a betting site, has the *best* Bundesliga statistics on the Internet. Period. I give them a hearty endorsement.

 Frankfurt come into the match 11th in the table on 19 points. Die Adler are sporting a 5-1-4 record over their last 10 league matches, while posting a 2-0-2 record on the road in the same 10-match span. Frankfurt’s leading scorer is Greek international Nikos Liberopoulis (a personal favorite of mine for 2 reasons: One, I just *love* saying the guy’s name–say it with me, Liberopoulis, see?; and two, the dude just has some mad skillz–this cat can ‘ball), who has tallied a healthy 7 gates in 12 Bundesliga matches this season.

Last time out, Frankfurt cruised to a comfortable 4-0 victory over 10 man Bochum. Bochum’s keeper Daniel Fernandes took down Martin Fenin in the area five minutes in, right after Fernandes threw him the ball. Long story short, Fernandes was tossed and my boy Liberopoulis converted from the spot. Liberopoulis added another goal before the break, with Markus Steinhofer and Marco Russ piling it on for the hosts.

This week, Frankfurt will likely be without (in no particular order): Oka Nikolov (foot), Christoph Preuss, Christoph Spycher, Ioannis Amanatidis (all knee surgery), Zlatan Bajramovic (toe), Umit Korkmaz (broken foot), Alexander Meier (unfit) and Chris ([another personal favorite-like his name, too ] shoulder surgery). Wow.

HSV return home following their just their third road victory of the season over Köln. Die Rothosen are sporting a 3 game unbeaten streak in the Bundesliga, and sport a lovely 6-1-0 record at the ‘Bank so far. Interesting bit to note:  Of the 24 goals Hamburg have conceded to date, 17(!) have come in the first half–a whopping 8 have come in the first 15 minutes. Not good, people, not good.

Some good news from the hospital ward–Bastian Reinhardt and Alex Silva both feel well enough to play Saturday. Whether or not they get the green light from the medical staff is another story . . . BMJ says in the story that he (Alex Silva) has never had an injury and he wants to play, BUT he only did 20 minutes on a treadmill yesterday. Reinhardt, for his part, says he can take painkillers and go. That’s the spirit! If they can’t go, HSV are going to be a bit shorthanded Saturday, as the Guy Demel is suspended.

Assuming Alex Silva and Reinhardt can’t go, here’s one man’s starting XI:

Rost

Boateng  Odjidja-Ofoe  Mathijsen  Aogo

Benjamin

Jarolim                                Jansen

Trochowski

Petric             Olic

Two things: I know Odjidja-Ofoe is more of a holding midfielder, but there is nobody, I mean NOBODY else on the side to play defense; And, following the defeat to Hertha, BMJ has gone with a 4-4-2. In the matches (both UEFA Cup and league), HSV are 3-1-0, with 7 goals to 3 conceded.  A little more defensive, dare I say, Huub-esque, but effective nonetheless.

Swag Prediction:

In the last seven matches with Frankfurt in Hamburg, HSV are 5-1-1, scoring 13 and conceding 5 over that span. Add in our outstanding home record this season, and I’m thinking 3-2 HSV.

For a Frankfurt supporter’s take on things, head over to the Frankfurt Offside and see what Ollie has to say.