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).

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.

On with the list. And, again, please accept my apologies for the dearth of posts this past month.

When last we checked in, HSV were preparing for a visit from the now-mighty Wolfsburg at the ‘Bank. When the dust settled, gone was HSV’s undefeated record at home in all competitions the league (duh–we lost 0:1 to Ajax on Thanksgiving [November]) as Wolfsburg defeated Die Rothosen 1:3 in a match that wasn’t as close as the score would indicate, on a brace from Grafite (who the Hamburg Offside simply cannot stand). That result left HSV in a traffic jam for second place on the table.

Following the defeat to Wolfsburg, Hamburg took on lowly SV Wehen of the 2. Bundesliga in the DFB-Pokal (and by lowly, I mean LOW–at the time of the match, they were dead LAST in the 2. B’liga). HSV went through the motions and came away with a 2:1 victory, after which keeper Frank Rost prophesized (and I’m paraphrasing), If we play this shitty in our league matches, we’re going to get throttled, regardless of who we play. You know, like ‘Gladbach. Who we play Saturday. Well, Rost proved more than prescient because HSV went on the road and had their asses handed to them 4:1. Marko Marin was sublime in his–dare we dream?–audition for HSV, with a nice assist to Rob Friend on the game’s first goal and the final nail in the coffin with a penalty on our oracle Rost. The only good thing to take away from this match was that it seemed  to serve as a much needed wake up call to HSV. Or so we thought. At least I thought so.  In the interim, Hamburg drew arch rival Werder Bremen (Boo! Hiss!) away for the semi finals of the Pokal

HSV are still alive in three competitions–the league, the Pokal, and the UEFA (ne: Europa) Cup. After finishing off Nijmegen in the first knockout round, HSV drew Turkish giants Galatasaray in the round of 32. The first leg was played on 12 March at the ‘Bank and Hamburg played a less than spectacular match, failing to take full advantage of 10-man Gala for most of the 2nd half, allowing the Turks to leave town with a 1:1 draw and an ever-precious away goal (and I take exception to the author’s suggestion that there were 30,000 away supporters at the match; the ‘Bank seats 57,000 TOTAL, and they away supporters had one small section on the lower deck–a more likely number is 3,000).

The following Sonntag, HSV welcomed Cottbus to town and a visit from the relegation strugglers was just what the doctor ordered. Bayern-bound Ivica Olic pounced on the visitors 32 minutes in, and Piotr Trochowski sealed the victory with a lovely goal from about 25 yards out in the 39th minute. HSV kept 10 men in front of the ball for the entire second half and Cottbus could muster nothing more than a couple of extreme range shots.

Which brings us to the return leg of the UEFA Cup. There are few more initimidating venues for visiting football clubs than the Ali Sami Yen Stadium in Istanbul. With HSV playing the return leg on the road, and having conceded an away goal in the home leg of the tie, the prospects for a treble this season looked mighty, mighty bleak. And things did not look any better once the match started. Galatasaray started off the scoring with a penalty by Harry Kewel following a mugging by Jerome Boateng on Milan Baros in the area at the 42′ mark. Baros was not going to be denied this night, as he knocked home an Arda Turan poke with a nifty little lift over the charging Frank Rost just after the restart. Things looked really, really bad for HSV.

But providence smiled upon the Hanseaten and Peruvian party-boy Paolo Guerrero with a blast from another time zone to the top left corner over ‘keeper Morgan De Sanctis. And he wasn’t finished. A scant three minutes later, Guerrero shredded the Gala defense before sliding another goal past De Sanctis, drawing Hamburg even, and giving them 2 away goals for good measure. As if that weren’t enough, Olic sealed HSV’s advance to the quarterfinals with a lob goal right at full time. The amount of heart this side showed to win this match when they were down 3-1 on aggregate in one of the most difficult stadiums venues in Europe cannot be measured. To me, this will be the match we point to when we look back at the turning point of this season.

Up next for Hamburg was perennial contender Schalke 04, except that Schalke aren’t contending this season. Summarily bounced from the CL, and then the UEFA Cup, Schalke are having a rough go of it this year. So much so that their collective performance had already cost sporting director Andreas Muller his job, and the prospects for gaffer Fred Rutten weren’t looking much better. So what did Hamburg do? They put the hammer down and trounced Schalke 1:2 in match that wasn’t that close. Both goals were struck by Guerrero, whose price for a contract extension with the club has gone sky high (his current deal runs through 2010 and the club was looking to lock him up for another 2 years). And, Rutten, too, was shown the door shortly following the HSV defeat.

In the meantime, the draw for the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup has taken place, and Hamburg have drawn Manchester City, a club with which we already have more than one connection. In fact we have two. Two former faves of the Hamburg Offside, Vincent Kompany and Nigel de Jong, now ply their trades at Citeh, and the Citizens snuck into the quarters on penalties over Aalborg. Kompany is now playing in the midfield opposite De Jong and has been quite successful.  Really looking forward to this tie. By the way, should HSV prevail over City, we would play the winner of the Bremen-Udinese tie.

And finally, HSV dished out a little more payback for those 3 3-goal defeats we suffered in the Hinrunde, with a 1:0 victory over suddenly mortal Hoffenheim on Saturday past on a goal by speedster Jonathon Pitroipa in 28th minute.

Well, that’s it for the recap. Thanks again for your kind words whilst I was away. I intend to be back with a post about injuries and who looks to be in and who’s out come this summer, and a quick HSV-City preview before Thursday’s match.

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.

 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.

Yep, in fact it’s been four plus (!) years of futility for HSV against their heated rivals in Hamburg (previous match previews here and here; previous match recap here, for your amusement). You read that right–Bremen have come in and earned a result in every match in Hamburg since a 1:0 victory on 2 February 2003. The winning goal scorer–Sergei Barbarez. To put that into perspective, Gerhard Schröder was still Chancellor . . .

Bremen come into Sunday’s match ninth in the Bundesliga table on 20 points. As is often the case, they have been blistering at times on offense and so-so on defense, having scored a whopping 31 goals in 13 matches, having conceded 24.  Bremen have 3 wins, 2 draws and a single defeat in their last six matches, suggesting that they may have turned the corner in their Bundesliga season and are ready to make a run for the top of the table. Their biggest victory so far has to be the 2:5 drubbing beat down of Bayern Munich on 20 September, a scoreline which frankly still shocks me 2 months later. The visitors will be without the services of Mesut Ozil (suspended); Daniel Jensen and Martin Harnik are out with injuries.  

Hamburg have been 2 different clubs this campaign boasting a robust 5-1-0 at home this season, with only a 1:1 draw with Schalke staining their record, scoring 11 and conceding a paltry 5. The other club (of the 2 different clubs reference)?  Well, they have, ahem, struggled away from home, with 2 victories against 4 defeats, having scored a meager seven goals, while conceding 14(!). BUT, since this is a home match, we need to accentuate the positive. 

NIgel de Jong is out (and will remain shut down for the remainder of 2008 while his injured knee heals), as is Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (knee surgery) and Thimothee Atouba (achilles tendon rupture). Captain David Jarolim is suspended for Sunday’s match, having “earned” his fifth yellow card of the season on Saturday’s trip to Berlin–Joris Mathijsen wears the armband for the first time versus Bremen.

Probable lineup for HSV:

Rost

Demel   Reinhardt  Mathijsen  Jansen

Boateng  Alex Silva

Trochowski  Guerrero  Olic

Petric

Quick notes:

•Alex Silva will draw the assignment of marking compatriot (and flopper-meister) Diego, a job has had many times while training with Brazil. He will not, however, be swapping jersey’s with Diego following the match–that honor is reserved for Naldo, a close friend of Silva’s from waaaaaay back.

•Tim Wiese and Ivica Olic have buried the hatchet (and no, not in Olic’s head).

•This is the most expensive match in HSV history, in terms of ticket prices, and the side want the supporters to get their money’s worth. Same story quotes sporting director Didi Beiersdorfer as saying this is not a season-making (or breaking) match, but a loss sends you midtable (maybe for the remainder of the season) while a victory puts you back in touch with the leaders. Can’t argue with that .  .  .

•History notwithstanding, Mladen Petric IS CONVINCED Hamburg will win out this time.

So .  .  . I think that HSV showed some improvement in the Hertha match, and are playing with better balance (between offense and defense). Their record at home speaks for itself and that alone would normally make this one pretty easy to call. BUT, this is the derby with the most bitter rivals–a rival side that has not lost on HSV’s home pitch in 4+ years. SWAG Prediction:  Lots of offense, a breakneck pace at times, and a helluva ballgame to watch for the supporters of both sides. Bottom line: 2:2. Screw it–make it 3:2 for Die Rothosen.