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.

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.

•Tuesday’s friendly versus Spanish side Cartagena was cancelled. BMJ had only *8* healthy bodies in training on Monday, and wanted as many players fit as he could get for Thursday’s friendly with Bundesliga leaders TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.

•Alex Silva has a hernia and will miss the next four weeks following surgery, and this includes the first match of the second half versus Bayern on 30 January. The club was rather unhappy that he chose to return to Brazil to have surgery rather than have the repair made in Europe. Yikes. Our back line is as shallow as a kiddie pool at this point. . .

•Nigel de Jong has signed a  is looking for a contract extension through 2011.

•Speaking of De Jong, his injured knee has healed sufficiently to allow him to begin training again. His play in training has reminded some of a young Uwe Seeler.

•Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe has been sold to FC Bruges of the Belgian Eerste Klasse. Odjidja-Ofoe, all of 19, was signed by HSV from Anderlecht in January 2008, but made only 2 appearances as a subsitute for HSV.

•Hamburg Offside punching bag Thiago Neves and Guy “don’t spell my name Dimmel” Demel have not trained this week due to thigh bruises.