Hamburg escaped with their pride in tact with a 3-1 victory over Ingolstadt in their opening match of the DFB Cup. Ivica Olic continued with the hot foot, scoring a pair of goals a mere 3 minutes apart (51′ and 54′). Match reports say that HSV got off to, ahem, a rather sluggish start, and they trailed 1-0 after 33 minutes. They were a new team upon returning from the dressing room though, and controlled play most of the second half. Good that they got a victory, but Bayern will not let them off the hook like Ingolstadt did. Paolo Guerrero tacked on an insurance goal in injury time to finish off the scoring.

•Hamburg need to replace Van der Vaart’s production, and they aren’t going to do it with Piotr Trochowski alone. 

•David Jarolim is the new captain.  Frank Rost had been the captain for the Emirates Cup matches, but BMJ decided he wanted a player in the field to be captain. Pardon the pun, but frankly, I thought Rost was a better choice.

•Vincent Kompany’s trip to the Olympic Games was short. He played the match with Brazil, got a pair of yellow cards for his troubles, sat out Belgium’s match versus China as a result and hopped a plane back Hamburg per the Belgian FA’s agreement with HSV. BUT, it seems that Vince wasn’t ready to head home just yet. It also appears that young Mr. Kompany has pushed his new manager too far and may be available for sale, even this summer.  Uh-oh.

•Timothee Atouba is being sought by “2 or 3″ English clubs, and Celtic is still one of them (even though they’re Scottish, not English). Apparently (and I say apparently because I did not see the match) Atouba was back to his atrocious ol’ ways Saturday versus Ingolstadt. He had played solidly, if unspectacularly, in the Emirates Cup and raised his profile on the transfer market. His agent says he is planning on his client playing at HSV this year. You all know how I feel on this subject.

•Newly acquired midfielder Dennis Aogo missed the DFB Cup match with FC Ingolstadt with a leg-muscle tear in his right Gluteus Maximus. He will be out from 2 to 6 weeks and will also miss the Bundesliga season opener at Bayern.

•News today that HSV are looking to sign Lens midfielder Nenad Kovacevic.  Nice player who tallied a grand total of ZERO goals each of the last 2 seasons with Lens. Good thinking–replace a guy who scored 29 goals in 70+ games with a guy that has scored zero in a similar number of games in a lesser quality league. The bad(?) news–Jueventus are also interested in him. His price is said to be in the €4-5m range.

•Here’s a rumor bound to make some of the readership happy–Hamburg are looking to pry striker Mido away from English Premiere side Middlesbrough. Mido played for HSV manager Martin Jol at Tottenham, and Jol is confident he can get the most out of the mecurial Egyptian. Jol has really done the trick with Mohamed Zidan. No way Mido replaces all  of Van der Vaart’s production, but this ceratinly is a step in the right direction. Unlike that Kovacevic business . . .

According to a story here, the deal is done and done. The source of the report is Cadena Ser, which is, according to Wikipedia, “the principal radio station in Spain” and “a leader in covering sports.” OK, so maybe a slightly  more credible source. . . BUT, doesn’t this strike anyone else as odd that this is the literally the same “story” (read:  fabrication) that Asreported earlier this week. This is followed up by statements from HSV management that there has been no contact from Real since they (RM) made their initial €5.5m offer–almost as if HSV management were saying, Hey look guys, if we’re gonna make a deal, you at least have to talk to us. A final check of the most credible source on the subject–The Hamburger Morgen Post–yielded this gem. To paraphrase, Mopo seems to think that we will be witnessing Rafa’s last matches in an HSV kit this weekend. If Real is going to buy him, HSV had better stick to their hard line approach and get the €12m they really want for VDV. This is starting to become a distraction for the club, not unlike the search for a new manager this spring.

Saturday, HSV square off against the aforementioned Real in an Emirates Cup match. The match starts at 2PM BST (9AM EDT) and every eye in Emirates Stadium will likely be on Rafa to see whether he can tempt RM into offering more dough. Sunday, Serie A giants Juventus are on the docket (2PM BST/9AM EDT).  And best of all, both matches are going to be televised (GolTV) in the US. I’m not going to offer a prediction for either match . Here’s hoping for some really entertaining football, especially if it’s the last we’ll see of VDV in the Rothosen.