Nigel de Jong, Paolo Guerrero, and now Guy Dimmel Demel (I wrote this post at 2AM, Guy–sorry about misspelling your name) are out of the match. Marcell Jansen is questionable but may not play. I’m not even going to write about guys like Thimothee Atouba, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Romeo Castelen any more–none are expected back this season, certainly not Atouba. Demel’s absence means we likely see Jerome Boateng at right back, with Dennis Aogo still manning the left side unless Jansen can go. With Guerrero now out, Thiago Neves looks to get his big chance to get back into the starting XI. He’s going to have to really show me something–I’m just not sold. Regulars Piotr Trochowski, Alex Silva, Ivica Olic and Mladen Petric are all fit and ready to go. Late word this morning that Nigerian wunderkind Macauly Christantus will dress with the first team as well.  Here’s hoping we get to see him play.

Dortmund come into the match unbeaten in their past five Bundesliga matches, but have only 1 victory in that streak–sounds a LOT like Hamburg from last spring.  Jurgen Klopp gets Tamas Hajnal and Nelson Valdez back Saturday, and ever-dangerous striker Kuba returns from nose surgery as well. Tinga is doubtful with a strained abdominal muscle (maybe our Brazilians aren’t very good-because they have 2 names . . .). Other than that, Klopp’s side are pretty healthy.

There are lots of good subplots to this match and it feels a little like a grudge match. The two best stories going are the Petric-Zidan trade and its underlying issues (great story on that trade at the BVB website), and the prolonged manager search at HSV last season which kept Jurgen Klopp in a lurch while he was at Mainz. Interviews with Klopp this week have him saying that he is not upset at HSV for jerking him along, but his choice of words lead me to believe that he is still REALLY pissed off.

Bottom Line: Each time Die Rothosen have lost an away match, they have returned home to make a strong statement about themselves. This one is going to be a cracker:  Make mine HSV 2:1 victors scratch that:  I’ve lost all confidence in anyone (besides shell-shocked Frank Rost) in the HSV defense stopping the other side. Let’s make it 3:3.

Quick passes:

•Mladen Petric is still angry BVB didn’t put up more of a fight for him when HSV swooped in this summer.

•Speaking of Petric, neither he nor Zizzou (ex HSV striker Mohamed Zidan) feel that this game is a duel between the two of them. Yeah, right. No, seriously. They just want to pound the hell out of their former clubs.

•Jonathan Pitroipa has the best hair in town. Hey, I just write the blog-I don’t make this stuff up.

•And if anyone reads this far down in the post, you’ll be happy to know that winter has come to the Midwest. There was an accumulation of snow this morning when I awoke and snow continued throughout the day. Woopee! (I’m not a really big fan of winter).

Here are links to the story in Goal.com , Bild.de , and Hamburg Morgenpost.  The announcement will be made publicly on Friday 9 May.

(wait for it.)

(wait for it.)

(wait for it.)

No offense BMJ (that’d be Big Martin Jol), but six freaking months and the best you can do is Martin Jol?! Six months on, I figured they were cloning Sir Alex Ferguson or something. They (HSV) could have hired him (Jol) in December and maybe booked that spot in the CL instead of pissing it away while the search dragged on. SIGH.

Here’s his bio for those of you who either a) have lived under a rock for the past 3 years or b) aren’t that familiar with the Premiership.

Here are some of the positives things be written about his hire (I’m paraphrasing):  He’s a disciplinarian but also a manager who understands that the players are people; he speaks German; he’s had success when not given much to work with.  The one drawback I’ve read: He’s not a particularly adept tactician.  I have to admit I don’t follow Tottenham, so I wasn’t all that familiar with the man. But he is growing on me the more I read up on him.

Bottom line:  The deal is done-and-dusted. Finally. Like I said, they probably could have hired him in December and save a whole lot of heartache. Hopefully, the cloud will now be lifted from the dressing room and HSV will go out and pound Bremen and get that Champions League spot back.

Last week in this space, I speculated that the club’s directors hadn’t talked to Ex-Spurs boss Martin Jol about the post in a while. Turns out I am pretty prescient. Jol has been contacted about the job and he is the club’s second choice after Gerrard Houllier. Houllier, whose contract as Technical Director of the French Football Federation expired 30 April,  continues to be the leading candidate for the post and contract negotiations are reportedly on-going. Here’s the rub:  Should contract talks with Houllier fall through, HSV are screwed. Why? Because Martin Jol is negotiating with Twente (Enschede) of the Eredivisie about their open position and is reportedly quite close to a deal. Twente, you know, the job that Fred Rutten just left. . . B-T-W, Rutten recently revealed he was set to take the HSV job, but an ongoing disagreement between Dietmar Beiersdorfer (sporting director–wanted Rutten) and Bernd Hoffman (managing director–wanted would-be-Dortmund/current-Mainz trainer Jurgen Klopp) and the subsequent confusion and delay prompted him to accept the Scalke job. 

I find it pretty remarkable that of the 3 clubs in the Bundesliga set to hire new trainers (Bayern, Schalke, Hamburg), 2 had the deal done-and-dusted within a matter of days, and in Schalke’s case, in 5 days. So now we sit and wait to see if Houllier can convince his wife that Paris isn’t all that grand and that life really is better in Hamburg.  Let me know how that works out. . . Why worry, right? This guy and this guy are available . . .

Oh, and HSV travel to Rostock to take on Hansa. Hamburg downed Hansa 2:0 in November.  Vincent Kompany is out with a thigh injury. Paolo Guerrero is nursing a calf-injury but looks to play. David Jarolim returns from suspension and will be in the midfield. This will allow Guy Dimmel to return to his right back position and let Jerome Boateng replace the ever-worthless Timothee Atouba. I can’t WAIT until they get rid of his sorry ass.

I am not going to give a prediction here, as lately when I do so, HSV do the exact opposite. Let’s say this in closing:  If we can’t go out and pound a helpless patsy like Hansa, we don’t deserve to be in European competition. Period.

Most of the team are available tomorrow, with the notable exceptions of David Jarolim (suspended) and Juan Pablo Sorin (injured, AGAIN), but that doesn’t mean that things are on the upswing. This is Team Turmoil. Huub’s on his way out and doesn’t care–he’s managing a CL side next season anyway. VDV is right behind and chances are he’ll be playing in the CL too. So what’s left to play for? Nuthin’. Yeah, we’ll be in European competition next autumn. But still. . .

Schalke come into the match having had a busy week. After sacking Mirko Slomka, who will not be HSV’s new manager (see below), Schalke went out and destroyed B’liga-dregs Cottbus 5-0 at home. Kevin Kuranyi had a nice Frank Lampard-esque afternoon with 4 gates.  And now we know why Fred Rutten kept putting off HSV’s overtures.

My S.W.A.G. prediction: HSV come out and take the full three and draw even with Schalke in the table. 1-0 to the Rotthosen. Skol!

Speaking of clubs with openings for a manager, it looks more and more like Gerrard Houllier will be HSV’s next manager.  His contract with the FFF (French Football Federation) is up in May (as The Church Lady might say, “How convenient. . .”), and now his buddy Alain Cayzac has resigned as president of PSG (They’re bound to be relegated? You don’t say.) so he can politely decline Mssr. Cayzac’s earlier job offer. Negotiations are proceeding quietly and Houllier has some small professional and personal matters to attend to. HSV are reported going to throw something like a €2.5 Million contract his way, so maybe he can keep dual residences in Hamburg and Paris. Let’s hope so. I am tired of this crap.

And that wraps the short but sweet preview for HSV and Schalke. The KLM departure lounge at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport is nice and quiet and pretty deserted this evening. My flight to Amsterdam doesn’t leave for an hour or so and the champagne here is exquisite, and, of course, free. My employer is gracious enough to book us in business class when we travel overseas, and sadly, KLM doesn’t have business class on 747’s–only first class. Sigh. Oh, and Amsterdam is always a crummy place to have to visit, especially in the spring. If you’re near the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, look me up. I usually hang at the Five Bells to watch football and I am often the only eff’ing American in the place. We do get a fair number of Englishmen, though. Skip the London Bridge–it’s too smokey.

n.  A man whose primary allegiance is to his employer  (look whose pic is in the dictionary with that definition).

He’s not going to let another summer go by and miss out on millions by staying with HSV. Nope, he’s encouraging any and all bidders to make a run at him, this season starting with Chelsea. He’s ready to move on from Hamburg, even though they made him a nice offer last summer. He “turned it down because my aim is to move to a big club where I can improve and win trophies.” Because, you know, I haven’t done either of those things at Hamburg and they’re my team.  Go already.  Thank goodness this story is coming around again. I am so sick of writing about how HSV are sucking right now and have pissed given away what appeared to be a sure-thing spot in the Champions League, and I am sick of writing about who their new manager may be. When I write, that is.

On a related note, Gerrard Houllier, too, has told HSV to sod off  thanks-but-no-thanks regarding their manager’s job. I may have to revisit the Succession post and update the candidates and odds at this point. Based on this story, it is looking less and less likely that Fred Rutten is a possibility.  One name that was originally kicked around was Martin Jol. Haven’t heard anything about him in a loooong while.

I am not going to write about the match yesterday with Hertha. If you’re one of those compulsive types who absolutely needs to know, Abby did a great write up here. Suffice it to say, I could only keep up with the match on the GameCast and there was probably more action there than in the real match. Ick.

So who’s missing for the Hertha match? It would probably take less time for me to write who’s going to make the trip. Huub Stevens is out. He is in Eindhoven with his wife, who is undergoing cancer surgery. I am sure that I speak for all HSV supporters when I say that our hopes and prayers are with the Stevens family right now. Assistant Markus Schupp will be managing the side tonight. Raphael van Der Vaart and Timothee Atouba (no big loss–did you see him against Duisburg? He was less than worthless. But I digress.) are serving 1 game suspensions for picking up their fifth yellow cards against Duisburg. David Jarolim is sitting out due to the red card he earned versus Bielefeld. Romeo Castelen is still recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery. And lastly, Vincent Kompany has been left off the roster so that he can get his shit together (I am paraphrasing).  Pretty eff’ing bleak, huh? If you are looking for a little silver lining, Juan Pablo Sorin looks to start tonight and Joris Mathijsen is back from suspension.

 The Hamburg Morgenpost (Mopo) speculates that the now very public controversy surrounding the managerial search is taking its toll in the dressing room. No shit? Hmm. Some writers I know postulated that way back in January. The search is now complicated by the fact that Fred Rutten of Enschede, who at one time was a front runner for the job, is now considered likely to take over at Schalke after Mirko Slomka was sacked. The two leading candidates now appear to be Louis van Gaal of AZ Alkmaar and Gerard Houllier ex. of Liverpool/Lyon/PSG/Lens. A story here  hints that Houllier has already been contacted about the job and is on the verge of accepting the position.

But nevermind the manager search. We have a match today in Berlin. Hertha aren’t exactly setting the Bundesliga on fire this season, and will be without star striker Marko Pantelic (calf injury), Steve von Bergen and Raffael (both out with thigh injuries), and Lucio (knee surgery). So who gets the nod? Let’s go with a 0-0 draw pray we don’t have to talk about another defeat.

News: 

*Great article here about how Hamburg are giving away goals on set pieces. Bottom line:  Defending set pieces is something that can be practiced and perfected, if the players want to improve.

*Juan Pablo Sorin made a triumphant return to the pitch following an extended absence. Sorin has been out all season with an infection in the knee he had surgically repaired over the summer. He came on at 86′ as a replacement for Timothee Atouba.

*Great write-up about the manager search. Louis van Gaal, who recently announced his intention to leave Eredivisie-side AZ Alkmaar at the end of the season, is the latest hot name to be mentioned. Usual suspect Jurgen Klopp of 2. Bundesliga-side Mainz is also kicked around, along with a new name: Schalke manager Mirko Slomka. This story kind of ran out of gas when Slaven Bilic said thanks, but no thanks, and now has some legs again. The fact that the search has been drawn out now 4 months is pissing a lot of people off–from directors of other clubs, like Mainz (who may or may not lose their manager depending on the whims of HSV) to members of the media (who, according to a quote from Berndt Hoffman [chairman of HSV], are making waaaaay too big a deal about this; does that include me? I am pissed this is taking so long. I’m a quasi-member of the media. Does that count for anything?). To quote an oft used phrase in the USA, Get’er Done!

*Mohammed Zidan did not start as expected on Saturday–the start at striker went to Paolo Guerrero–and Vincent Kompany moved up to midfield to take David Jarolim’s (out-suspended) spot. Interesting formation that we may see more of next season, when there is a more conspicuous absence from the lineup.