Brilliance

By: Chris | December 10th, 2007

I hate writing that about an opposing side’s keeper, but that’s exactly how to describe the performance of Cottbus’ Gerry Tremmel versus HSV on Saturday. And because of Tremmel’s brilliance, Cottbus stole a point from Hamburg and HSV failed to gain on either Bayern or Bremen in the table.

And did HSV ever have a golden poortunity to gain some ground in the standings. Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich continued their punchless form of late with a 0-0 home draw with MSV Duisburg (who are solidly in the relegation zone on 13 points through 16 matches) while Werder Bremen lost a thriller of a match away at Hannover, 4-3. So, when the leaders draw at home against a crummy, 10-man side and second place plays an error filled match on the road, you have to take advantage, right? Alas, it was not to be. Here is one summary of the match:

“The game was one of one way traffic towards the Cottbus goal for 90 minutes. In the end the statistics read 26 HSV shots on goal to 6 by the visitors. The only reason for the 0-0 result was the Cottbus keeper Gerry Tremmel, who used to be second string at Hertha. Within the opening 10 minutes, Tremmel plucked four corners and several crosses out of the air to deny HSV. On 26 minutes he did well to save a shot by Guy Demel from 11 metres out. Ten minutes later the HSV skipper Rafael van der Vaart could oly look on as Tremmel saved his shot on the turn. Two minutes before half time it was the Cottbus keeper again who was on hand to prevent Paolo Guerrero from scoring in a one on one situation.

“Tremmel was the centre of attention again after the break, as he pushed a Guerrero shot onto a post after fine approach work by Trochowski (53.). The visiting keeper could not complain about having nothing to do as shots rained in on his goal from all angles! A header by Ivica Olic (57.), a van der Vaart free kick (68.) and a shot on the turn by Guerrero all missed the target (73.). Cottbus simply didn’t happen going forward. Instead they camped out in their own half with 11 men behind the ball in the hope of taking a much-needed point home with them. There followed late chances for HSV as van der Vaart somehow missed from only 7 meters out on 80 minutes, before six minutes later, substitute Maxim Choupo-Moting was unlucky not to score with a shot from 12 metres out. The majority of the huge crowd left the HSH Nordbank Arena shaking their heads in disbelief. ”

Hamburg *dominated* this match, to the tune of a 26 -6 advantage in shots-on-goal, 11-1 corners won, and a 70%-30% advantage in time-of-possession. Not sure why they couldn’t convert all of those advantages into goals, but they couldn’t. To paraphrase an American sport cliche’, good teams find a way to win, and on this day, HSV could not find that way with a searchlight.

So what does this all mean? It means that Hamburg blew a splendid opportunity to make up ground in the table with 1 Bundesliga match remaining (away at Karlsruhe) before the winter break. You have to wonder how many such opportunities we will get this season from Werder and Bayern. My guess is not too many more.

UEFA Cup Update: Wednesday past saw HSV take 3 points in Zagreb from Dinamo and punch their tickets to the knockout stages of the UEFA Cup. A late (87′) goal by Nigel De Jong proved to be the game-winner, while Piotr Trochowski converted a penalty in extra-time. This was a really good result, as they best they could have hoped for before visiting Dinamo’s notoriously raucus Maksimir Stadium was a single point. Hamburg now need only a draw in the final match at home to Swiss side FC Basel 1893 on 20 December to clinch first place in Group D. Who cares, you ask? Well, HSV for one, as the first place teams in each group are paired with a group third place finisher in the knockout stage, while the second place finisher is paired with a side “relegated” from the Champions League (the CL group third place). So we have that going for us, which is nice.