Bring on Bremen!
By: Chris | November 30th, 2007True to everything written and said earlier this week, Hamburg were not looking past Rennes toward Bremen. HSV cruised to a 3-0 home win (their 14th consecutive match without defeat!) in UEFA Cup Group D action yesterday, and likely booked their ticket to the next round. And now they can focus all their attentions on the Northern Derby coming up Saturday.
Alas, I was not able to see the match live, as I am back in the US and the match wasn’t televised here, and my employer blocks streaming video on our network. Sigh. So here is a second hand review of the match.
After a slow start, Raphael van der Vaart got things rolling by converting a cross from Olic 30 minutes into the match. VDV then assisted local boy Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting 6 minutes from full time (his first goal in European club competition) and substitute Mohamed Zidan converted a penalty in extra-time. All in all, a strong effort with no injuries–we couldn’t have asked for a better result. Huub really has the side playing well at this time. My hope is that they have something left in the tank for their third match in seven(!) days, but I don’t think they’ll have any trouble getting up for Bremen.
And now for Werder Bremen. Bremen come into the match on a high note, defeating reigning Spanish champions Real Madrid 3-2 at home Wednesday without Torsten Frings, Tim Wiese, Hugu Almeida, Tim Borowski, Diego (suspended due to the red card in the Lazio match) and Clemens Fritz (substituted after six minutes)–a fantastic result I will admit. Bremen currently sit 2nd on the Bundesliga table, 1 point off leaders FC Hollywood Bayern Munich and equal of Hamburg. Bremen enter the match unbeaten in their last 9 Bundesliga contests, their last defeat coming at the hands of Dortmund (?!) waaaay back in September. The match also marks the first time for former HSV striker Sanogo faces his old club. Sanogo left Hamburg in August and was blamed for much of the teams offensive struggles in last year’s campaign.
My SWAG prediction: Let me break out an American sports cliche’ and say this is going to be a hard fought, physical contest. van der Vaart is really in an offensive groove right now and I think he’s good for a tally and a helper to Castelen or Olic. Bremen are flying right now coming off the Real victory and will get scores from Diego and Sanogo for an entertaining 2-2 draw.
Probable lineups:
Werder Bremen: Vander – Pasanen, Mertesacker, Naldo, Tosic – Baumann – Vranjes, D. Jensen – Diego – Sanogo, Rosenberg
HSV: F. Rost – J. Boateng, B. Reinhardt, Mathijsen, Atouba – Jarolim, Kompany – Castelen, van der Vaart, Trochowski – Olic
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Here are 4 minutes worth of highlights:
http://www.dailymotion.com/search/hamburg+rennes/video/x3me2d_30-hamburger-sv-vs-stade-rennes-uef_sportI’m really looking forward to this match, though I could imagine it not being able to live up to the hype. Bremen’s win was as much a brilliant team effort as it was outrunning Real Madrid whenever possible. So they could be exhausted. Hamburg only have one day of rest, though it looked like they didn’t really need a lot of energy against Rennes. In the worst case you’ll see two tired teams playing out a defensive battle. But an exciting 2-2 draw would be great indeed.
Though, I much rather would like to see either of the two teams take all three points. Otherwise Bayern can move three points clear of both teams.
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Germany
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The Bremen-Real match wasn’t televised in the US, so I didn’t see it. I see your point about two tired sides playing a defensive battle.
On a very happy note, this match will be televised live on GolTV in the US. Woohoo!
After this weekend, I am going to tackle the subject of Huub’s successor. Any thoughts?
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Just a quick note. The Bremen-Real Madrid game was televised in the US. It was the “delayed” match on ESPN Classic at 5 pm. (For those who don’t know already, ESPN2 runs a live match at 2:30 on matchdays and ESPN Classic runs a different game on tape at 5 pm. Typically, the games involve an English or Spanish League team. Moreover, for the Spanish-speakers, or people who don’t care, ESPN Deportes usually repeats even more of the games throughout the week).
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United States -
JK-Thanks for the tip. I Tivo’d the Chelsea-Rosenberg match on the Deuce, but I didn’t see the Bremen-Real match in the listings.
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United States -
A recording of the ESPN Classic broadcast of Werder – Real is probably available somewhere on the internet I could imagine.
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Germany -
About Huub Stevens successors: how about an outside bet on Otto Rehagel? Rehagel loves the defence first school of thinking as well and has a lot of international and Bundesliga experience. Though, he’s probably not the most modern of coaches. But he has postponed contract negotiations with Greece, who would like to extend his contract beyond next summer. If he doesn’t extend his contract with Greece he’ll be a free agent right in time for Hamburg.
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[...] European success. (Hamburg Offside) [...]
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United States -
[...] on 49 points through 18 games. That puts them 15 points clear of the second place team Rijeka. Hamburg’s last UEFA Cup match was just six days ago–a 3-0 home beatdown of Group D pats… They sit first in Group D on 6 points. Domestically, HSV come of a difficult loss away to Werder [...]
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