Circling the drain
By: Chris | May 12th, 2008Our Hanseaten heroes are back to their blundering ways, having lost any momentum they may have gained in their well-played defeat to Bremen, with their away loss to relegation-strugglers Cottbus. Cottbus, for their part, ensured that they will stay in the 1. Bundesliga with a victory. Not sure what else there is to say about this campaign that hasn’t been written already, but I’ll take a stab at it by saying they’re just not talented enough to defeat the top clubs–witness their 0-3-3 record and -3 goal differential versus Bayern, Schalke and Bremen, and if you throw out the results with Bayern (a pair of 1-1 draws), the results are worse–0-1-3. So it is off to the UEFA Cup again next season, though this time, we won’t be qualifying through the Intertoto Cup.
Anna over at the Stuttgart Offside wrote an excellent piece about the “chase” for the UEFA Cup spots given to the Bundesliga. For Hamburg, it’s small consolation to a season that was soooooo full of promise as recently as March.
If you read this blog or follow the Bundesliga at all, you know that HSV and Raphael van Der Vaart will be parting ways come August. Troubling news this weekend in the Daily Mirror outlining Arsenal’s desire to spirit Da Man Vincent Kompany away to North London. The Gooners are said to be offering a €20M transfer fee. A follow-up in Bild over the weekend made a very good point: The last time HSV sold a couple of their core defenders (Daniel van Buyten and Khalid Boulahrouz, prior to the 2006/07 season) the team spent the following season struggling against relegation. Personally, I don’t think they will allow Kompany to transfer this season.
Team Notes:
*Miso Brecko and Mario Fillinger are movin’ on. Brecko will likely return to Rostock; Fillinger is deciding between Fuerth, Mainz and Koln/Cologne.
Category: Bundesliga, Champions League, DFB-Pokal, Eredivise, Match Recap, Raphael van der Vaart, Team News, UEFA Cup
Tags: 1. Bundesliga, Arsenal FC, Bundesliga, Champions League, DFB-Pokal, Energie Cottbus, Eredivise, Hamburger SV, Match Recap, Raphael van der Vaart, Team News, UEFA CupSubscribe
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Comments
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I’d still say there is about a 20% chance of HSV falling to the Intertoto spot, and a 5% chance of being out altogether. I would say Stuttgart is still the surest winner on Saturday, with HSV 2nd, Wolfsburg 3rd and Leverkusen really facing a tough task with Bremen. Of course, I am the person who thought Stuttgart would not drop a point after the Bayern match, so I’m probably full of crap.
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You say Miso Breck is leaving. Too bad. His name always makes me chuckle and slip into a few minutes of Jar Jar Binks-speak. “Miso Brecko my arm! Ouch!”
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