HSV Beat – Wait, Beat? – BVB

Son Shines the Light to End Dortmund’s Unbeaten Run

Ilicevic looks a lot like Schweinsteiger here, no?

Dortmund’s amazing 31 game unbeaten streak ended on Saturday, as Hamburger SV whipped up a surprising victory that few would have imagined. Heung Min Son and Ivo Ilicevic lead the way with impressive goals, and Ivan Perisic helped Dortmund’s cause with two of his own. The game was exciting from start to finish, with the Imtech Arena as loud as it’s been for the past couple of years – and in the end HSV pick up their first three points of the season while Dortmund fall five points behind Bayern Munich.
The game started with a shocker in the second minute – Rafael Van der Vaart was drifting down the left hand side, sent in a cross that surely Subotic or Hummels would deal with – but then it was the head of young Heung Min Son who met the ball, and hit it past Roman Weidenfeller! Hamburg erupted in surprise jubilation, and spent much of the first fifteen minutes in control of the game. Dortmund were perhaps a bit sluggish coming off of their champions league victory in midweek – something that they’ll have to learn to cope with as well as Bayern has over the years – and Marco Reus was uncharacteristically poor in his distribution and dribbling. As the minutes went by, Dortmund forced a few good saves out of Rene Adler (who is already showing that he is back in form with three wonderful outings out of three this young season), but the half ended with HSV deservedly ahead. But things were only about to get started!
Much like the beginning of the first half, the beginning of the second half shot off with a shocking goal – this time for Dortmund. Ivan Perisic looked to attempt a left-footed cross into the box, but in actuality ended up hitting a curling effort right over the confused Adler and into the net. Dortmund were back in it, and one had to expect that they would now fully impose themselves on a team that battled relegation last season.
But it was not to be – BVB continued to send people forward in numbers even as HSV weren’t exactly parking the bus, and it came back to bite them in the 55th minute. Rafael Van der Vaart snuck a perfectly timed pass to the feet of Ivo Ilicevic, who looked to be a bit too far off to the left to really get his shot off – but he instead wound up and sent an absolute laser beam at Weidenfeller, who perhaps could have done more to keep it out at his near post. Nonetheless it was an impressively struck shot, and HSV were up 2-1.
Just four minutes later, it was absolute bedlam in the Hanseatic City, as Heung Min Son finally showed why he has been so highly rated in Hamburg for the past couple of years despite being very sporadic on the pitch. Son received the ball on the right flank, drifted in, dribbled between two Dortmunders and then sent a curling, left-footed shot into the far corner of the rooted Weidenfeller’s goal. The stadium absolutely erupted, and HSV could scarcely believe how well things were going.

A moment of bedlam!

But after the drunk celebrations, came a hangover – only a minute later, HSV were completely confused on defense and decided that they’d better play it safe by leaving Rene Adler alone in front of four open Dortmunders. An open goal tap in for Perisic was what resulted, and the game was back on: 3-2 in the 60th minute.
Adler produced many fine saves over the final 30 minutes, and “Kuba” Jakub Blaszczykowski could have done more after receiving the ball in front of the former Germany number one. But after some staunch HSV defending and surviving Dortmund’s berating attack at the end, Hamburg come out deserved victors. They also protect their own historical unbeaten streak of 36 games that Dortmund were knocking on the door for.
A huge step forward for die Rothosen, who looked a fine attacking outfit today. Badelj helped to control the game out of midfield, Van der Vaart had two assists, and Son flashed his talent in a huge way. Things, for the first time in a long time, looked very positive after this one.
For Dortmund, they needed to be more focused at the back and need to figure out how Götze and Reus can link up better – but most importantly, they’re already five points behind an extremely strong Bayern side that will not drop many points throughout the season.
A famous victory for a big team who’ve fallen on hard times. Maybe this is the start of something good in northern Germany.

Player Ratings

Adler – 7.5 – Stopped everything that he possibly could have in this one, though his passes out of the back never seem to end up with HSV back in possession. Anyone still questioning if he can return from his injury to be like his old self can now shut up/

Diekmeier – 6.5 – Had an interesting dual with Perisic and Schmelzer, and largely bested Schmelzer – though afforded Perisic too much space at times. A really lovely display from someone who gives Hamburg a lot more than Bruma does at the same spot. A true RB, at least.

Mancienne – 6.5 – Marshaled Lewandowski quite well for the majority of the match, and helped cover spots with his pace. Sometimes was overrun by Dortmund’s passing.

Westermann – 6.5 – Dominant in the air throughout the match, but gave away too many fouls in tough positions. Passed well out of the back and did his part as well as could be asked for.

Jansen – 6.0 – Is a good alternative for Aogo at LB, but can also be bested by a tricky winger or quick passing in a similar manner to Aogo. Was solid defensively with some good tackles, but had a fair share of difficulty against the Polish combo of Kuba and Piszczek. Too many misplaced passes.

Badelj – 7.0 – Really nice game from Milan, who gave everything he had for the cause – including blocking a shot with his groin. Passed and dribbled very nicely, and really formed a good combination with Arslan. VdV, Arslan and him all had the most completed passes for HSV – exactly what Fink wants out of that triangle. Won 23 duals today – as much as either Westermann or Mancienne. Looks like the real deal, even if he is somewhat unassuming looking.

Arslan – 7.0 – I read that Tolgay was going to start in DM and thought that Fink must have lost his mind. Nothing about Arslan suggests that he would be strong defensively – but alas I am not in practices! Was really tremendous there, and controlled the run of play with ease. Used his dribbling and intelligence to wrong foot defenders from a deep position, and even helped marshal Götze. Surprisingly wonderful.

Ilicevic – 7.5 – Was involved much more than Jansen in buildup play, and was generally willing to try ideas. Had an absolute laser goal that Weidenfeller couldn’t see it was moving so fast, I guess. His style of play benefits from the strong new midfield a lot.

Van der Vaart – 7.0 – Had two assists and was extremely creative and full of vision the whole match, but drifted out of the game for a while and had a pretty nasty yellow card. Like against Bremen, he dropped back to control the game from deep in the second half.

Son – 8.5 – Wow. His first goal was a nice header, but his second was world class. Will be watching the highlight of that one for a while. Also put on a nice display of talented dribbling and defensive work, and even didn’t dwell on the ball too long for the most part. The talent shines through – let’s hope he starts to play with this confidence and decision making every week!

Rudnevs – 5.5 – Had a pretty cool attempt at a bicycle kick that went wide, but was otherwise not involved enough even though Dortmund’s defense was often stretched. Couldn’t win aerial duals against Subotic and Hummels.

SUBS

Beister, Berg and Sala all came on but weren’t involved enough to grade really. Berg wasted a very nice opportunity when he was past the BVB defense, but instead chose to dribble backwards back into midfield and give away the ball. Beister did very little but did clear a header off the line.

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Category: Team News