HSV keeps winning – despite all the controversy

By: Mark | January 24th, 2011

Hamburger SV keeps popping up in the soccer news circles lately, but not much of it has to do with the team’s performance! The latest news on Ruud van Nistelrooy is that the HSV board have rejected a 2 million Euro offer from Real Madrid that would also have included a friendly match to celebrate HSV’s 125th year. Apparently Ruud himself would have paid half of that transfer fee! But HSV have reiterated that they need to keep him on the team as they make a push to qualify for European competition next season. The rest of the team’s striker options have been inconsistent and/or injured this season, so getting rid of van Nistelrooy just as he begins to get hot would be a big mistake. I hope we’ve heard the end of the transfer saga, but next week we’ll know for sure as the transfer window slams shut.

The other news surrounding the team last week was the possible signing of Matthias Sammer from the DFB. Sammer was to be hired on as Hamburg’s new sporting director, possibly replacing Bastian Reinhardt. Well, Sammer decided to fulfill his current contract with the German National Team, so we are out of luck for the time being. I was hoping we would get someone on the staff who could find some more young talent for the team and start a system to work them into the starting squad at HSV. Maybe after 2013 we’ll get him? For more on this, check out this article on the english site of Deutsche Welle: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,14776299,00.html . I was asked to provide some opinions for this piece, so look for my comments under the “Culture of Success” paragraph.

So, now that the non-soccer news is out of the way, how was Friday night’s match?

Well, Hamburg won again! Another hard fought 1-0 victory, this time against Eintracht Frankfurt, who were hot on the heels behind Hamburg in the standings. The win puts Hamburg in 6th place, 3 points behind 5th. That’s 3 wins in a row now and it’s great to see them moving up in the table with each successive match.

The match itself started out a bit slow, but Hamburg were looking good controlling most of the play and trying to get some scoring chances. I though Elia looked good on the left side with some tricky footwork and good crosses. He has a bit of a spark now, and I like it! I was also happy with Trochowski filling in for Jarolim in defensive midfield. I think with Ze Roberto by his side, Piotr has a bit more confidence to hang onto the ball and look for good passes, because he knows Ze is there to back him up if need be. He’s not playing a very defensive role, but now that the back 4 is looking solid, Piotr can play with things a bit and try to control the midfield. I think he has a lot more quality than some people give him credit for.

I say the back 4 looked solid, but when Gojko Kacar had to be taken out after bashing heads jumping for the ball, I was a little worried. Guy Demel moved into central defense with Thomas Rincon coming in at right back. Well Rincon put in a feisty performance and stopped 2 or 3 Frankfurt scoring chances from becoming dangerous. I have to accept Rincon as a good all around defensive sub in these situations. He’s not my first pick for a starting role, but he is a useful player to have on the bench.

Onto the second half – and in comes Mladen Petric back from injury! I knew he was hoping to get in 20 minutes or so, but since Jonathan Pitroipa got a slight knock in the first half and wasn’t creating a lot of chances, Armin Veh decided to bring in Petric at the 45 minute mark. His decision paid off in a big way, with Petric scoring a clutch goal as he is getting known to do. What a great goal it was too – Heiko Westermann had the vision to send a long ball across the field to Ben-Hatira at the right side of the penalty area. Ben-Hatira made a fancy move to deke out the defender and send a low cross in front of the goal to where both Ruud and Mladen slid in for the shot. Petric’s sliding foot made contact and we got to see his signature bow-and-arrow celebration again. What a play. Ben-Hatira I should add was impressive for the second game in a row and is making a case for himself to keep the starting striker role beside RvN. I’m fine with that until Petric or Guerrero are fully fit, and even then it will be a fight for them!

Well that’s about it. The only area of improvement I would like to see now from this team is a few more goals per game. I’ll take the wins any way they get them, but let’s have a little less stress please! But I like the overall game right now – Hamburg are calm, controlling the ball, but still putting in some impressive runs from the wings, or looking for opportunities to use the long ball to the target men up front. If things continue this way and they stay out of injury trouble, we may be happy at the end of the season!