I’m baaaaack

By: Chris | September 16th, 2009

Hey kids, back in the saddle again following a looooong trip to Central Europe (and no high speed internet) and a nasty bit of emergency dental work (suffice it to say, I love my dog very much and will not *kill* him for knocking out two of my front teeth. . .)

We head into Thursday’s Europa League match in Vienna versus Rapid with a couple of big questions. Like, can Marcus Berg fill the rather sizable shoes of injured Paolo Guerrero (in case the Hamburg Offside is your only source for HSV news–and God help you if it is–Guerrero is lost for [most likely] the season with a blown knee, suffered in a World Cup qualifier for Peru against Venezuela. And when did Guerrero get back on the good side of the Peruvian FA?)? Can HSV continue their great run of form against Champions League qualifiers VfB and Rapid? Well, I can answer yes to the first part of the question as Die Rothosen dispatched Stuttgart 3:1 in a match that wasn’t really that close, on absolute blasts by Mladen Petric and my new fave Eljero Elia, and a very handsome goal by Ze’ Roberto in stoppage time. Let me say this about that–Elia seems to me to be the piece that we’ve been missing for so long. He’s a guy with great pace, great finishing ability and some (OK-A whole lot of) flair. My hope is that he and Berg and Ze’ combined can not only fill the scoring void left by Paolo Guerrero, but give us a better goal differential than last year. My two cents for this week: David Rozehnal started at CD with Joris Mathijsen and did not impress at all. For a big guy, he was waaaaaaay to passive. I think we see Boateng paired with Mathijsen in league and Cup play, and Rozehnal in Europa League matches.

This week HSV travels to Vienna to take on Rapid. Rapid find themselves in the group stage of the Europa Cup on the strength of their 2:2 aggregate defeat (on away goals 1:2) of EPL side Aston Villa. We face Rapid again in the group stage, but not until Matchday 5 (2 December).

Not sure what else to say at this point, other than I don’t know if I want to start talking about our successes for fear of jinxing the club. But isn’t that a supporter thing to do? I think Nick Hornby would agree. . .

I won’t be live blogging the Rapid match, as it happens during the workday in the US, but I will *hopefully* put up a post where we can all sound off on the match.

Thanks for your patience everybody. B-T-W, I am looking for a new wing man, as Evan seems to be missing in action. This is your chance to get in on what looks to be a very memorable season. If you are at all interested, please email Daryl [at] theoffside [dot] com and mention the Hamburg Offside co-blogging position.