News and Notes

By: Chris | February 12th, 2008

I can’t bring myself to write about the match versus Leverkusen (as I couldn’t to write about the Hannover match, either). Suffice it to say that Frank Rost was a stone wall between the woodwork and the result could have been much worse. Right now, they can’t put a concerted defensive effort on simultaneous with some offense. It’s maddening to watch. That, and the fact that their consecutive draws to Hannover and Bayer Leverkusen have dropped them from a CL-qualifying third in the table to fifth(!) behind Schalke and Leverkusen (on differential). Musn’t lose the faith, though, there is still a lot of football to be played this spring, er winter. Whatever.

So on to the news:

The van der Vaart-to-Juve movement stopped dead in its tracks in January after a whole lot of hype. Seems that Juve want Bremen’s Diego now. But fear not, there is a new side looking longingly at vdV. You may have heard of them–they play in west London, and it ain’t Fulham. Even went so far as to send their head scout to the Leverkusen match. Original aritcle appears here; translated to English here. It begs the question: Who is on the way out at Chelsea–Ballack? Lampard? A story here says that Lampard and his Catalan wife have been house hunting in Barcelona recently, and if Frank Rijkaard steps down from Barca this summer, he (Lampard) would get out of his Chelsea contract on a technicality. Why would Frankie go to Camp Nou, other than for the money, the weather and the beaches? Because Jose Mourinho would take the reins at Barca, that’s why.

Huub replacement update: Club management refused to take my suggestion of conducting their coaching search a la OJ (on the golf course) and have instead taken a more traditional approach by interviewing candidates without asking the permission of the candidate’s current employers(translated). It seems that the pronouncement that the final two candidates were Fred Rutten of Eredivisie-side Twente Enschede and Jurgen Klopp of 2.Bundesliga Mainz was merely hearsay. Turns out that Christian Gross of Swiss-Super League leaders FC Basel 1893 (ousted by HSV in UEFA Cup Group stages) is now a serious candidate, as is Bruno Labbadia of 2.Bundesliga side Greuther Fürth. Labbadia played two seasons with HSV (1987/88 and 1988/89).

Belgium wants Vincent Kompany to play for their Olympic team should they qualify (as he is under age 23, and has twice already been voted Belgium’s best player). The Olympic tournament takes place 6 – 28 August in China. Why is this honor for Kompany a problem for the club, you ask? Well that time is, coincidentally, the start of the 2008/09 Bundesliga season. We should be very proud of HSV. Now we have our own club vs. country controversy. I could also mention that HSV have also told Egypt international (and Africa Cup of Nations winner) Mohammed Zidan to get back to Germany ASAP for the trip to Zurich. I’m not sure it bears mentioning though, as Zidan hardly EVER plays. Maybe they need somebody to carry vdV’s jock.

And finally, Thursday brings us a welcome relief from the string of draws in the B’liga and back to the UEFA Cup, this time for the knockout stage. HSV travel to Swiss-side FC Zurich. Hopefully we can get the offense and the defense on the pitch together for this one. The return leg of this tie is scheduled for 21 February at the HSH Nordbank Arena. Both matches are sold out. This match (Thursday) starts an incredibly difficult run in the schedule that shapes up as follows: 14.2-at FC Zurich (UEFA Cup), 17.2 Bochum (B’liga), 21.2 FC Zurich (UEFA Cup), 24.2 at Bayern Munich (B’liga), 27.2 at Wolfsburg (Dfb Cup). I bitched about the schedule in November-December when HSV had matches with Rennes and Bremen within a span of 72 hours. This is madness.