Second matchday of second leg - Borussia welcomes Hamburger SV
Thank you Borussia!
Thank you for a perfect start into second leg of the season! Thank you for the high classed 3:2 win in Cologne! Thank you for five wins in a row and a serial of 11 matches without a defeat!
And on Saturday maybe our Borussia can even improve its position in the league. Currently at position 5, BVB welcomes the team of Hamburger SV, which is currently number 4 in the table.
But let’s all keep calm, cool and collected! Hamburger SV is for sure one of the top teams in the league. For some experts HSV is still one of the favorites for German championship. And we all have in mind our 1:4 defeat against Hamburg in the first leg. Reasons enough for us not to be too optimistic or even euphoric for Saturday!
One of the strengths of HSV is for sure the attack. Up to now Hamburg shot 36 goals, only Bayern München has a higher number on its list (39). It’s noticeable, that different to other clubs, HSV hasn’t one top goalgetter like BVB’s Lukas Barrios or Leverkusen’s Stefan Kießling. There are a lot of players who are responsible for a respectable number of goals: Strikers Elia, Ze Roberto, former BVB player Petric, Guerrero, Berg, Trochowski and midfielder Jansen are all together responsible for 28 goals. Sadly for Hamburg a lot of injuries reduced the HSV team and coach Bruno Labbadia had a hard job during the last matches to send a complete team on the green. So Hamburg’s success in the league becomes all the more impressive when considering that the club has currently around ten first-team squad players out injured, including regulars like Ze Roberto, Eljero Elia and Paolo Guerrero. It seems that striker Elia and midfielder Pitroipa will return into the team, at least for the subs bench. After his red card against Werder Bremen, new German international Jerome Boateng will definitely enter the green. And we all can be sure that we will see Mladen Petric on Saturday for the first time in a HSV jersey in our Westfalenstadion!
Regarding Borussia there are good news about Lucas Barrios: Lucas renewed his contract until June 2014. So let’s all hope for a lot of Barrios - goals during the next years. Most important change in Borussia’s team follows from our match in Cologne: Marc Ziegler will replace Roman Weidenfeller. Roman suffered a five centimeters deep flesh wound on his knee and Marc Ziegler will be our regular keeper for the next couple of weeks. For all of us, no reason to be afraid! Marc did always a solid job as goalkeeper. His excellent performance in Cologne assured our win last Sunday. Marcel Höttecke from Borussia’s B-team will be Borussia’s new substitute goalkeeper. Long time injured Sebastian Kehl returned from Los Angeles, where he spent two weeks working in a special rehab programme. “Its getting better” he mentioned in an interview, “but I’m still not able for everything on the green”. Maybe he will return to regular training in the beginning of March. Better news regarding Tamas Hajnal. The Hungarian international returned to regular training this week but the match against HSV would probably be too early for his comeback. Maybe Tamas will be an option for the bench on Saturday. Also no comeback for Tinga. He had to stop training with Borussia’s B-team in Spain due to groin problems again. Sven Bender, Nuri Sahin, Patrick Owomoyela and Kuba stopped training and it’s uncertain if all of them recover and will join the team. From today’s point of view it will be a race against time. Get well soon for all!
Nearly ridiculous afterpains from our match in Cologne: Due to Jürgen Klopp’s discussions with the referee about the second goal for Cologne (in his opinion it was an irregular goal) and leaving the coaching zone, Klopp was fined. To be honest a happy end for him and Borussia – also a ban of Jürgen Klopp at least for one match was seriously in discussion. Luckily now we will see Klopp as usual on Saturday in the coaching zone! Of course it’s a matter of fact that Jürgen Klopp’s reactions are very often emotional and spontaneous. But that’s OK, and most people love him for that. And showing emotions is a must in football! If not, what could be the next step? Prohibition of acclaiming a goal?
In this context also one final remark regarding security:
Not a good idea of the responsible persons that Sch…e plays in Bochum also on Saturday and our match in Dortmund will start some hours later. This unlucky situation will mean a lot of work for police and security staff, especially when the three rivaling groups of Bochum, Sch…e and BVB will meet each other in trains, at railroad stations, bus stops or other places! Creating a more feasible playing schedule would make more sense than dubious discussions about a possible discipline for showing emotions like Jürgen Klopp did.
So let’s all hope for untroubled arrivals and departures of all supporters and on the green all the best for our Borussia! Three points for Borussia would be the perfect start into a perfect black’n yellow weekend!
Henry, 22.01.2010
