Borussia is back!

The start of the second half of the Bundesliga season will be a very special one. Borussia plays away at Hamburg but has to make it without a big part of their supporters. Due to the expensive ticket prices in Hamburg, the "Kein Zwanni" campaign called out for a boycott. This is why most of the fans of the Ballspielverein will travel to Hamburg, however, will stay outside the stadium equipped with several radios to only hear what is going on inside of the stadium. Additionally, the ultras of the HSV will remain silent from minutes 46 to 55 to express the feeling of having a football match without any fans due to high ticket prices. Football must remain affordable, for all!

Of course, we will provide you with all the important information concerning the boycott, but the match itself is something worth talking about. For one, Borussia struggles with some personal issues since there are some big question marks behind some of the key players. Roman Weidenfeller wanted to be back on the pitch on Wednesday to play against Oberhausen, but could not make it. It is doubtful that he will be able to make it to Sunday. Mitch Langerak had a strained abdominal muscle and missed two weeks of the pre-season. Even though he got back to training yesterday, he has no match practice but is most likely to replace Weidenfeller in the worst case scenario. Otherwiese, Johannes Focher and Zlatan Alomerovic are two goalies of the reserve who would be stepping in for Weidenfeller.

The next question mark is behind Lukasz Piszczek. The right defender had to leave the pitch on Wednesday and it is not sure if the young Pole can play against HSV. Patrick Owomoyela is able to replace him, so we would have a back-up on this injury. The appearance of Mario Götze is not sure as well, even though the young gun already played in the winter cup in Düsseldorf, he still has problems with his adductors and is not sure if he can make it to Hamburg, according to his facebook page. His most likely replacement on the right side would be Jakub Blaszykowski who impressed over the last matches of 2011 and in the pre-season as well. It seems like Kuba has accepted the concurrence for his position in Dortmund and is willing to fight for his place in the team. The rest of the squad will be formed in the way we got used to it. Neven Subotic will be back in the defense as well as Sven Bender and Sebastian Kehl will build the double six. Lucas Barrios will once again take place on the bench, the obstacle of Robert Lewandowski is too big to overcome at the moment. Santana and Koch will miss the match.

In the first match of the season, Borussia destroyed Hamburger SV with a 3-1 victory which directly reminded the supporters at the championship season since the goals were brilliantly assisted and the gameplay was just like in "old times". However, it turned out that HSV was no real measure for the rest of the season since the dinosaur of the Bundesliga (they never got relegated and are part of the league since day one) struggled heavily during the course of 2011. This struggle ended up with a replacement of coach Michael Oenning. Thorsten Fink took over and did not lose a match in Bundesliga since then. However, they only won two of the eight matches, leaving six draws. Regarding Sunday, Hamburg also has to face some personal issues since their midfield has to compensate the losses of Töre, Ilicevic and former Borussian Mladen Petric. However, Hamburg is still able to present a strong line-up which should not be underestimated. A victory away at HSV would be great but it will be very hard to get it.

Of course, Hamburg is still in the minds of Borussians around the world since the draw we got there last season when Kuba scored the equalizer in the last second was seen as one of the key points of the championship season. Since the championship dreams of this year did not vanish yet, three points away would definitely keep them alive. But regardless the result, one thing will be absolutely sure concerning this weekend: Borussia is back, football is back, Bundesliga is back. Oh, happy day!

Possible line-ups

Hamburger SV: Drobny - Diekmeier, Bruma, Westermann, Aogo - Rincon, Tesche - Ilicevic, Jansen - Petric (Son), Guerrero

Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller (Langerak, Focher, Alomerovic) - Piszczek (Owomoyela), Subotic, Hummels, Schmelzer - Bender, Kehl - Kuba, Kagawa, Großkreutz – Lewandowski

Referee: Stark (Ergolding)

Location: Imtech-Arena (not sold-out yet, 57.000 supporters could find a place)

Vanni, 21.01.2012

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