Football United

HSV visited the sold out Weserstadion to take on the reigning Bundesliga champions and FA Cup holders Werder Bremen and took a somewhat lucky point home with them. The game began on an even keel, and it took the home side 15 minutes for Werder to get a grip on the game. Werder began to reduce the amount of misplaced passes and started to get the upper hand. The home side created early chances for first Klasnic (12.) and then Davala (15.).

HSV strikes against the run of play
HSV quite rightly put their money on counter attacks involving the lightning-quick Belgian Mpenza. The very first HSV counter attack was to bear fruits, thanks to a wayward header by the Frenchman Micoud on 22 minutes who headed back to Reinke as he stood in the centre circle. Mpenza latched onto the ball and ran around the Werder keeper, who had come out of his goal too early. Mpenza then dribbled around Stalteri before putting in a beautifully flighted cross onto the head of David Jarolim who beat Ernst to the ball and headed into the deserted empty net.



Klose close
Werder weren’t very rattled by the setback and could well have equalised 4 minutes later as the German international striker Miroslav Klose missed a good chance. HSV’s well organised defense stood firm and looked classy as they dealt with everything that Werder threw at them. HSV’s midfield also took a lot of pressure of the defense by playing some good combination football.

Klasnic hits a post
Ivan Klasnic hit a post on 37 minutes with the Hamburg keeper Martin Pieckenhagen well beaten. Werder continued to dominate, but could find no way through the solid visiting defence. HSV went into the half time break a goal up, which in all honesty was a rather fortunate position to be in on the balance of play.

Werder try the high ball method After the break the home coach Schaaf brought on Nelson Valdez as a third striker. His counterpart Thomas Doll reacted to the situation by bringing on Collin Benjamin for the luckless Takahara. Werder still had trouble breaching the HSV defence. The champions for some reason tried pumping in long high balls which were easily dealt with by van Buyten and the superb Boulahrouz. The next dangerous situation occurred on 71 minutes as a glancing header by Klasnic brought Micoud into play, but the French midfield general failed to take advantage.



Werder strikes back The equalising goal came three minutes later as Klasnic played a ball from the right high into the HSV area. Schulz took the ball (accidentally) on his forearm before dispatching the ball into the roof of the net from five yards out.

Game on
The game which had resembled a game of chess with both sides cancelling each other out until that point, now turned into one way traffic as Werder attacked the HSV goal. Valdez missed from six yards out as it looked easier to score, as he slipped his marker. The South American striker saw his point blank header brilliantly saved by Martin Pieckenhagen, who was the HSV hero as he thwarted another gilt edged chance by first Ernst and the Klose two minutes from time.



Werder Bremen: Reincke - Davala (72.Pasanen), Ismael, Schultz, Stalteri - Baumann, Ernst, Jensen (60.Valdez), Micoud - Klose, Klasnic

Hamburger SV: Pieckenhagen, Schlicke, van Buyten, Boulahrouz, Klingbeil - Wicky, Jarolim (72.Mahdavikia), Beinlich (81.Rahn), Barbarez - Mpenza, Takahara (61.Benjamin)

Goals: 0:1 Jarolim (22.), 1:1 Schulz (74.)

Source: HSV.de