Hamburg SV 2 - 1 Kaiserslautern
HSV won their Bundesliga round 22 match at home to Kaiserslautern on Saturday afternoon. A crowd of 50, 916 in the AOL Arena saw Naohiro Takahara give coach Trainer Thomas Doll’s side the nlead on 29 minutes. Five minutes before the break, Almami Moreira mopped up a van Buyten shot which came back off a post to give HSV two goal half time lead. After the break, Kaiserslautern hit back through a goal by Halil Altintop on 52 minutes, but HSV hung onto their lead and in doing so, spoilt the return to Hamburg of Kurt Jara and Ingo Hertzsch.
Changes
The home coach Thomas Doll made two changes to the side which beat Stuttgart 2-1 at home last time out. Wicky and Moreira came in to the starting line-up for Benjamin and Mahdavikia. The Kaiserslautern coach Kurt Jara, who used to coach HSV picked Riedl ahead of Grammozis fort he visit to Hamburg. It was the only change to the Lautern side which beat lowly Rostock in round 21.
7 game unbetaten run
The visitors came to the AOL Arena with an unbeaten 7 match run to defend, and they made the better start to the match, but missed gilt edged early chances through Seitz, Amanatidis and Halil Altintop. It took HSV ten minutes to settle down and get a hold on the game. Midfielder David Jarolim missed a half chance for HSV, but Lautern remained ever dangerous on the break.
Takahara gives HSV the lead
On 29 minutes, HSV took the lead as their “Sushi-Bomber“ Naohiro Takahara powered in an unstoppable header as he latched onto a perfectly weighted free kick by Stefan Beinlich. The visiting side replied with furious counter attacks, but failed to finish in front of goal after creating good scoring chances. One had the feeling it wasn’t going to be Lautern’s day, as a shot by Altintop came back off the underside of the bar and back into play halfway through the first half.
Moreira makes it 2-0
HSV had more luck in front of goal, as on 40 minutes, a long distance effort by the HSV skipper van Buyten came back off a post to the feet of the lurking Moreira, who only had to push the ball home from close range as he stood unmarked at the far post. A good first half ended with HSV two goals to the good…probably a goal too high on the balance of play, but HSV took it anyway!
Lautern fight back
HSV made the better start to the second half, but good chances to kill the game off by Takahara and van Buyten went begging. As is often the case in football, the home side were made to rue those lost chances for a while as Beinlich headed straight to the feel of Altintop, who made no mistake in pulling a goal back for Lautern with a fierce shot into the bottom corner of Pieckenhagen’s net on 52 minutes.
Tame finish
That goal had the huge home crowd fearing a second half onslaught by Kaiserslautern, who brought on the former German international striker Jancker after an hour. As it turned out it wasn’t to be…The entertainment shown by both sides during the firast half, was replaced by both sides reaching each others box only to be found wanting in the ideas department. And so it was, that HSV extended their unbeaten run to five matches and moved up to 5th place in the Bundesliga table, at least for 24 hours. Now HSV face a tricky away trip to Berlin in round 23, where they take on Hertha, who play Stuttgart away on Sunday.
HSV: Pieckenhagen - Schlicke, van Buyten, Boulahrouz, Klingbeil - Wicky, Jarolim (80.Benjamin), Beinlich, Moreira (75.Lauth) - Barbarez, Takahara (89.Reinhardt)
Kaiserslautern: Ernst - Lembi, Wenzel, Hertzsch, Blank - Riedl, Engelhardt, Sforza (72.Kosowski), Seitz - Altintop, Amanatidis (60.Janker)
Goals: 1:0 Takahara (29.), 2:0 Moreira (40.), 2:1 Altintop (52.)
Source: Uefa.com
Bundesliga
Pos. Team Pld Pts
1. Bayern 22 44
2. Schalke 22 44
3. Bremen 22 40
4. Leverkusen 22 38
5. Stuttgart 22 38
6. Hamburg SV 22 37
