VfB Stuttgart 1 - 2 Hamburg SV
A dramatic and extremely weird 88th minute goal by David Jarolim, gave HSV all three points away to VfB Stuttgart on Wednesday evening (21.9.05). Coach Thomas Doll's side won the match 2-1, and stay in second place in the Bundesliga table, a point ahead of third placed local rivals Werder Bremen who surprisingly lost 1-2 at lowly Gladbach the night before. Raphael van der Vaart gave HSV the lead on 32 minutes, curling in a wonderful left footed shot into the top right hand corner of the Stuttgart net.
Chopping and changing
HSV coach Thomas Doll was able to pick his Dutch defender Khalid Boulahrouz fort he round 6 Bundesliga clash away to Stuttgart. The classy defender recovered in time from his knee problem and took his place in the back four alongside man-mountain defender Daniel van Buyten. On the right hand side of the back four, René Klingbeil played in place of Guy Demel, who picked up a thigh strain during the final training session on Tuesday and didn’t travel to Stuttgart. Up front, Sergej Barbarez and Benny Lauth formed the HSV front line, and it was nice to see Emile Mpenza take his place on the bench, after recovering from surgery on a shin proble. The home coach Giovanni Trapattoni recalled his Brazilian striker Cacau to his first team, after a long injury lay off.
Grönkjaer fires initial warning shot
HSV began the game well, playing attractive combination football, and won their first corner after only two minutes. A minute later however, the 500 or so travelling HSV fans held their breath, as Stuttgart’s former Chelsea player Jesper Grönkjaer fired in a powerful right foot shot which came back off the HSV crossbar, with the HSV keeper Stefan Wächter well beaten.
Van der Vaart -pure magic!
That close shave seemed to work as a wake up call fort he visitors from Hamburg. They tightened things up at the back and created good chances up front. On 21 minutes, a precision corner by Stefan Beinlich found the head of Sergej Barbarez, whose effort was cleared off the line by Stuttgart’s Himkel. HSV didn’t stop there. Thimothee Atouba provided a perfectly weighted cross to Barbarez, who watched in disbelief as the home keeper Hildebrand saved his effort well. On 32 minutes however, Germany’s number three keeper was powerless, as he could only watch in admiration, as a wonderful flowing move ended up with the ball at the feet of Rafael van der Vaart. The classy Dutchman looked up, before curling an unstoppable shot into the top right hand corner. What a move, what a goal!
Stuttgart improve
After the break, HSV had trouble finding their feet, because they didn’t close down their opponent and almost paid the price for their slack marking as Grönkjaer went close on 50 minutes. Three minutes later though, the home side went one better and equalised as Gomez rounded off fine approach work by the Danish danger man Grönkjaer. After the equalising goal, the sides cancelled each other out in midfield, so the game had a period almost void of goalmouth action, apart from the moment as Trochowski, who came on for Mehdi Mahdavikia, tested Hildebrand with a fine shot from just outside the area..
Jaro at the death!
HSV never managed to threaten the Stuttgart goal until two minutes from time. But it was certainly worth waiting for! David Jarolim played a wonderful one two with Sergej Barbarez. The shot by the Czech Republic –born midfeielder was deflected by the advancing keeper Hildebrand, and balooned into the Stuttgart net to give HSV their 4th Bundesliga win of the season, and extend their unbeaten run of games to 16 this season.
Bring on Bayern!
On Saturday, unbeaten Bayern Munich visit the AOL Arena. In the past, HSV has tended to lie down and make things easy for the reigning Bundesliga champions and FA Cup holders. This time though, Bayern won’t have any easy pickings in Hamburg, because the since the last time Bayern came to town, the club has strengthened the side in the right places, so all we can say is: “Bring on Bayern!”
VfB Stuttgart: Hildebrand - Hinkel, Meira (84.Stranzl), Delpierre, Magnin - Meißner (46.Gentner), Soldo, Hitzlsperger (36.Gomez), Grönkjaer - Tomasson, Cacau
Hamburger SV: Wächter - Klingbeil (76.Reinhardt), Boulahrouz, van Buyten, Atouba - Beinlich, Jarolim, Mahdavikia (38.Trochowski), van der Vaart - Barbarez, Lauth (81.Mpenza)
Goal: 0:1 van der Vaart (32.), 1:1 Gomez (53.), 1:2 Jarolim (88.)
BUNDESLIGA
Pos. Team Pld Pts
1. Bayern Munchen 6 18
2. Hamburg 6 14
3. Bremen 6 13
4. Hertha 6 11
5. Leverkusen 6 10
Source: hsv.de
