Kaiserslautern 0 - 3 Hamburg SV
HSV convincingly beat Kaiserslautern 3-0 in the Betzenberg stadium on Sunday evening, to move back into second place in the Bundesliga table. A crowd of 34,775 saw the man of the match Rafael van der Vaart give the visitors the lead on 36 minutes. Sergej Barbarez made it 2-0 five minutes into the second half. Eight minutes from time, it was again van der Vaart who crowned a superb HSV display by scoring his side’s third goal with a superb long distance effort.
Trio still out
HSV coach Thomas Doll was without Bastian Reinhardt, Mehdi Mahdavikia and Collin Benjamin for the trip to Kaiserslautern. His Lautern counterpart Michael Henke was without his veteran midfielder Ciriaco Sforza. Henke changed his system in the hope of putting to an end a dismal run which has seen his side fail to win in their last four games.
Cruise control
HSV showed who is boss from the first minute on. They played attractive combination football and created the first chances of what was to be a one sided match. The best early chance came on 18 minutes, and fell to Bosnian striker Barbarez, who headed a Wicky cross towards goal. The striker could only watch as Riedl cleared off the line. Seven minutes later, Barbarez connected with a fine ball from van der Vaart. This time his curling sho´t was well saved by the Lautern keeper Macho.
Lautern had no chance
Lautern never saw the light of day and so it was only a matter of time before HSV took the lead. On 36 minutes, Takahara missed a sitter. HSV was not daunted and a fine move involving Thimothee Atouba, Barbarez and van der Vaart, saw the latter let fly from the edge of the area with his weaker right foot to give HSV a long overdue lead. HSV should have scored again before the break, but David Jarolim (following a fine solo run) was foiled by Macho.
Barbarez and van der Vaart on target
After the break the frustrated home crowd saw a dominant visiting side. On 50 minutes, the 10,000 or so travelling HSV fans went into raptures of joy as Boulahrouz won possession in his own half, from where he passed to his compatriot van der Vaart. His dream pass into the path of the advancing Barbarez was superbly finished off by the Bosnian, leaving macho no chance with a well struck low shot into the bottom corner. On 65 minutes, Lautern was down to ten men as Blank was sent off for a foul on van der Vaart. He had already been booked earlier in the match.
Missed chances
HSV had more room to operate from that moment onwards and there followed further chances to increase their lead, as Takahara (69.), Reto Ziegler (87.) and Barbarez (90.) all went close. On 82 minutes however, van der Vaart put the icing on the cake of a fine performance by HSV as he scored his fifth goal of the season from distance, to leave the home side wondering whether or not they will remain in the top flight after this season.
Kaiserslautern: Macho - Lembi (46.Skela), Hertzsch, Pletsch, Blank - Bellinghausen, Engelhardt, Reuter, Riedel - Jancker (64.Göktan), Altintop
HSV: Wächter - Demel (85.Ziegler), Boulahrouz, van Buyten, Atouba - Wicky (65.Trochowski), Beinlich, Jarolim, van der Vaart - Barbarez, Takahara (74.Mpenza)
Goals: 0:1 van der Vaart (36.), 0:2 Barbarez (50.), 0:3 van der Vaart (82.)
BUNDESLIGA
Pos. Team Pld Pts
1. Bayern Munchen 8 21
2. Hamburg 8 20
3. Bremen 8 19
4. Schalke 8 16
5. Heartha 8 14
Source: hsv.de
