Football United

HSV grabbed a deserved 3-1 home win over Cologne on Saturday afternoon (3.12.05), in front of a 55,800 sell out crowd in the AOL Arena. Thimothee Atouba put the home side ahead two minutes before half time scoring his first ever goal for the club. Benny Lauth scored HSV’s second on 54 minutes. Former HSV defender Björn Schlicke pulled one back fort he visitors only 4 minutes later, before Sergej Barbarez put the game beyond Cologne with a headed goal on 74 minutes.

Full strength HSV
Thomas Doll mighty relieved that the flu bug which had depleted his squad at the start of the week had vanished at the right time, allowing the HSV coach the rare luxury of picking the same side which won 1-0 away to Leverkusen in round 14.

Rapolder chops and changes
Cologne missed round 14 as the weather put paid to their away match against Duisburg. Their coach Uwe Rapolder made 3 changes to his side which drew 2-2 with Schalke in round 13. Matip, Epstein and Szabics (making his debut for Cologne) replaced Lell, Mokhtari and Scherz in his starting line-up in Hamburg.

Lively visitors
Cologne surprised the capacity crowd by beginning the game in aggressive mood. They didn’t allow HSV to settle and the home side was bogged down in its own half for the opening minutes. HSV made a cautious start to the round 15 clash. Their opening warning shot came on 11 minutes as the Cologne keeper Wessels easily dealt with a van der Vaart free kick from an acute angle.

van der Vaart off injured
The game was over for HSV’s Dutch master on 17 minutes. Doll replaced the playmaker with the youngster Laas, after van der Vaart limped of with what looked like an ankle injury. Trochowski took over as playmaker, and had a chance to put his side in front on 25 minutes as he was put through by a superb pass by Sergej Barbarez. Sinkiewicz however, was able to clear his lines in the nick of time. David Jarolim picked up his fifth yellow card and will miss the visit of Hertha to Hamburg in round 16.

Atouba’s first Bundesliga goal!
HSV finally woke up and began to exert some pressure, while the visitors waited fort he chance to counter attack. Niggly fouls interrupted the flow of the game, and the home side was unable to breach the massed Cologne defence at first. Barbarez had the ball on the edge of the area following an Atouba throw in on 43 minutes. Alpay tried to clear but could only put the ball at the feet of Atouba, who blasted home a left foot shot from inside the area, his first ever Bundesliga goal.

Half time scuffle
HSV went into the half time break with a one goal advantage. During half time there was apparently a scuffle on the way to the changing rooms involving Alpay, one of the players who had to answer to FIFA after the scandalous World Cup play off match between Turkey and Switzerland.



Lauth scores, Laas bleeds…
Both sides emerged for the second half unchanged. On 54 minutes, Barbarez back headed a Beinlich corner to Benny Lauth, who scored his second goal of the season from 2 metres out. As HSV was celebrating that goal, missiles were thrown at the HSV players from the Cologne fan block. One of those objects was a wooden drumstick which hit Laas on the head causing a nasty head wound. The youngster went off for treatment but returned to the field of play shortly afterwards

Schlicke scores against his former club
Cologne to their credit, refused to lie down, and pulled a goal back on 58 minutes as Björn Schlicke got to a Podolski free kick before van Buyten and head home against his former club. After that goal the game improved in quality, mainly because Cologne went in search of an equaliser, which allowed HSV more room.



Game over
A mistake by Alpay led to HSV’s third goal. Under no pressure whatsoever, the Turk passed the ball to Beinlich, who played a high hopeful ball into the box. Wessels came off his line for the ball, but Barbarez reached it first, heading over the advancing keeper and into the net on73 minutes. It was game over for Cologne after that, and there were no further goals from either side.

600th win for HSV!
The victory over Cologne was HSV’s 600th in their long Bundesliga history. After an average first 45 minutes, the game improved in the second half. Thomas Doll’s side deserved to win on the balance of play. Cologne fought hard, but was somehow missing the class needed to win such a match.The win moves HSV two points closer to Bayern Munich, who only drew 0-0 away to Stuttgart after having Sebastian Deisler sent off during the first half.

HSV: 12 Kirschstein - 7 Mahdavikia, 20 Demel, 5 van Buyten, 3 Atouba - 14 Jarolim, 22 Beinlich, 15 Trochowski (75.Ziegler), 23 van der Vaart (17.Laas) - 10 Barbarez, 11 Lauth (89.Takahara)

Cologne: 33 Wessels - 22 Schlicke, 20 Sinkiewicz, 27 Alpay (75.Mokhtari), 4 Benschneider - 21 Schindzielorz, 25 Matip - 7 A. Streit, 10 Podolski (75.Scherz), 39 Epstein - 19 Szabics (85.Lell)

Goals: 1-0 Atouba (43.), 2-0 Lauth (54.), 2-1 Schlicke (58.), 3-1 Barbarez (74.)

Source: HSV.de

BUNDESLIGA

Pos. Team Pld Pts
1. Bayern Munchen 15 38
2. Hamburg 15 34
3. Bremen 15 32
4. Schalke 15 28
5. Hertha 15 25