Football United

HSV coach Thomas Doll was without the injured Stefan Beinlich, Ailton, Rafael van der Vaart and Bastian Reinhardt in Frankfurt. He made two changes to his side which lost 0-1 away to FC Thun in the UEFA Cup on Thursday: Naohiro Takahara replaced Beyy Lauth up front, while Khalid Boulahrouz (suspended for the Thun game) took the place of Guy Demel in the HSV starting line-up. Eintracht coach Friedhelm Funkel was able to choose from a full strength squad with the exception of Stefan Lexa who missed out because of a bout of flu.

Lucky home side
Eintracht Frankfurt is known for starting their Bundesliga games at a furious pace, and the game against HSV was no exception. Although the home side tried to get an early strike, it was HSV who had the large crowd going as Barbarez raced towards goal in 12 minutes only to be pulled back by Vasoski. Luckily for the home side referee Fleischer never saw the incident and waved play on. TV footage revealed that it should have really been a red card for the Frankfurt player. So Frankfurt remained at full strength and the game at 0-0, but only for a further 8 minutes.



Trochwoski puts HSV ahead
On 20 minutes, Barbarez broke down the right from where he crossed to Trochowski, who met the ball on the volley to gently push it past Nikolov in the Eintracht goal. HSV boosted by the lead began to dominate the game, without it must be said, creating clear cut chances in front of goal. HSV’s next chance came on 38 minutes as Atouba fired into the side netting from just inside the area. Four minutes later, a mix up in the HSV area allowed Meier to head home from close range. The ball took a wicked deflection off the shoulder of van Buyten before nestling in the back of Stefan Wächter’s goal to give the home side a fortunate equaliser. The score line remained at 1-1 at half time.

Captain fantastic!
Eintracht came out for the second half and tried to take the game to the visitors. It was HSV however, who struck on 52 minutes as Eintracht failed to clear a corner properly and the ball fell to the feet of Nigel de Jong, who passed to Trochowski who had cleverly sprung the Frankfurt offside trap. The young midfielder unselfishly passed square to his better positioned skipper van Buyten who pushed the ball home from some 8 metres out. A great start to the second half for HSV! Eintracht was in shock.



Solid defensive performance
The home side found it difficult to breach the well organised HSV defence, aside from a few wayward long range efforts, Boulahrouz van Buyten and co. never allowed them a sniff at goal. On 68 minutes though, the 2,000 or so travelling HSV fans held their collective breath for a moment as Wächter failed to punch clear a Copado cross. His defenders scrambled the ball away again in the end and the fans breathed easier again. Eleven minutes later, Copado headed towards goal, but this time he met his master in Wächter.

All out Eintracht attacks
The latter stages of the game saw the home side throw everything but the kitchen sink at HSV, who stood firm at the back, battling for each other and refusing to give an inch. Four minutes from tuime, Trochowski tried his luck with a long distance shot which missed the target. Just before the end, the Eintracht substitute Du-Ri Cha had a late chance ( as he did in the game at the AOL Arena between the two sides), this time though his header went well over the bar. The ref blew for time on a 2-1 HSV victory, their first of 2006 away from home. Because the Hamburg side was the better team for the first 60 minutes, they were well worth their hard earned victory.



HSV: Wächter - Mahdavikia, van Buyten, Boulahrouz, Atouba - Wicky, de Jong (73. Klingbeil), Jarolim, Trochowski (87.Laas) - Barbarez, Takahara (81.Lauth)

Eintracht Frankfurt: Nikolov - Chris, Preuß, Vasoski - P. Ochs, Huggel (69. Cha), Jones, Köhler (62. Reinhardt) - A. Meier - Amanatidis, Copado

Goals: 0-1 Trochowski (20.), 1-1 Meier (42.), 1-2 van Buyten (52.)

source: Hsv.de