On October 16, 1996, almost ten years ago, Hamburg and Spartak played in the UEFA Cup, and they made meat goulash from Muscovites - either soup or the second. 3-0 - with that score Hamburg won, which was then coached by Felix Magat, the current winner of Spartak, and the main team was Hasan Salikhamidzhich, who also had a hand in several defeats of the Russian team. These are the memories of the future - we still have no others. The next reminiscence will be with the participation of CSKA, and it will be drawn already next Tuesday.
The current “Hamburg" is completely different from the one that beat Spartak in the 96th. The club owes its last take-off to young coach Thomas Doll - in 1992, he still played for the German national team at the European Championships. Doll completely transformed the team, almost desperate to find a face. Under him, Hamburg played fast, relaxed, and at the same time very reliably - the best Bundesliga strikers broke their teeth to defend Dol. Finally, the management made a very strong image move: before last season, Rafael van der Warth moved to the club. The bosses needed more than one-time success; there were enough of them in the team’s history, but a planned movement forward and, as a result, a rightful place in the German football elite.
In the 2005/06 championship, Hamburg took third place, literally in the last round losing to the second to Werder. The victory over Bayern was particularly impressive - both at home and away, the Dol team beat the future champion, which, you see, doesn’t happen so often. However, the euphoria did not last long; at the beginning of the new season, Hamburg had problems, and very serious ones. In four rounds, the team scored only three points, she lost the opening match with Arsenal in the Champions League.
There are many reasons for this. This and the notorious syndrome of the second season - the experience of Doll and his players is clearly lacking. Leading defenders van Buyten and Bulahruz, who made up the best defensive duet in the Bundesliga, went to Bayern and Chelsea. It is possible that Mataisen with the Company who replaced them is no worse, but after all, protection is primarily teamwork, but where do you get it when you know each other for a week? The sale of Van Buyten and Bulahruz is an objective reality, they were invited to more powerful clubs. But leaving the “Bayer” Sergei Barbares - a clear puncture of the leadership. They just decided to save on the veteran, completely forgetting the role that he played in the team. Due to numerous injuries, van der Warth was more of an adornment of Hamburg, whereas through Barbares, in fact, the entire attacking game went on.
Thomas Doll is always faithful to the same pattern: four defenders in a line, a rhombic construction in the midfield and a pair of forwards. Extreme defenders operate throughout the brow, providing an incredible breadth of attack. “Hamburg” is trying to play a quick pass, the midfielders are constantly changing places, freeing zones, each of them has an excellent long-range strike. Hamburg's trump card is speed; there are simply no slow players in it.
In Saturday's match against Werder Bremen, Dolly's team entered the game for a long time - the first minutes passed with the advantage of the guests. However, then “Hamburg” managed to crush the opponent in midfield - from the 15th minute the Bremen could not make three accurate transmissions in the other half. CSKA players must be prepared for the opponent to include high pressure - all midfielders are actively involved in the selection. On Saturday, the first match for Hamburg was held by Juan Pablo Sorin, an ex-captain of the Argentine national team, bought from the Spanish Villarreal. Doll did not dare to entrust him with the entire left brow - a nominal central defender Mataisen acted under Sorin. The reference midfielder at Hamburg is Dutchman De Jong - the footballer is as versatile as he is tough. On the right is Czech Jarolim, one of the Bundesliga's most mobile midfielders.
In the first half, Hamburg organized several dangerous attacks, but failed to score. The team’s implementation of the moments in the past season was limping, and now it doesn’t go around at all. The club management decided to save on the attackers: they bought the Ivorian Sanogo from the Kaiserslautern, the Peruvian Guerrero from Bavaria and rented a Serb Lyuboyu in Stuttgart. Of all three, only Sanogo has played so far, the rest do not look at all. And most importantly, Hamburg now has no Barbares - a man who knows how to hold the ball and perfectly plays the pass. Without Barbares and van der Warth, the team attacks quite strenuously.
To score the “Hamburg” is still not easy, but it is noticeable that the new defenders are just rubbing against each other. “Werder Bremen” opened the score after a rather straightforward combination: right-back Fritz distracted three opponents at once, while Borowski was left in the wrong penalty area alone. And Hamburg recouped after a corner: the huge defender Reinhardt scored, playing with his head almost better than everyone in the Bundesliga.
It is also striking that the team is clearly nervous. Almost every decision of the referee of Stark was met with hostility by the players, and the fans even threw the judge with anything at all - even an empty glass bottle from under the Jagermeister flew into it. In the end, it all ended with the removal of the Iranian Mahdavikia, who drove the Brazilian Diego into the knee with spikes. In general, a rare Hamburg match this season does without a red card - the statistics are very eloquent. If CSKA is able to impose its game on the Germans, they can sail.
Nevertheless, even such a “Hamburg” is a very serious rival for any team. In the match with Arsenal, the team settled in the 10th minute at 0: 1 and lost the remote goalkeeper, but did not give up and fought to the last. The underestimation of the Hamburg death is similar, especially since Russian teams, who think they are favorites, usually end badly.
| HAMBURG - WERDER - 1: 1 (0: 0) | 
|
Goals: Borowski, 58 (0: 1), Reinhardt, 68 (1: 1)
Hamburg: Kirstein, Company, Matiisen, Reinhardt, Sorin, De Jong, Mahdavikia, Jarolim, Trochowski (Jose Gonzalez, 67), Luboya (Wiki, 75), Sanogo
Werder Bremen: Wiese, Fritz, Naldo, Pasanen, Wome (Schultz, 46), Baumann, Borowski, Diego Ribas (Hunt, 76), Frings, Hugo Almeida (Klasnic, 69), Mohamed Zidane
Warnings: Wome, 6, De Jong, 43, Frings, 60, Fritz, 85, Matiensen, 88
Removal: Mahdavikiya, 74
23 September. AOL-Arena, 17:30.
Judge: Wolfgang Stark (Ergolding).
Kirill DEMENTYEV