Oh, well. 3 points is all that matters

24 August 2008 08:25

HSV 2 Karlsruhe 1

At the last game of last season, HSV beat Karlsruhe 7-0. As a precursor to this show, it was only the weather that remained the same. Just as in May, it poured with rain for the match.

But this time round the Karlsruhe team turned up and put in a shift. Hamburg were really a bit lucky when an own goal gave them a half time lead, but it looked like Karlsruhe would get the point they deserved when they equalised with 20 minutes left. However, Mathjisen scored a winner in injury time. Its a bit of a cliche that good teams can win matches when playing badly. HSV are certainly capable of playing badly, and today they managed to get 3 points.

Karlsruhe were "well-organised" and "disciplined". Which sounds like damning with faint praise, but also they play with no little technical skill and a draw was the least they deserved

You can say that the win is all that counts. And there are plenty of times when we play well and come away with nothing (normally against Werder Bremen :-) )so let's just take the points and feel happy.

The other complication is the fact that this performance comes after the players have been away on international duty, which has frequently been the point where HSV reserve their worst performances. Its as if the players pick up bad habits as soon as they join their national teams. And its not even as if any of them are English!

New signing Mladen Petric came on as sub and livened things up a bit. I think there is more to come from him.

So, lets take the win, feel happy, and prepare for next weeks "Schwarz-Weiss-Blau Derby" at Bielefeld. But don't get too carried away with our league position (4th) and remember today when we lose unluckily in the future.