Back to winning ways. Just about!

09 November 2008 20:05

HSV 2 Borussia Dortmund 1

I don't know what to make of HSV this season. They have often been inconsistent, good one week and useless the next. But this year they have taken this inconsistency to new heights. They can now switch from good to bad in the same match!

Take this gane for instance. For the first half, we were totally dominant scoring 2 excellent goals and coming close on several other occasions. The midfield battle was totally in Hamburgs favour - Silva and Jarolim were able to play through the middle of the pitch and Boateng and Aogo were pretty much looking after the flanks. Petric had scored with a neat header across goal after 10 minutes, and his Croat compatriot Olic added a 2nd on 25 minutes when he waltzed round (alleged) Racist Roman to make it 2-0. Our defence didn't look too water tight its true, but we were good value for the lead.

But 2nd half was a different matter. It was only 2 minutes old when there was a touch of F.Rost and the ball was dropped kindly to Hajinal to make it 2-1. For the next 43 minutes, HSVs defensive frailties were put to the test. Again and again, we gave the ball away and that just compounded the pressure on F.Rostie the snowman who looks more wobbly every game.

By one way or another, mainly thanks to the total cack-ness of Borussia Dortmund, we held out for a bit of a jammy win. It was all the better as Leverkusen had surrendered a 3-0 lead to draw at Karlsruhe and Schalke and Hoffenheim both lost. Ominously Bayern are now hitting some kind of form but I have every confidence we can put them in their place soon enough.

The oddest thing at the game was after the final whistle. The match had been played at a good pace and there were some tackles flying in for sure, but nothing to provoke the reaction of Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp and his defender Robert Kovac who stormed over to the referee at the final whistle to berate the ref. I didn't think he had a bad game, and thats not just me watching through schwarz-weiss-blau eyes. The ref took it on the chin for a while and then started to walk off the pitch until he heard some kind of inappropriate language (we can only guess...) from Kovac, so he promptly showed him the red card. Kovac was not to be moved and had to be led away in a kind of emotional state normally seen by 4 year olds on bath night.

Too bad Robert. You leave with nothing!