Defeat in Dortmund, Welcome RvN

24 January 2010 09:17

Borussia Dortmund 1 HSV 0

Dortmund is known as a bit of a beer-capital of Germany, the town is dominated by the giant Union brewery, but watching this game it seemed like 11 extra customers had partaken of the local product.

Like last week, the game was played on a pudding of a pitch which didn't help the spectacle and Dortmunds players did seem to have very weak sense of balance which broke the game up so much. But it was the same pitch for both teams and Hamburgs players were slower and weaker on the ball than their Dortmund counterparts.

The decisive goal came after half an hour when Aogo made a weak clearance and Valdez hit the ball straight back into the goal. In fairness, it was a goal that we could see coming for a while. In the entire first half Hamburgs only definite effort on goal was a free kick which went wide.

In the second half, Hamburg were a little better. Not a lot. A little. Elia came on and made some good runs. Berg came on and had a great chance to score from Petrics cross but the keeper saved it well. Pitroipa came on and also ran around a bit without any kind of end product. In fact as Hamburg chased an equaliser it was Dortmund who made the better chances.

Its the first league defeat of the season away from Hamburg. That stat is trotted out but the truth is that we have only won 3 games away from home (and one of them was Hertha!) so we have been far from invincible on travels. The win moves Dortmund above us in the league table. We are now 5th, 5 points behind Bayern and 4 points behind Leverkusen who have a game in hand. Its not time to write off the season yet but we are in danger of losing touch with the top group and falling into the next group of teams (like Bremen, Frankfurt, Mainz) who are hoping for a Europa League place.

Immediately after the match, it was announced that Ruud Van Nistelrooy has signed on an 18 month contract. He was on a free transfer but it is far from a free signing. He takes hefty wages which had deterred clubs in England like Stoke City and West Ham. His goal scoring record is excellent though and he was one of the top strikers in Europe when he was with Manchester United. He joins a little cadre of Dutch players: Mathjisen, Elia, Castelen. The big question though, the 8million euro question, is over his fitness. He only played 12 games in all competions last year and has only played 4 this season (2 of those in the Spanish Cup). We don't have access to the medical reports so we can't know how likely he is to play any games but he will be picking up a big wedge for someone as unfamiliar with a football match.

In short, he will certainly fit in at Hamburg: Dutch, well-paid, and injured