UEFA Intertoto Cup Final: Hamburger SV 4 - 0 FC Dacia Chişinău (Extended Highlights)

By: Jan | July 31st, 2007

I’m admittedly very slowly catching up with the football that was played last weekend. But since I covered the encounter between Chişinău and Hamburg in some detail previously, I felt like I definitely needed to deliver a conclusive post whether it’s a bit late or not. At least, I can provide roughly 17 minutes worth of highlights in beautiful 16:9 pixelated widescreen. 17 long minutes for Bob to endure and for me to celebrate.

In the end it was the predictable one-sided affair. Chişinău defended with 8 to 11 man inside the area, while 10 Hamburg players gathered outside trying to get in. Overall, Hamburg’s build up play looked very good, yet it was lacking some speed and precision to trouble Chişinău’s defence a bit more in the first half. But 45 minutes were enough to accumulate a decent number of chances anyway, while Chişinău also made some rare appearances in Hamburg’s half of the pitch.

Vincent Kompany finally broke the deadlock in the second half and made it 1-0 for Hamburg in the 50th minute, following a corner kick by Piotr Trochowsky. Hamburg seemed to enjoy themselves on the pitch now and were very generous with all their one-twos and back-heel passes that produced three more goals. It was fun to watch, even if it probably doesn’t say much about Hamburg’s actual strength ahead of the new Bundesliga season.

This sends Hamburg to the second UEFA Cup qualifying round while Chişinău’s players concluded their European adventure with a little sightseeing tour through Hamburg after the match. And playing in front of 50.800 fans in a former World Cup stadium isn’t too bad either I guess.

Sporting director Dietmar Beiersdorfer has also been quite successful last week. He managed to sell Ivorian striker Boubacar Sanogo, who only scored 4 goals in 31 appearances last season. HSV fans gave him the nickname Bobbycar, but that was all the love he ever got from them. Most of the time they preferred to whistle him. Despite his meek performances last season, he was sold for a profit (€4,5m plus bonus payments) to, drumroll, Werder Bremen. Not necessarily what Bremen fans expected would be the Miroslav Klose replacement. But that’s a story for another post. A few days later Beiersdorfer then presented Dutch international Romeo Castelen, who joins the north Germans from Feyenoord Rotterdam for €2,5m. This signing further manifests Hamburg as being a Dutch football colony with mastermind Huub Stevens and four Dutch internationals on the pitch (Joris Mathijsen, Nigel de Jong, Romeo Castelen and of course Rafael van der Vaart). Yet, not all his well in the squad, as ex-Argentina captain Juan Pablo Sorin continues to hop from injury to injury and will miss the beginning of the season.