Hamburg 3 Stuttgart 1

By: Pete | September 14th, 2009

Hamburg didn’t skip a beat after losing Guerrero for the better part of the year. Hamburg were able to win their 4th in a row and keep down Stuttgart, whose form early on has been less than stellar. Stuttgart have now managed just 5 points from 5 matches, including 2 losses to teams they will potentially be competing against for a CL spot next year.

Where to begin? Things looked promising early on, as Stuttgart had a few more chances even though Hamburg controlled possession and the midfield. Hamburg were the first to score on a wonder goal by Petric you just have to tip your hat to. Nothing Lehmann could have done. Babbel brought in Cacau for Gebhart at the half, a logical move, and switched to a 4-4-2 with Pogrebnyak and Cacau up front. This opened up the game a bit more, and Hamburg were not to be denied. Shoddy defense, combined with a nice strike from Elia (who also assisted on Petric’s first) from 20 yards out put the host’s up 2-0 58 minutes in. Pogrebnyak was not to be denied and pulled Stuttgart to within 1 with 30ish minutes to go. He just flat out wanted it more than Rozehnal, and beat the keeper to the ball. It was an efficient play, but overall Stuttgart still didn’t respond the way one would have wanted after going down. Hamburg continued to control the ball the remainder of the game and Ze Roberto put it away in the 90th.

A disappointing loss for sure. I would’ve liked to see more from the team in general against a top flight opponent that we’re directly competing with for a European slot. I don’t think one can even blame international competition as an excuse because the majority of the team didn’t even play much over the break. Sometimes with such a momentum shifter as Petric’s goal really was to the whole flow of the game it can completely throw a team off.

It was nice to see Kuzmanovic for a little bit; he came in for Khedira 69 minutes in. Tough to really evaluate somebody over 20 minutes of play so I’ll reserve comments until I see a bigger body of work. I thought Träsch played well overall, setting up a few chances early on and also providing the through ball for Pogrebnyak’s goal.

But there’s no rest for the weary. Hamburg deserved the win. Now it’s time to look ahead to the opening of Stuttgart’s CL campaign on Wednesday home v Rangers. Feel free to leave comments on what you thought of the match here. I’ll be posting a CL preview within the next day. Also for your viewing pleasure, here’s an 8 minute comprehensive highlight of the match. Enjoy-