2015/19 Gotoku Sakai | Tatsuya Ito @ Hamburger SV (GER)

Always was, still is, was confirmed for this season and never demoted.

Was a good match by HSV btw. Bayern was expectedly dominant, but HSV managed to completely contain them even with 10 men aside the unfortunate pinball situation where Thomas Müller (who else?) reacted the fastest to assist the one goal for Bayern. Gotoku had a couple attacking runs again (calling his inner Robben movement wise), and Ito increased the counter attack speed again for the last quarter hour. Unfortunate loss.

 

Against Hertha, Ito entered in the second half, and started the attack that resulted in the Hamburger's goal.

 

Ito played 68 min, Sakai the whole match. Ito and Arp (17yo, scored the 3:1) are talk of the town and seen as reason for the current upswing.

 

Ito scored yesterday in a 6-0 friendly win against a 4th division club:

8‘ Ito ins obere rechte Eck, Keeper Giese kann den Ball nicht halten. 2:0 #hsvcun

— Hamburger SV (@HSV) November 9, 2017

 

Both of them them started , but both of them also got subbed out. Ito in 35 th minute... And Sakai in 69 th..

 

Honestly not really sure why. Sure both could have played better, but the quality of play by HSV subsequently only deteriorated further.

 

Gotoku starts, Ito is on the bench.

Mit Fiete Arp und @BobbyS_Wood von Anfang an ins Heimspiel!
Unsere Start11 für #HSVtsg: Mathenia, Diekmeier, Mavraj, Douglas, Wood, Papa, Hunt, Kostic, Sakai, Jung und Arp. #nurderHSV pic.twitter.com/5j0oXqETCe

— Hamburger SV (@HSV) November 26, 2017

 

Gotoku is playing in the double pivot of a 4-2-3-1, chasing down and tackling opponents, spraying the ball left and right, and generally being hyperactive. HSV looks good so far, save for the lack of a decent final ball.

 

They won 3-0. Sakai playing the full match, while Ito stayed on the bench as an unused sub.

 

Ito starts and Sakai on the bench against Wolfsburg:

Unsere Start11 für #HSVwob - @rey10tatsuya von Beginn & @EkdalAlbin im Kader.
Mathenia, Diekmeier, Mavraj, Douglas, Papa, Walace, Hunt, Kostic, Jung, Ito und Arp. pic.twitter.com/qO4K6oRAmb

— Hamburger SV (@HSV) December 9, 2017

 

HSV lost the match against last placed direct rival Köln (only 3 pts behind anymore) so coach Gisdol's days likely are counted now. Sakai was on bench all match again, Ito came on after 77 min and had some few nice scenes but obviously couldn't make a difference.

 

Gisdol was fired this morning and Bernd Hollerbach was just confirmed as the new coach with a contract until summer 2019. He last managed his hometown club Würzburger Kickers (2014-17) which under him saw a surprise rise from 4th to 2nd league where they failed to not get relegated again last year after which Hollerbach left of his own accord.

 

Good news and a good coach.

He used to be Felix Magath's assistant at both Wolfsburg and Schalke, so he has experience coaching Japanese players before (Hasebe, Okubo, Uchida and a Japanese youth team player at Schalke).

 

In Hollerbach's first match Sakai started and Ito on bench.

 

Start as captain. Ito on bench.

 

Ito comes on after half time.

 

Sakai switched from DM to RB at halftime when Ito was brought on for Diekmeyer. Ito was lively and won the free kick which led to the tying goal.

 

Do you think these guys will be relegated by how they are playin?

Not been watching them

 

They are still extremely bad, but somewhat competitive since the coaching change. Someone needs to start scoring, be it Wood, Arp, or the currently injured Müller.

 

What happened to Ito? He hasn't been even on the bench for the last matches.

And by the way Hamburg lost again.

 

It looks like HSV is now officially preparing for 2. Buli after the draw against Mainz last week that kept HSV 7 points away from safe waters (with 8 matches left to go).