So, mini-derby day today. A win is expected, nothing else will do. Starting lineup is the same as last week, the only change being that Tasci is back in the squad after the last-minute injury ruled him out in Hannover. Seeing how our defence performed in that game, quite a relief. Maza was perhaps better than Niedermeier last weekend, but he remains on the bench today. Niedermeier gets the nod.
Bruno Babbles can't afford to lose this derby. EDIT: That was a fantastic goal by Harnik. Teamwork baby, teamwork!!
Another goal for Harnik. 1-0! good start, very well played between him and Ibisevic, Freiburg's defence looked pretty amateurish there.
I made a mistake, another change in the lineup: Kuzmanovic back in the first 11, in place of Gentner. As I write this we make the 2-0. It's cruising so far. Brilliant play by Harnik once again. Owns the defence, gives a brilliant pass across the face of goal and Okazaki reaches it in time to score. Goal number 7 this season for him. Hopefully they keep this up.
Again, sweet teamwork! Harnik to Okazaki...2-0. Yeah, the Freiburg defense looks like it has some holes in it. You want to *stop* Harnik from running into the box with that much space! Too bad Oki slid into the goal post though...
Lol, we concede from another corner. Oh dear.... so now it's just 2-1, the gap has been cut. Mistake by Ulreich, he looked very weird there. We need to sort these corners out. We have conceded 9 (!!!) goals from corner kicks this season now. Best in the league in this category...
3-1! Now we score from a corner Really should not give it away now. Boulahrouz with the goal! Nods it past the line from like 50 centimetres out.
Happy days!!! Needed that third goal. How about one or two more just for my own security though?? lol
Another goal for Harnik. That is 7 goals in 6 games this Rueckrunde. Very impressive, easily our best player today as well. Good job by the boys today. It looks like we have rediscovered our form, if only we could build on this with an auswaertssieg next week..
Hannover have lost to Dortmund and, far more surprisingly, Bremen were defeated yesterday at home to Nuernberg. That's 3 points gained on two of the sides ahead of us, and Bremen's very poor result is ample demonstration that lots of things can still happen. We need to get our heads together and try to push home an auswaertssieg in Hamburg next week. Our home form seems to have recovered, but we will only go on a run if we can start to brings results home from our travels as well.
Player Ratings: Sven Ulreich: Kicker Rating: 4 (23 played, 2.76 avg.) My Rating: 4.5 Khalid Boulahrouz: KR: 2.5 (18 played, 3.53 avg.) MR: 2 Serdar Tasci: KR: 2.5 (22 played, 3.23 avg.) MR: 3 Georg Niedermeier: KR: 3 (7 played, 5 as starter, 3.70 avg.) MR: 4.5 Gotoku Sakai: KR: 3 (3 played, 3.67 avg.) MR: 2.5 William Kvist: KR: 4.5 (23 played, 3.22 avg.) MR: 4.5 Zdravko Kuzmanovic: KR: 4 (18 played, 14 as starter, 3.54 avg.) MR: 4 Martin Harnik: KR: 1.5 (23 played, 22 as starter, 3.48 avg.) MR: 1 Tamas Hajnal: KR: 3 (22 played, 19 as starter, 3.74 avg.) MR: 2.5 Shinji Okazaki: KR: 3 (20 played, 15 as starter, 3.82 avg.) MR: 2.5 Vedad Ibisevic: KR: 3 (15 played (10 with Hoff), 12 as starter, 3.67 avg.) MR: 2.5 SUBS: Maza: KR: No Rating (20 played, 19 as starter, 3.53 avg.) MR: 3 Christian Gentner: KR: NR (18 played, 12 as starter, 3.35 avg.) MR: NR Cacau: KR: NR (23 played, 18 as starter, 4.03 avg.) MR: NR Unused Subs: - Andre Weis - Arthur Boka - Raphael Holzhauser - Julian Schieber
Always glad to see a Derbysieg. I wonder when/if Schieber will ever get a real shot with us. I seriously doubt it at this point and if I were in his place, I would want out. He's 23 now, so he can't really afford to wait around if the club doesn't think he is up to it now or in the very near future. I know there are other teams that seem to think more of him than our own coaches do.