Hamburger SV 1:0 FC Bayern Munich: Post-mortem

By: Luke | September 26th, 2009

“Ich denke, unser Spiel war nicht so schlecht”
“I think our play was not so bad”
-Philipp Lahm

I couldn’t agree more. We didn’t play all that poorly. Because I am hepped up on Spaten Oktoberfest right now (I know, I know, it’s no Hacker-Pschorr, but Spaten does hold a place in Märzen history), I am not going to get too analytical. But, I am of the view that 27 matches from now, this one isn’t going to bother us that much. The fact of the matter is, it was a well-played match from both sides, which could easily have gone 1-0 for Bayern as well. As is so often the case, the context of the match probably determined the outcome. Frankly, HSV needed this one more badly than we did. I’m not saying that they put in more effort, or somehow deserved it more, but losing mid-week unquestionably aided the urgency with which they played.

I was as surprised as anyone with our formation, but I thought for the most part, we were up to the task. There were a few segments of the match where I felt we were rope-a-doping, and putting a little too much pressure on Butt’s back, but otherwise we produced sufficient chances to get on the board.

Taking the longer view of things, I think the Juventus match is much more important. Again, considering Bayern’s record in Italy, Wednesday is a must win. The table isn’t totally pretty to look at after today, but we really ought to get 9 of 9 points out of the next 3 matches. I don’t think there’s some particular Achilles heel or lesson that comes out of today’s match. Just that when two top teams square off, and your own team is the visitor, a win isn’t always in the cards.

GOLTV rant
Now, I preface this with the fact that I was in a pub full of Arsenal fans, so I didn’t have any sound. I don’t know if they stuck with the Bayern match sound. But seriously, ***W-T-F???*** I know a little something about television production, and there’s no reason for me to have to be notified of the HSV goal by the Bayern iPhone app about 3 minutes ahead of GOLTV figuring out something happened in the match they went away from. I know damn well there was a director sitting there with the Bayern match in his preview screen the whole time. Just show a split screen!!! Or god forbid, show the first half of the Barca match 15 min delayed, and cut out the halftime (yeah ok, I see the revenue issue with that, but still). I would organize some willful boycott of their sponsors or something, if I thought it would do any good…