Next setback for HSV women: bankruptcy against 1. FC Köln

LIVE: Hamburger SV against 1. FC Cologne

by Hanno Bode

A lot of effort, little return: That was once again the sobering conclusion for coach Liése Brancão’s team in this series. The young HSV team also paid the lesson in too many scenes against sophisticated Cologne women. The morale of the hostesses was good. In the end, in addition to the necessary experience, they also lacked a bit of quality – especially on offense.

The promoted team’s attack efforts did not lead to more than substitute Christin Meyer’s goal (47′). Sandra Maria Jessen (10th, 36th, 90+2) and Adriana Achcińska (73rd) were successful for the “Effzeh”.

Results, table standings and match days at a glance.

Brancão teams are too safe from the game

The Brancão team also wanted to turn the Volksparkstadion into a cauldron one day after the HSV men’s spectacular derby victory against Werder Bremen. But on the one hand, there were far too few spectators in the football temple, which holds 57,000 fans. On the other hand, the hosts didn’t know how to inspire as much in terms of play as coach Merlin Polzin’s team had managed to do the evening before.

The Hamburg women did combine nicely forward from time to time. However, in the final third of the field they lacked clarity and determination in their actions. Against Cologne’s compact defense, HSV hardly posed any threat at all before the break. In addition to the laborious attacking efforts, there were two negligences in the work against the ball.

HSV makes two mistakes in their work against the ball

When the first goal was conceded, Sophie Hillebrand defended a free kick from Martyna Wiankowska poorly, allowing Jessen to head the ball from just a few meters away. Before the 0:2, the promoted team’s entire retreat behavior was wrong. Jessen benefited from this again. After a nice deep pass from Pauline Bremer, the Icelandic player beat keeper Larissa Haidner with a shot into the far corner.

Meyer shortens with his first contact with the ball

Christin Meyer scored shortly after coming on to make it 1:2.

Brancão substituted Emilia Hirche for Nina Räcke and Meyer for Annalena Wucher in the second half. And Meyer introduced himself splendidly: with her first touch of the ball, the 25-year-old made it 1-2 with a left-foot shot.

Now there was finally a mood in the sparsely occupied stands. However, Bremer almost immediately nipped this in the bud in return. It was lucky for HSV that the Cologne team failed to hit the goal post (50′). Achcińska also had a 3-1 win for the Rhinelanders. Their attempt narrowly missed the top corner (67′).

Achcińska hit demoralizes Hamburg women

Six minutes later, the Pole aimed more precisely. Perfectly cleared by Bremer, the 23-year-old was able to choose the corner, pushed the ball into the left gable and thus ensured the preliminary decision. Because that meant the morale of the HSV women was broken. In the remaining game time they showed resistance, even conceding a goal from Jessen to make it 1:4 and are now facing difficult times.

The last two games before the turn of the year will be away against champions FC Bayern Munich next Sunday (2 p.m.) and then a week later (December 21, 6:30 p.m.) away from home against runner-up VfL Wolfsburg.

FC St. Pauli also has to play in Leverkusen in the DFB Cup quarter-finals. The women of VfL Wolfsburg await Eintracht Frankfurt.

With Cologne, Munich and Wolfsburg, the rest of the program for the Hamburg team this year is tough. But they tackle the big tasks with confidence.