In the end, a draw would have been enough to set up a promotion play-off against northern rivals Werder Bremen. A draw at home to Sandhausen, a bottom-half club from a village in south-west Germany with a population of 15,000.
Surely that wasn’t too much to ask from a squad with the third highest wage bill in the division, one greater than four Bundesliga clubs?
Evidently, it was. And the most damning part of Sunday’s 5-1 defeat, described by the club’s English Twitter account as “embarrassing”, is that it wasn’t in the least surprising to anyone who has followed the fortunes of the once great Hamburger SV in recent years. To rub salt in the wound, the scorer of the fifth goal, Dennis Diekmeier, played for Hamburg for eight years and made 184 appearances without scoring.
The list of failures is long: The years of flirting with relegation from the Bundesliga finally culminating in a first ever drop into the second division, failure to secure promotion at the first attempt last season, humiliating home and away derby defeats to local rivals St. Pauli, disastrous late collapses against Fürth, Kiel and Stuttgart which saw Hamburg surrender second place, and a 95th-minute defeat to Heidenheim on the penultimate weekend, which meant that even the play-off spot was out of their hands going into the final day.
Helping hand not enough
They needed help from afar from champions Bielefeld, and they got even got that, as Heidenheim lost 3-0. But they still couldn’t do their own job, handing Heidenheim the playoff berth.
When HSV outsourced its professional football team into a limited company in 2014 – a process in German football known as Ausgliederung – fans were promised it would encourage levels of investment which would help the club establish itself among Europe’s elite. Instead, the once unimaginable prospect of Hamburg spending a third season in the second division is a sad, pitiful and, in the eyes of many, thoroughly deserved reality.
And yet the season actually started relatively promisingly. Under Dieter Hecking, HSV lost only one of their first 11 games, fired six past Stuttgart and quickly established their position as heavyweights at the top of the table. Off the pitch, as well, the Bakery Jatta affair saw players, staff and fans pull together in support of the then 21-year-old who had been wrongly suspected of having incorrect documentation. HSV were showing their very best side and were well on track. But, as so often in recent years, it didn’t last.
The blame game is back underway, but the list of candidates for the role of chief scapegoat is long. Players, coaches, sporting directors, chairmen and presidents have come and gone at a rate so dizzying in recent years that many in Hamburg have lost track.
Hecking and the hierarchy
Head coach Hecking arrived with a reputation for stability and authority, an elder statesman of German football management who has seen it all. But he’s surely never seen anything like this, and wasn’t blameless himself either. Hecking’s tactical adaptability has been questioned, while a series of media interviews before Christmas in which he discussed his potential future plans suggested his focus wasn’t entirely on the job at hand.
But should he even have been there in the first place? Hecking is widely considered to have been the choice of former sporting director Ralf Becker, not of the current, younger, incumbent Jonas Boldt, who had excelled as a progressive chief scout at Bayer Leverkusen. Boldt and Hecking are polar opposites in many ways but have been professional enough to work together, and the former has consistently backed the latter in public. But Boldt would surely have a different style of coach in mind.
Meanwhile, further up the hierarchy, Hamburg have stagnated in a self-perpetuating cycle of financial reliance on Klaus-Michael Kühne, the German businessman who has a 20.6 percent stake in HSV and whose associates dominate the boardroom. Kühne’s influence appears to grow in tandem with the crisis, and the crises keep getting worse.
One only has to look at the fates of Kaiserslautern, who announced last week that they would be filing for insolvency in the third division, 1860 Munich and others to see what can happen to fallen German giants who find themselves trapped in a downward spiral of sporting failure, financial mismanagement and unrealistic expectations. Schalke could yet be next.
Hamburg fans have forgiven their club for a lot in recent years, but can they ever forgive them for this?
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Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season
Union win first top-flight Berlin derby vs. Hertha
November 2, 2019 — It was a historic moment for the city of Berlin as Hertha and Union clashed in their first ever top-flight derby. Sebastian Polter clinched a tight 1-0 victory for the hosts, but the match was marred by ugly scenes in the stands. Hertha ultras launched fireworks onto the pitch and Union ultras attempted to storm the field.
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Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season
Bayern Munich sack Niko Kovac
November 3, 2019 — Bayern Munich looked in trouble following a 5-1 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt on Matchday 10. Off the title pace by four points, the club decided to part ways with under-fire coach Niko Kovac. It proved to be the right choice, as replacement Hansi Flick went unbeaten for 20 matches to seal an eighth straight Bundesliga title.
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Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season
Erling Haaland announces Bundesliga arrival with hat-trick
January 18, 2020 — The biggest transfer of the Bundesliga proved to be Borussia Dortmund’s capture of Erling Haaland. The 19-year-old Norwegian made an immediate impact off the bench as he netted a game-winning hat-trick to hand Dortmund a 5-3 comeback victory over Augsburg. Haaland went on to score 13 goals in just 15 games.
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Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season
Jürgen Klinsmann leaves Hertha in the lurch
February 11, 2020 — When Hertha Berlin appointed Jürgen Klinsmann as coach, not many saw the partnership ending well. Three wins in just ten games signaled his time in charge would be short, but no one predicted the chaotic nature of his departure. Klinsmannn announced he was leaving the club via Facebook, blindsiding his bosses and making a mockery of the club in the eyes of media and rival fans.
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Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season
Bundesliga fans protest against Hopp
February 29, 2020 — These protests were about much more than just billionaire Hoffenheim owner Dietmar Hopp, who has cut a controversial figure in his bid to circumvent the Bundesliga’s 50+1 ownership rule. Several clubs voiced their opposition to the DFB, due to what they saw as a breach of trust in their relationship with fan groups. Bayern Munich’s game at Hoffenheim ended in farce.
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Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season
The Bundesliga shuts down
March 13, 2020 — As COVID-19 spread across Europe and Germany, unprecedented lockdown measures were brought into society and the Bundesliga. Before the competition was suspended, however, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Cologne played the first Bundesliga game in front of no fans on March 11. It was the last game until football returned on May 16.
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Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season
Bundesliga returns in May with ‘Geisterspiele’
May 16, 2020 — There were mixed feelings among fans as the Bundesliga came back, but the DFL was adamant that the financial future of several clubs depended on a return. Games behind closed doors, known as ‘Geisterspiele’ in Germany, was the only way forward and overall it has proved a successful experiment. What’s the plan for the new season though? How long can football continue without fans?
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Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season
Bayern kill title race with Der Klassiker win
May 26, 2020 — Heading into Matchday 28, there were just four points between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. Der Klassiker was therefore a final chance for Dortmund to mount a serious challenge on Bayern’s title monopoly. But a Joshua Kimmich wondergoal and a controversial penalty call steered Bayern to a 1-0 win and all but ended any title race.
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Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season
Klaus Gjasula claims an unwanted record
June 13, 2020 — Paderborn’s Klaus Gjasula not only suffered relegation with his club Paderborn, but the 30-year-old also copped a Bundesliga record not many would be proud to hold. Gjasula, playing in midfield, collected his 17th yellow card on Matchday 31 – the most any Bundesliga player has received in one single season.
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Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season
Bayern Munich win historic eighth straight Bundesliga title
June 16, 2020 — Bayern were pushed further than they have been in the past eight years, but still they did enough to seal yet another Bundesliga title. With two games to spare, they beat Werder Bremen 1-0 on Matchday 32 through a goal from who else but Robert Lewandowski. They finished the season with 13 straight victories, an incredible achievement.
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Bundesliga 2019-20: Defining moments of the season
Wirtz becomes Bundesliga’s youngest scorer
June 30, 2020 — At 17 years and 34 days, Florian Wirtz became the league’s youngest ever goalscorer when he netted for Bayer Leverkusen against Bayern Munich on Matchday 30. He took the title from previous record holder Nuri Sahin, who scored for Dortmund at the age of 17 years and 82 days in 2005. With Kai Havertz’s future up the air, could Wirtz become Leverkusen’s next superstar?
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/hamburg-embarrassing-as-they-blow-bundesliga-promotion-chance/a-53973512?maca=en-rss-en-sports-1027-xml-atom
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