Hamburger SV 1-1 Holstein Kiel
(Terodde 23′; Lee 8′)
That Uwe Seeler scored the last time Holstein Kiel lost a league fixture to Hamburger SV tells you it was a long time ago. Of course since the 1962-63 season they have only been in the same league for the past three years, but on Monday night the 1-1 draw at the Volksparkstadion maintained the Storks unbeaten record against HSV in the 2. Bundesliga.
It capped of a great week for Ole Werner’s team. A win against Erzgebirge Aue in the league was followed up by a comfortable, in the end, 3-0 victory over Rot-Weiss Essen in the DFB-Pokal to set up a mouth-watering trip to Signal Iduna Park to play Borussia Dortmund in semis in early May.
That’s far enough in the distance to allow them to concentrate on the league for now, and they have had little problem in balancing the workload as second place in the league will show.
If, as it has seemed for a few weeks, it’s to be a four-way battle for promotion, Kiel have to face all three of their rivals in the space of six league games, with Bochum to come in April. They came out on the losing side against Fürth a couple of weeks ago, having been the dominate team, but they were happy to play second fiddle to Hamburg here.
An early goal helped, with weak marking from Jan Gyamerah allowed Lee Jae-sung, linked so heavily with Hamburg for about a year now, to head in Jannik Dehm’s corner. At this point it looked like the hoodoo they had on their hosts would continue.
From there on, Hamburg controlled possession, but they showed patience in their attacking game which eventually paid off in a well-worked move by Bakary Jatta and Simon Terodde, with the latter ending a 353-minute goalless streak to bag his twentieth of the season.
Kiel chances were few and far between but they always looked danger on the counter, such as before the break as Fin Bartels belayed his years to launch a counter from a Hamburg corner. He was only denied by good work from Sonny Kittel, to his credit charging back from the other end of the pitch, and Sven Ulreich.
They rode their luck at the back, with Josha Vagnoman heading a superb chance into the post, and after half time a Terodde header was kept out fortuitously by the out-stretched arm of Ioannis Gelios, who had looked all at sea in dealing with a Hamburg corner.
It felt like one of those nights though for Daniel Thioune’s men. Perhaps Kiel sensed that, as they didn’t force the issue, even late on. They knew a point would be enough to keep their hold on second place and leave Hamburg three points behind.
There was always the chance that Kiel could snatch a goal in stoppage time, as they did in Hamburg last season or in the reverse fixture (albeit in both cases to earn a point), but despite one very late opening, this time it didn’t come.
2liga.net 