As reigning German champions Dortmund have the honour of kicking off the 49th Bundesliga season on Friday evening. Dortmund will play at home, and in front of an exuberant home- crowd this game should hopefully be an absolute cracker. Hamburg will bring a sizeable contingent of fans too, 6500 fans from the Hanseatic town are expected at the Westfalenstadion.
For the second time in a row, the opponent for the champion will be Hamburg. But this season’s HSV has very little to do with the Hamburg from last season. Almost all older, experienced players were sold or let go during the transfer period, instead Hamburg seems to be following the model established by other Bundesliga clubs in bringing in youth players to Hamburg (including four Chelsea reserve players, HSV sporting director Frank Arnesen be thanked).
However, this great changeover in personnel means that it is difficult to predict exactly how they will do this coming season. Apparently Hamburg had a mixed pre- season, with some good games during the LIGA TOTAL! Cup but also some disappointing friendlies, like yesterday, where they lost 2-1 to Valencia and looked pretty ordinary.
Coming to Dortmund, first off, the bad news. It seems that the injury that Lucas Barrios sustained during the Copa America is worse then expected. At first there was talk about him missing just two to three weeks, now the official Dortmund website says that they expect him to be out for at least five to six weeks! Dortmund officials are not happy with the Paraguayan FA, saying that they tried to downplay the seriousness of Barrios injury, and only a MRT scan back in Germany showed the extent of the damage caused.
Anyway, no use crying over spilled milk now, Barrios injury means that Robert Lewandowski should be the certain starter for the opening match. He scored two goals during the DFB Pokal, so he should be in good form.
Apart from that, the only other first-teamer that will be missing is Marcel Schmelzer, though his recovery is going well, and there are hopes that he’ll be fit for the game against Hoffenheim. Chris Löwe will in all probability be the one to replace him. The other big question concerning the starting line- up is between Kehl and Bender. Bender is fit again, and since it seems that Gündogan will start as the more attacking defensive midfielder, meaning that one of Bender and Kehl will have to sit on the bench. Apart from that I think that the team is pretty fixed, Weidenfeller in goal, Subotic, Hummels, Piszczek and Löwe in defense. The offensive midfield should be made up of Götze, Kagawa and one of Großkreutz/Perisic. Lewandowski will be the lone striker.
No comments:
Post a Comment