3 Points for Christmas
Looking at this fixture back in August when the fixtures were announced, this would seem like a guaranteed 3 points for Hannover but with Augsburg flying high in 3rd prior to kick off, a home win was far from a certainty. The rate at which Hannover was leaking goals was worrying, 3+ goals in each of their last 4 games. However they have been scoring goals of late, Joselu seems to have found the direction to goal again and with Stindl back and contributing goals and assists. I was quietly confident that the HDI arena would once again be a formidable place to come to.
The big news in the build up to the game was about Salif Sane, would he be starting the game? The last home match against Wolfsburg he was on the bench but didn’t come on. The next match against Werder Bremen he played the last 15 minutes. The teams were announced and Sane who was recently recalled from first team exile was back in the starting line up. Would this be good? Would this be bad? only time will tell but something needs to be done to firm up the defense and this is a possible solution that Korkut thinks might work.
Heading down to the stadium, I need to walk past the away fans entrance. Normally this is an area full of police, away fans, bottle collectors and the away fan merchandising van. This time, it was eerily quiet. There was 1 fan standing in front of a line of stewards being patted down at the security check, only ONE fan! Even my normal entrance, which is normally a hive of activity, was quiet. Even though it was a Tuesday game kicking off at 20:00, this is the last Bundesliga game in the HDI arena until February…yes February! I thought that the match would have sold out or at least been over the 40,000 mark.
Entering the stadium there were empty seats everywhere in the west, south and east stands. The north stand (lower) was, as expected, full. Sometime I get frustrated with the fickle nature of “fans”. Hannovers song “Alte Leibe” which is sung before every home match has a line in it…”wir sind dabei, egal obs regnet oder schneit nicht nur an guten Tagen, wenn die Sonne scheint” roughly translated as “We are always here, doesn’t matter if it is raining or snowing, not only on the good days when the sun is shining” Yes, Hannover is going through a bit of tough patch at the moment, but that is football. Support your team and get behind them. Yes, Tuesday games at 20:00 are sometimes difficult to travel to and get home at a reasonable time for work the following day but to have 20,000 empty seats in a Bundesliga stadium is unacceptable.
Now the time came for the players to be announced to the crowd and I was listening out for the reception that Salif Sane would get. When Sane’s name was read out it, it was greeted with the same cheering that every other name was. However, normally a picture of the player is displayed on the big screen but there was no picture of Sane and just a large 96 logo instead! I am sure that they will get this sorted out before the next home game….in February! Then came the singing of “Alte Liebe”. The song is always sung by the same two people, Osssy Pfeiffer and Dete Kuhlmann. However, this time it was not featuring a backing track, instead it was acoustically sung with a live guitarist standing beside them. It really added to the atmosphere, I hope this is something that they will keep.
As the match kicked Hannover had the better of the opening exchanges with getting more and more joy down either wing. A few dangerous crosses were put in and there were a few quick corners in a row. The singing and jumping around from the lower tier of the north stand was constant but not exactly deafening but it was a joy to watch so many people in unison bouncing up and down and enjoying themselves.
The strong opening from Hannover was nearly undone by a lapse in concentration from Kiyotake who gets the ball stolen from underneath him and it goes straight to a Augsburg player and only a fine save from Zieler denies Augsburg an undeserved lead. The resulting corner then almost produced a wonder goal the corner was headed out and long range effort from Paul Verhaegh was only matched by a fine diving save to Zieler’s left.
Hannover’s game plan must have been to exploit the wings as this was a tactic that Hannover did extremely well under Mirko Slomka and this team was now starting to play like the team that qualified for the Europa league twice in a row. Miiko Albornoz and Hiroki Sakai were pushing forward and making decent runs and starting to play more like wing backs. On the 20 minute mark, Albornoz did outstanding work to shepard the ball out for a corner kick under pressure from the Augsburg defenders. The resulting corner was swung in by Kiyotake and Lars Stindl rises highest and connects with corner. The ball continues and all of a sudden the ball is in the net and off in the middle of the celebration is….Salif Sane. Despite that goal being about 20 metres away from me I had no idea what just happened. It was only at half time that I saw a replay in the stadium and it was flicked on by Stindl and it hit the back of Sane’s head and was deflected into the back of the net. They all count, whether it a Roberto Carlos physics defying free kick or a deflection off the back of your head. 1 nil Hannover.
The west stand and specifically the north west section was now starting to really get involved and joining in with the singing and chants with the north stand. Chanting Salif Sane’s name which only a month ago would have not been a very likely chant to hear in the stadium. The passion was there from the players, this was evident from a perceived high boot from Marcelo on 32 mins. It looked like Marcelo lifted his leg to waist height and the Augsburg player dropped his head down to waist height. There didn’t seem to be much contact but down the player goes in apparent agony. Stindl complains strongly to the referee to which he is casually dismissed by the referee. Stindl then walks away livid with the decision and the fans make their voices known that they also disagree with the decision.
Through out the first half there has been a small section of the crowd with some very negative chanting. Now it is only a minority and as soon as the chanting starts it is instantly booed by the majority of the home fans. The chant is the “Kind muss weg” meaning “Kind (Hannover President) must go”. This was last heard at the end of last season after a legal battle between the Ultras and the Hannover 96 management that resulted in the Ultras now boycotting the first team games. (simplified version)
At half time, Hannover are looking good for their 1 nil lead, Zieler and the defence have been strong and kept Augsburg to nil which based on the previous 4 games is an immense improvement. Maybe Sane is the answer??
The second half started much as the first half ended, the cheering and chanting was getting louder and starting to involve more of the stadium but also the “Kind muss weg” chanting was starting to occur more and more often. Each time it was met instantly with a chorus of boos from the majority of the stadium. Then on 55 mins a rather soft penalty was given to Hannover, Stindl looked second favourite to a ball and just got his leg in front of the defender and went to ground. The referee, Christian Dingert, pointed to the spot much to the protests of nearly the complete Augsburg team. It is the type of tackle that if it is made 100 times in the box, you will only get a penalty 3 or 4 times. As a Hannover fan, I am not complaing but if I am honest. It was not a penalty.
Up steps Joselu for the first home penalty this season in the HDI arena and after what seemed like an eternity to place the ball and wait for everything to be ready, he calmly slotted the penalty away to the bottom right out of the reach of Alex Manninger in the Augsburg goal. 2 nil Hannover but still alot of football still to play.
As the second half progressed, the 30,800 spectators (capacity 49,000) started to raise the volume and more and more chants were emanating from the North stand that were filtering through the whole stadium. Hannover had a disallowed goal for offside, I have since seen this on the TV and it was VERY VERY close and it was probably the wrong decision, maybe that evens out the soft penalty that was awarded earlier.
The disallowed goal for Hannover actually seemed to give Augsburg a new momentum and really started attacking the Hannover goal but Zieler is in fine form and with time starting to run out it is looking unlikely that he will be beaten today. An incident on 74 mins where Zieler makes a save but the ball spills to his left and he is waiting until the last moment to collect ball and gets clattered by an Augsburg player, this is perfect for Hannover as no real damage done to Zieler and Hannover complaints to the referee waste a few more seconds.
The last 10 mins of the game turned into a bit of a carol singing moment with the score being 2 nil and Hannovers defence including Sane and Zieler playing very well, the fans knew 3 points were safe and starting singing a very melodic but slow Christmas carol type of song. Even though I could not make out what they were singing it was a beautiful way to end the first half of the 2014/15 bundesliga season in the HDI arena.
The next game is an away game against Freiburg on the 21st December. This is the final game of the first half of the season and the start of the winter break. The opening game of the second half of the season is against Schalke 04 on the 31st January and the next visitors to HDI arena are Mainz 05 on Tuesday 3rd February at 20:00. English week is back and I hope for a better attendance for that game.
Frohes Neues und Auf gehts Hannover!
Hannover 96 2 – 0 Augsburg
1-0 Salif Sane 20 mins, 2-0 Joselu 55 mins
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