Hamburger SV

Hamburger SV

Full name	Hamburger Sport-Verein e. V.
Nickname(s)	Rothosen ("Red Shorts") HSV Hanseaten Urgestein ("Primary Rocks") Bundesliga-Dino ("The League Dinosaur") Raute ("Rhombus")
Founded	September 29, 1887
Ground	HSH Nordbank Arena
Capacity	57,274
Chairman	Bernd Hoffmann
Head Coach	Martin Jol
League	Bundesliga
2007–08	Bundesliga, 4th
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Hamburger SV is a German multi sport club ("Traditionsverein") based in Hamburg, its largest branch is the football department. The football team is one of the country's oldest, most well known and best performing clubs, with the unique distinction of having played continuously in top-flight German football since the end of World War I.

History

Early years

Hamburger SV can trace its roots as far back as the September 29, 1887 merger of Der Hohenfelder Sportclub and Wandsbek-Marienthaler Sportclub to form Sportclub Germania zu Hamburg. The current club was formed as Hamburger Sport-Verein in 1919 through the union of three city teams severely weakened by World War I: Sportclub Germania zu Hamburg; Hamburger FC (1888); and FC Falke Eppendorf (1906). The club colors were the Hanseatic red and white in honor of the City of Hamburg, with the blue and black of the oldest of the founding clubs, Germania, being used on the team crest. It is through Germania that HSV can lay a claim to being the oldest team in the country. However, other clubs may dispute that honor, as Germania was formed originally as an athletics club and did not begin to play football until 1891 when a half dozen Englishmen joined the club, bringing with them their enthusiasm for the game.

The newly formed HSV quickly became competitive and contested the 1922 national final against 1. FC Nuremberg, who were playing for their third consecutive title. The game was called on account of darkness after three hours and ten minutes of play, drawn at (2:2). The re-match also went into extra time, and in an era that did not allow for substitutions, that game was called at (1:1) when Nuremberg was reduced to just seven players (two were injured, two had been sent off!) and the referee ruled they could not continue. Considerable wrangling ensued over the decision. The DFB (Deutscher Fussball Bund or German Football Association) awarded the win to Hamburger SV but urged them to refuse the title in the name of good sportsmanship—which they grudgingly did. Ultimately, the Viktoria trophy was not officially presented that year.

The club's first umblemished success on the pitch came in 1923 when they won the national title against Union Oberschöneweide. They failed to defend in 1924 against Nuremberg, but lifted the Viktoria again in 1928.

During the Third Reich, HSV enjoyed local success, first in the Gauliga Nordmark, from 1942 in the Gauliga Hamburg, taking out the league title in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941 and 1945, but on national level the club was a failure. Its main rival in the Gauliga in those years was the Eimsbütteler TV.

Playing in the Oberliga Nord after the resumption of league play in postwar Germany, Hamburg became a frighteningly dominant regional club. In sixteen seasons from 1947-48 to 1962-63 they laid claim to the Oberliga title fifteen times, only posting an uncharacteristic 11th place finish in 1953-54. During this period they scored over 100 goals in each of the 1951, 1955, 1961 and 1962 seasons. However, national titles were harder to come by. Their last championship in 1928 was followed by a long drought not broken until 1960, after losing final appearances in 1957 and 1958. In the 1961 European Champions Cup competition, Hamburg were knocked out by F.C Barcelona in the semi finals. Hamburg had beaten Young Boys from Switzerland and English champions Burnley F.C. on their way to the semi-finals.

Entry into the Bundesliga

Soon after, Germany's first professional football league, the Bundesliga, was formed and HSV was one of sixteen clubs invited to join that first season. Hamburger SV currently holds the distinction of being the only original Bundesliga side to have played continuously in the top flight – without ever having been relegated – since the formation of the league in 1963. They had shared that special status with Eintracht Frankfurt and 1. FC Kaiserslautern until 1996, and with 1. FC Köln until 1998. Altogether, forty-nine other sides have come and gone since the league's inception. The Bundesliga celebrated its 40th anniversary on August 24, 2004 with a match between "The Dinosaur", as the club has been affectionately nicknamed, and Bayern Munich, the league's most successful side. What is even more remarkable is a related, but less well-known, distinction HSV holds: they have played in the country's top flight league continuously since 1919, never having experienced relegation.

In the mid-70s HSV began a brilliant run that saw them capture numerous honors. In 1976 they won the German Cup and followed up the next year with a Cup Winners' Cup. The took their first Bundesliga championship in 1979, fell just two points short behind Bayern Munich in 1980, and then won consecutive championships in 1982 and 1983, led by national star Felix Magath. '83 also brought a European Champions' Cup with a (1:0) win over Juventus F.C., followed by another German Cup in 1987.

In August 2004, HSV was upset in the early rounds of the German Cup by regional league side Paderborn. The match became one of the most infamous in recent football history when it was discovered that referee, Robert Hoyzer, had accepted money from a Croatian gambling syndicate to fix the match, which he did awarding two penalties to Paderborn and sending off Hamburg's player Emile Mpenza. The resulting scandal became the biggest in German football in over thirty years, and was an embarrassment to the country as it prepared to host the 2006 World Cup.

2006–07 UEFA Champions League campaign

Hamburg competed in the UEFA Champions League in the 2006–07 season for the first time since 2000–01, after they beat Osasuna on away goals in the third preliminary round, after they finished third in the Bundesliga. They competed in Group G alongside Arsenal, FC Porto and CSKA Moscow, but finished last and were eliminated.

2006–07 Bundesliga campaign

The Bundesliga campaign started rather poorly for Hamburg. After a successful 2006–07 season when they finished third in the league to qualify for the UEFA Champions League, they spent the first half of the season hovering around and in the relegation zone, with only one win (2–1 in Leverkusen) to their points tally. A series of crippling injuries to the star players along with the departures of two of their best defenders, Khalid Boulahrouz and Daniel van Buyten, severely influenced Hamburg's league campaign, with fans fearing that Hamburg's proud stay in the Bundesliga might be drawing to a close, as the club occupied the bottom spot of the league table after the first half of the season.

On February 1, 2007 the coach, Thomas Doll, was sacked and replaced by the Dutchman Huub Stevens. Stevens' disciplinarian style seemed to grab HSV by the scruff of the neck and shake them about, as the club went 7 games undefeated and conceded just one goal between 10 February 2007 and 7 April 2007. During this streak, HSV won their first home game of the season against Dortmund and won away to archrivals Bremen and Schalke—two sides who were 2nd and 1st respectively when HSV came to town.

However, despite this good run of form (which would come to a crashing halt at home to eventual Champions Stuttgart in April); HSV still were not safe from relegation due to the teams below them also collecting points. At one point in March, 12 teams were involved in the relegation scrap with a gap of 10 pts separating 18th placed Borussia Mönchengladbach and 7th placed Hannover 96.

HSV seemed to gain more success on their travels than at home, as wins at Borussia Mönchengladbach (which virtually relegated Borussia at the time), Bayern München and 1. FC Nuremberg gave HSV valuable points whilst the home games in this period were the previously mentioned defeats to Bochum and Stuttgart, as well as a disappointing draw against fellow strugglers Mainz. Ironicially though, it was the 3-0 home defeat to VfL Bochum on 5 May that mathematically secured HSV's Bundesliga status as struggling Aachen (16th) and Mainz (17th) also lost their games on the same weekend and despite the points difference only being 6 points with two games left, the goal difference was too large to make up by either club.

With their status safe, HSV were now among a small pack of clubs - consisting of Dortmund, Hannover, Bielefeld and Bochum — that were chasing 7th place and the qualifying spot for the following season's UEFA Intertoto Cup. With one game left, and following the 0–3 upset by Bochum, HSV surprised in-form Nuremberg to win 2–0 in the Southern sunshine. One week later, a resounding 4–0 home win (HSV's first since 1st April) over relegated Aachen coupled with Dortmund's 2–1 defeat in Leverkusen and Nuremberg's 3–0 win in Hannover meant that HSV had somehow slipped in at the last possible moment to snatch 7th place, moving from 18th place and certain relegation on 10 February 2007 to 7th place and two games away from UEFA Cup football on 19 May 2007.

Recent seasons

Year	Division	Position
1999-2000	Bundesliga (I)	3rd
2000-01	Bundesliga	13th
2001-02	Bundesliga	11th
2002-03	Bundesliga	4th
2003-04	Bundesliga	8th
2004-05	Bundesliga	8th
2005-06	Bundesliga	3rd
2006-07	Bundesliga	7th
2007-08	Bundesliga	4th
2008-09	Bundesliga

Honours

Hamburg's three Bundesliga championships entitle the club to display one gold star of the "Verdiente Meistervereine". Under the current award system their pre-Bundesliga championships are not recognized and so they are not entitled to the second star of a five-time champion.

In addition to the championships listed below Hamburger SV has a claim to the 1922 title which was never "officially" awarded due to the circumstances of the game and bureaucratic stumbling by the DFB.

Hamburger SV has qualified twice for the Group Stages of the UEFA Champions League in seasons 2000/2001 and in 2006/2007 after finishing third in the previous domestic Bundesliga season and successful play-off matches.

Hamburger SV were the 1983 European Champions, however, they lost the European Super Cup crown to European Cup Winners' Cup Champions Aberdeen, and the World Club crown to Brazilian side Grêmio.

• German Champions: 1922 (not officially awarded), 1923, 1928, 1960, 1979, 1982, 1983
• German Cup: 1963, 1976, 1987
• German League Cup: 1973, 2003
• European Champions Cup: 1983
• European Cup Winners' Cup: 1977
• UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2005, 2007

Stadium

The club plays its home games in the HSH Nordbank Arena (capacity: 57.274 – ~47,000 seats, 10,000 standing) which was originally opened in 2000 as the new Volksparkstadion. On July 1 2001, its name was changed to the AOL Arena. On July 4 2007, it was given its current name. The first Volksparkstadion was opened in 1953 and had been a venue for the 1974 FIFA World Cup and EURO 88. The HSH Nordbank Arena is a UEFA 5 star stadium which certifies it to host UEFA Cup and UEFA Champions League finals. The stadium was the site of four group matches and a quarterfinal in the past 2006 World Cup hosted by Germany and was known as FIFA World Cup Stadium Hamburg during the event. In March 2008, UEFA awarded the rights to host the 2010 UEFA Cup Final to the HSH Nordbank Arena.

Players

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	GER	Frank Rost
2	DF	BRA	Alex Silva
3	DF	CMR	Timothée Atouba
4	DF	GER	Bastian Reinhardt
5	DF	NED	Joris Mathijsen
6	DF	BEL	Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe
7	DF	GER	Marcell Jansen
8	MF	NED	Nigel de Jong
9	FW	PER	José Paolo Guerrero
10	FW	CRO	Mladen Petrić
11	FW	CRO	Ivica Olić
12	GK	GER	Wolfgang Hesl
14	MF	CZE	David Jarolím (captain)
15	MF	GER	Piotr Trochowski
16	MF	BLR	Anton Putsila

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
17	FW	NGA	Macauley Chrisantus
18	MF	NED	Romeo Castelen
19	DF	GER	Jérôme Boateng
20	DF	CIV	Guy Demel
21	MF	BFA	Jonathan Pitroipa
22	FW	GER	Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting
25	MF	GER	Mamadi Keita
27	MF	BRA	Thiago Neves
29	GK	GER	Raphael Wolf
30	MF	NAM	Collin Benjamin
31	MF	GER	Timo Kunert
32	MF	GER	Änis Ben-Hatira
35	FW	TUR	Tunay Torun
40	MF	GER	Dennis Aogo

For recent transfers, see List of German football transfers summer 2008.

Famous players

Roda Antar Jörg Albertz Sergej Barbarez Franz Beckenbauer Albert "Ali" Beier Uwe Bein Stefan Beinlich Khalid Boulahrouz Daniel Van Buyten Rodolfo Cardoso

Thomas Doll Gert "Charly" Dörfel Jan Furtok Paolo Guerrero Otto "Tull" Harder Thomas von Heesen Stéphane Henchoz Horst Hrubesch Ditmar Jakobs

Manfred Kaltz Rudolf Kargus Kevin Keegan Yordan Letchkov Felix Magath Mehdi Mahdavikia Émile Mpenza Rudi Noak Peter Nogly

Miroslav Okonski Ivica Olić Arkoç Özcan Jupp Posipal Hasan Salihamidžić Horst Schnoor Willi Schulz Erwin Seeler Dieter Seeler

Uwe Seeler Lars Jacobsen Heinz Spundflasche Uli Stein Klaus Stürmer Naohiro Takahara Stig Tøfting Piotr Trochowski Tomáš Ujfaluši Rafael van der Vaart

Walter Warning Jürgen Werner Raphaël Wicky Wolfram Wuttke Allan Jepsen Mohamed Zidan Tony Yeboah Juan Pablo Sorín Thomas Gravesen

Coaches

• 1945–1949 Hans Tauchert
• 1946–1954 Georg Knöpfle
• 1954–1956 Martin Wilke & Günter Mahlmann
• 1956–1962 Günter Mahlmann
• 1962–1964 Martin Wilke
• 1964–1966 Georg Gawliczek
• 1966–1967 Josef Schneider
• 1967–1969 Kurt Koch
• 1969–1970 Georg Knöpfle
• 1970–1973 Klaus-Dieter Ochs
• 1973–1977 Kuno Klötzer
• 1977–1977 Rudi Gutendorf
• 1977–1978 Arkoç Özcan
• 1978–1980 Branko Zebec
• 1981–1981 Aleksandar Ristić
• 1981–1987 Ernst Happel
• 1987–1987 Josip Skoblar
• 1987–1990 Willi Reimann
• 1990–1992 Gerd-Volker Schock
• 1992–1992 Egon Coordes
• 1992–1995 Benno Möhlmann
• 1995–1997 Felix Magath
• 1997–1997 Ralf Schehr
• 1997–2001 Frank Pagelsdorf
• 2001–2001 Holger Hieronymus
• 2001–2003 Kurt Jara
• 2003–2004 Klaus Toppmöller
• 2004–2007 Thomas Doll
• 2007–2008 Huub Stevens
• 2008– Martin Jol

Women's section

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	GER	Bianca Weech
4	MF	GER	Catharina Schimpf
5	MF	GER	Kathrin Patzke
6	MF	GER	Marisa Ewers
7	FW	GER	Tugba Tekkal
9	FW	GER	Tanja Vreden
10	MF	GER	Silva Lone Saländer
11	DF	GER	Heike Freese
12	GK	GER	Jennifer Werth
13	MF	GER	Denise Lehmann
14	DF	GER	Daniela Schacher
15	MF	GER	Imke Wübbenhorst

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
16	DF	GER	Vanessa Schröer
17	DF	GER	Janina Haye (captain)
18	MF	GER	Maja Schubert
19	FW	GER	Kim Kulig
21	DF	GER	Janka Rohrberg
22	MF	GER	Angelina Lübcke
—	FW	GER	Johanna Borkowski
—	MF	GER	Patricia Hanebeck
—	FW	GER	Gina Heinßen
—	MF	GER	Kathrin Patzke
—	DF	GER	Christina Plessen

Other departments

Other important departments are volleyball, baseball or cricket. Okka Rau was qualified for volleyball at the 2008 Summer Olympics . HSV Cricket is playing in the league of the North German Cricket Federation (Norddeutscher Cricket Verband ) and won several first places.

Team trivia

• A visit to the club's homepage reveals a clock that tallies up the time – down to the second – that Hamburg has spent in the Bundesliga.

• HSV went undefeated between January 16, 1982 and January 29, 1983—a string of 36 games that still stands as a Bundesliga record.

• Hamburg became the first German team to tour the United States after the Second World War in May of 1950 and came away with a 6-0 record.

• HSV share a cross-town rivalry with FC St. Pauli

• HSV have an affinity with Scottish Club Rangers F.C.. HSV fans unfurl their club logo at Rangers away European matches.

• HSV shares a rivalry to the other big club of northern Germany: Werder Bremen.

• HSV have a friendship bond with Hannover 96. Due to both being known as HSV. Their meetings involve the visitors club song to be played, and fans chanting HSV from each end of the stadium.

• HSV held the record of post-2nd World War first-class league titles, having won 15 Oberliga Nord and three Bundesliga championships until 2006 when FC Bayern München won it's 19th Bundesliga title and overtook them.

• HSV fans can be buried at a dedicated graveyard near the home stadium, covered in turf from the original Hamburg pitch.

External links

• Official team site
• Official supporters club site
• Abseits Guide to German Soccer
• Team statistics
• Fan site HSV Forever
• Fan site HSV-OLÉ-OLÉ - a collection of HSV chants, songs and lyrics.
• Hamburger SV formations at football-lineups