A quick drive-thru:
- Hamburg’s 1-1 draw with Spartak last night
- Look ahead to Sunday
- Lyon’s ice cream van loses its Wheels
Hamburg 1 -1 Spartak Moskva
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| Hamburg’s line-up |
Hamburg reverted to 4-3-3 last night, as promised, but it was a slightly different and more compact shape than that formation which got a creditable draw with Anderlecht in the season opener, and then battered Sao Paulo, but couldn’t find a winner.
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| Spartak’s team |
It was only the introduction of Vargas and Hernandez for Khazri and Valbuena on the hour, and a shift to genuine wing play that changed the game in der Dino’s favour.
Hernandez duly laid on the pass for Aduriz to score his first league goal for the club, and save a point.
Bilbao on Sunday
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| Athletic’s likely starting eleven? |
Three draws and one defeat from the first four league games, and a place in the bottom four, is not what anyone around the club wanted.
On the positive side, we look hard to beat, and the goals will surely come to get some wins before too long.
Athletic Club are next, another team with an unbeaten pre-season, followed by mixed results in the league – one win, two draws and a defeat puts them tenth in the Division Three table.
Playing against five at the back, Hamburg can expect to find themselves with a lot of the ball on Sunday.
Can they find a way to break down a stubborn defence, and not get caught on the break?
Wheels’ Off at Lyon
The first managerial casualty of the season is ex-Sao Paulo boss Nick Wheels.
With his new team of gelatinous geriatrics propping up the rest of Division Three, Nick felt that the honourable thing to do was to stop offering free ice creams to youngsters to come and play with his “old men”.
On a more serious note, Nick was probably one of the more under-rated managers in Top 100. Yesterday I named a few of what the statistics show are the best managed clubs – clubs which improve season after season.
I would have included Sao Paulo in that list if Nick had still been there, as he is responsible for quiet and steady improvement, from Division Five to a high of ninth in Division Three, and three promotions in seven seasons.
The Spoon Army are said to be holding a vigil for the revered ex-boss and guiding light, and the whole Top 100 community wishes Wheels well in his recovery from visiting France.
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