Up and Hatem! Ben Arfa wins D3 opening day German derby for Hamburg

A Man of the Match performance and late winning goal for the maverick French playmaker.

Hamburg began their first season back in Division Three following hard-won promotion with a relatively short journey south to fellow new boys and old rivals Stuttgart. The Swabians had secured arguably an even harder-won promotion via the playoffs.

Stuttgart celebrate winning promotion in the D4 playoff final

Back-to-back promotions, the Division Five title and Top 100 Shield success against Hamburg inevitably led to former Reds boss Feargal Hickey getting tapped up by bigger clubs. Still, it was somewhat of a surprise when Hickey left the comfort of the German heartlands for war-torn eastern Ukraine and Division Two side Shakhtar Donetsk.

Hamburg players training before the game

A hard act to follow, the new Stuttgart boss – Top 100 rookie Pat Roper – took charge of his first ever competitive match in Top 100 lining up against David Marsden’s Red Shorts (wearing all blue for this fixture). Stuttgart lined up with new signing Loic Remy at centre forward, replacing Seydou Doumbia, who followed Hickey to Ukraine. Potentially a very smart bit of business by Roper.

Hamburg boss Marsden started with just five of the team that finished third in Division Four last time out. During the close season, club captain Martin Demichelis moved to Atalanta, along with Yannick Bolasie, in a deal that saw new skipper and Division Four Team of the Year pick Thomas Vermaelen arrive at the Volksparkstadion. Similarly, Benoit Tremoulinas joined from Division Three champions Aston Villa, in exchange for Mario Rui. Raul Garcia came in from CSKA Moscow for Jordan Ferri, and Charles Kabore from Hellas Verona for Joaquin Correa. Marsden also splashed the cash on exciting young Sporting winger Carlos Mane. Other notable departures were Vlad Chiriches, who moved to Division One champions Spurs, and Nico Muller, who went to Champions League chasing Liverpool.

Stuttgart, perhaps wary of Hamburg’s front five, started with a counter-attacking 4-2-3-1 formation with a deep-lying playmaker, the Argentine Lucas Castro, and two wingers. Giovani dos Santos supported Remy up front.

Hamburg kept the same ‘suicidal’ attack-minded formation and tactics that won them more games than any other team in Division Four last season, with Division Two Team of the Year pick Hatem Ben Arfa moving to a central attacking playmaker role.

Stuttgart dominated possession from the off in an otherwise even and relatively uneventful first half, the two goals aside. Their two young wingers combined to open the scoring early doors, Christian Atsu starting and finishing a lovely move, which left Hamburgs defence chasing shadows.

‘Josef Martinez came on and changed the game for me. I told him to go through the middle, put Demba out on the right, and Hatem on the left. Either he totally ignored me, or my Spanish isn’t what it used to be, because he played a blinder on the left wing, and won the game for us.’