[NoSkillz]

Tue. July 20, 2021

Preseason Friendly
HSV vs. Dover
Imtech Arena, Hamburg, Germany

We close out our German tour against Hamburger SV, another huge club coming off a 2nd place finish in the Bundesliga last year, thereby qualifying for the Champions League. They have a much deeper and more talented team than Dortmund so this will be tough.

We'll go with a "B" side for the most part, with only Arsene Bamba, Gianluca Bolis and Andrea Rocca starting. Shanon Andrea will play alone up front with Wayne Rooney sitting behind him at AMC. Rayane Hamon and Kostas Kalfas just signed today and I'll hold them out until our next game.

Dover: 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) Control
GK - Y. Sylla
D - J. Varga, A. Kokaina, T. Andersen, J. Kuciak
M - A. Rocca, S. Spall
AM - A. Bamba, W. Rooney, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea

HSV 3 - 2 Dover
Goals - Dennis Kunz (7.3), Aitor Zubizarreta (7.9)
Assists - Aitor Zubizarreta, Samir Nasri (6.9)
Man of the Match - Aitor Zubizarreta
Other Dover Notables - None
Attendance - 30,665

We were losing 2-0 at half and getting dominated, with HSV holding 66% of possession. We started to play better when I brought in my third stringers, interestingly enough and Kunz scored in the 79th minute and in dramatic fashion, transfer listed attacking midfielder Aitor Zubizarreta brought us level in the 90th minute! I stupidly forgot to change back from the overload tactic to something more conservative after that goal and HSV literally went right down the field on the ensuing kickoff and scored in injury time to win, the third late goal we've given up already in our three preseason losses. Sloppy.

-- My coaches don't think I should be moving Zubizarreta and after performances like that, I may have to keep him around.



Loan OUT

-- 19 year old French striker Ryan Bodin accepts a move to Coventry on loan for the season. Bodin scored 16 goals while on loan at Rushden last year in League 2 so this move to a League 1 team will give a good idea of where he's at.

-- A bunch of loan offers come in for DC Thomas Andersen and AMC/ST Roberto. I only accept the ones where they are given assurances of first-team playing time. I also get a couple of decent transfer bids for Aitor Zubizarreta but I decline them and pull him off the transfer list for now.

-- I also dump a bunch of useless U18 players, as I usually do at this time of year. I don't want the filler taking away playing time from my better prospects.



Champions League Update

-- We've reached the Champions Third Qualifying stage and there are a whole bunch of smaller teams facing each other. We don't enter the competition until the Best Placed Playoff stage, which will take place at the end of next month.



-- Fiorentina inquire about Giorgos Gesios - not for sale gentlemen! Gesios does come out in the press, saying he'd be tempted if an offer came through. Don't hold your breath buddy…I don't plan on letting you go anytime soon!


Work Permit Issue

-- As expected, my move for Carlos Guzman is held up due to a work permit issue. I appeal the initial decision and I'll have to wait another week for the final word. Again, it's expected to go through without incident upon the appeal process.



Next Up

-- We're back at Crabble Athletic Ground, hosting German Bundesliga side Werder Bremen.