Hamburger SV will travel to Koln in the week 2 of the new German Bundesliga season as two foes meet in an opening duel of the round. Summer break is over and it’s time to slowly enter the routine that consists a lot of soccer almost every day, especially on the weekend. Frankly, that is exactly what most of us have been anticipating throughout entire summer and it’s finally here.
Week 1 matchups in Germany showed that the most of the teams enter the season pretty carefully. There were only 14 goals in nine matches (1.55 goals scored per game) and in only one of those eight games both teams scored. We will definitely have in mind this trend when picking future possible outcomes. It’s time to win you some green so let’s take a closer look.
FC Koln vs. Hamburger SV
Three-Way: 1: FC Koln +100; X: +260 draw; Hamburger SV +355
Spread -0.5: FC Koln -105; Hamburger SV +102
Total +2.5: Over +118; Under -122
FC KOLN
The FC Koln had a very solid and stable campaign in the last Bundesliga season, during which they managed to stay ranked between the 5th and the 7th spot in the table. Their great performances were eventually awarded the spot in the Europa League competition. However, the opener in the new season was not very successful for the Billy Goats as they got defeated on the road by Borussia Monchengladbach.
The only goal of the game was scored by N. Elvedi in the 49th minute of the game. FC Koln’s season is already different than it was last year when they were undefeated in first seven rounds. This game should be used as a wakeup call because they’ll have to fight on two fronts this season as they’ll appear in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League after finishing ranked fifth in the national league last year. As mentioned before, they managed to seriously strengthen their squad by adding a couple of very solid players during the offseason, mostly because they managed to sell one of their starters, a twenty-nine years old striker Anthony Modeste for an unbelievably large sum of money to Chinese team TJ Quanjian (34.70 Mill. Euros. Besides young midfielder Marcel Hartel who signed with Union Berlin (250.000 Euros) and defender Neven Subotic whose loan spell ended, Modeste, is the only guy that left the team during the offseason.
Attacker Jhon Cordoba who came from FSV Mainz for 17.00 Million Euros will have the chance to prove himself in front of the home crowd on Friday along with defenders Jorge Mere from Sporting Gijon (7.00 Mill. Euros) and Jannes Horn from VfL Wolfsburg (7.00 Mill. Euros). Snatching one of the most talented young prospects in the Europe, nineteen years old Centre-Back from Portuguese side Braga U19 team, Joao Queiroz should not have an immediate impact but he could be the future of the team along with another nineteen years old, Left-Back Tim Handwerker from Leverkusen U19 team who came on a free transfer basis.
Head coach Peter Stoger will not have Yuya Osako (ankle) at his disposal on Friday while Thomas Kessler’s (finger) and Konstantin Rausch’s (concussion) status is unknown.
HAMBURGER SV
Looking at the previous 6 seasons in the German Bundesliga, the HSV has been ranked in the upper dome of the table rankings, ONLY ONCE! During the span, the HSV had to secure the top flight status through the relegation playoffs two times. Not to mention the many changes at the head coaching position. During the offseason, HSV has not been too active, so the fans are hoping that a miracle will happen and that their beloved team will remain out of the relegation zone.
The season opener gave some signs to be optimistic about. Namely, unlike their next opponents, Hamburger SV team recorded a win in the opening game of the new Bundesliga season by defeating FC Augsburg at Imtech Arena, 1:0 (Nicolai Muller, 8th minute). The bad news is that Muller injured himself later in the game, tearing his cruciate ligament and he is projected to be out until at least March of 2018. This was very important for the Red Shorts having in mind the manner they ended the last season as they fought the battle for survival until the last round. Still, real tests will come on the road because we all know that playing well only on home soil is not enough if they don’t want to repeat last season, or even worse.
The new addition from Bayer Leverkusen, defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos had a solid game last weekend, even though it was not sure if he will play because of an injury. Striker Andre Hahn from Borussia M’Gladbach also spent the entire 90 minutes on the field and had a couple of good moves. Centre-Forward Michael Gregoritsch who left the team for FC Augsburg didn’t adapt well and was replaced later in the game after being shown a yellow card. Currently, things are looking good for “Der Dino” and hopefully, they’ll be able to maintain the level of performance that will keep them away from the danger zone.
Pierre-Michael Lasogga (thigh) is listed as day to day while Mats Kohlert’s (muscle) status is still unknown. Albin Ekdal (back) will be available for the next matchup while Nicolai Muller (cruciate ligament) has a long pause in front of him and will be back in late March next year. Mergim Mavraj (neck) is back in training.
FC Koln vs. Hamburger SV – Match Prediction
As mentioned above, the German Bundesliga matchups are trending in the way of a very little number of goals scored per game, which is totally different than in other European top soccer national championships. I’m not sure if the attacking segments of the teams are bad or the defenses are good but it’s something to have in mind constantly when predicting possible outcomes. In the opening round of the new German Bundesliga, the teams have scored only 15 goals in 9 games, which is 1.66 goals per matchup. That’s the reason my first pick will again be under 2.5 goals in total while my additional pick is a draw at the end of the first half.
My pick: Under +2.5 goals (-122)
Additional Pick: Draw at the end of the first half (+114)
