Reuters Soccer Blog

Fate of Hamburg’s Labbadia hinges on Europa League

Hamburg SV coach Bruno Labbadia’s job has been hanging in the balance for weeks. But any development on that front was put on ice when Hamburg advanced to the Europa League semi-finals against Belgium’s Standard Liege on Thursday.

There is no denying, however, that Labbadia has underperformed at Hamburg, desperate for some silverware after a title drought that stretches back decades. After a very good start to the season, they imploded after the winter break, admittedly, in part, due to major injuries to key players including strikers Mladen Petric and Paolo Guerrero.

With only three wins in 12 matches, Hamburg are playing with fire and could miss out on a lucrative European spot for next season. They are currently in sixth place on 45 points, three off a Europa League spot, despite signing Ruud van Nistelrooy.

This sounds so familiar to both Labbadia as well as Hamburg.

Labbadia was in charge at Bayer Leverkusen last season and a stunning run put them in fifth place, three off the top, at the halfway mark. But hugely talented Leverkusen, who had played some exciting football, tumbled down to ninth at the end of the season and Labbadia was axed.

Hamburg’s 2008/09 season was eerily similar under Dutch coach Martin Jol, with the club in the running for three titles just weeks before the end of the season. All of them slipped through their fingers in a span of about 19 days, with losses to fierce rivals Werder Bremen in the UEFA Cup and the German Cup and again to Werder in a crucial Bundesliga game that killed off their title hopes.

A year on and Hamburg may be struggling to keep up with the league leaders but Labbadia is hanging on to his job as the northern club edges closer to the Europa League final that will take place, you guessed it, in Hamburg on May 12.

Hamburg fail to relish taste of success

Now that the Bundesliga is done and dusted and Wolfsburg are deserved champions, one should spare a thought for Hamburg SV who until a few weeks ago were in the running for three trophies. They ended up with none.

But Hamburg are arguably the only team in the Bundesliga this season who managed to play high level football in all competitions. Wolfsburg only needed to do it for one, after being eliminated early on in the UEFA Cup and the German Cup. Bayern were out in the last eight in the Champions League and the German Cup.

Third-placed Stuttgart and fourth-placed Hertha Berlin also had only the Bundesliga to focus on.   Martin Jol’s Hamburg, plagued by injuries and suspensions throughout the season, were in the running for the Bundesliga title until three weeks from the end. They also reached the German Cup and UEFA Cup semi-finals where they lost to rivals Werder Bremen. And that is the really bitter part.

Werder, their rivals in northern Germany, eliminated them in both competitions and a week later also inflicted a Bundesliga defeat that dashed all of Hamburg’s title hopes.

They then lost further ground and going into the final matchday they were in danger of even missing a European spot for next season altogether.

That is until the very last minute of their match against Eintracht Frankfurt when Piotr Trochowski, arguably their most valuable player this season, scored the winner for a 3-2 victory, beating Borussia Dortmund to the last spot in the new Europa League next season.

Have Peru shot themselves in the foot over Guerrero and co?

After watching a Bundesliga game in which all the goals are scored by Peruvians, it is hard to imagine that the South American country’s national team is in such a predicament.

Paolo Guerrero scored twice for Hamburg SV on Sunday in their 2-1 win over Schalke 04, whose consolation was scored by his compatriot Jefferson Farfan.

But neither of them will be on the field when Peru host arch-rivals Chile in a South American World Cup qualifier, nor will Claudio Pizarro who has scored 12 goals for Werder Bremen this season.

Once considered the third team in South America behind Brazil and Argentina, Peru lie bottom of the 10-team South American World Cup qualifying group with a paltry five points from 10 games. Their results have included a 5-1 defeat in Ecuador and 6-0 thrashing in Uruguay. They have scored five goals in 10 games yet feel they can afford the luxury of doing without their top players.

Farfan and Pizarro were both suspended for 18 months by the Peruvian federation for alleged acts of indiscipline at the team hotel following a World Cup qualifier against Brazil in November 2007.

The bans were later cut to three months and have long since ended by coach Jose del Solar has refused to recall the pair, nor defender Santiago Acasiete who was banned alongside them.

Guerrero, meanwhile, is serving a six-match suspended for his furious reaction to being sent off during the Uruguay match.