[JimChelseaFC]

RAPID BUCURESTI vs HAMBURG
March 9, 2006

Match preview:

Rapid Bucuresti have been the cinderella story of the UEFA Cup this season. The brave Romanians are the best team in the UEFA Cup this season in the coefficient rankings. Rapid are the team with most wins in all UEFA competition this year, including Champions league. Rapid have 10 victories in UEFA, beating the likes of Feyenoord, PAOK, Shakhtar, Rennes and most recently Hertha Berlin. It is a trully magnificent year for Rapid, a team that has never qualified for the UEFA Cup groups before. But this was the year for Romania, and the year of firsts. Rapid were the first Romanian club team to ever beat a German side in Germany. This season is the first ever that Romania has been ranked number 1 in UEFA in the coefficients rankings. Record gainings for Rapid were reported and more fans come to the games. If anyone thinks that the way Rapid has taken was just luck, they have to think of the teams they defeated first. This winter break, Rapid sold no one, and purchased Romanian International Daniel Pancu from Beskitas Istambul. Romanian legend Viorel Moldovan was also brought to the club. It is surely a new begining for the Romanian side. But will they continue to win? With a team in form, and with a Daniel Niculae and Mugurel Buga up top on fire, Rapid will be a hard team to defeat. At home, they put some of the best performances, and gain the most points possible. It will be hell in Bucuresti, and the fans promise that!

Hamburg are the best performing team in Germany besides Bayern Munchen at this moment. They sit second in the German Bundesliga, and are the only team that can still realistically catch up with Bayern. They are characteristically very good on the road, in 11 Bundesliga away games, they secured 21 points. The Hamburg manager said that "Rapid will be a big threat, any team that beats Hertha twice in a row in a little over a week and without Hertha scoring any goals is a great team." Their strength lies in starlet Van Der Vaart and Iranian Striker Mahdavikia. Their weakness is a partener for Mahdavikia. However, they can score goals, and they proved they can in a tough game against FC Thun. Hamburg are no strangers to success, and they don't want to stumble here in the final 16 of UEFA Cup. Van Buyten will play a big role in the game, being one of the most dangerous players for Hamburg. The weakness in attack is made up by Serghei Barbarez who seems to score more than the strikers. Hamburg are strong, but will they be strong enough to defeat high flying Rapid?

Make all match predictions here for the first game, a new thread will be made for the second game.

This post has been edited by Horia: 25 February 2006 - 07:29 AM

[Rufer]

Hamburg are the best performing team in Germany besides Bayern Munchen at this moment. They sit second in the German Bundesliga, and are the only team that can still realistically catch up with Bayern.

Horia, you have something to learn about German football:
The best German team is Werder Bremen. This is a fact and this always will be. ;)

Hamburg

Rapid is strong at home,
so i predict at least a draw for your team,
maybe a 2-1.

[Jesper]

It really can't get better than this in my opinion. Looks like a great match.

[JimChelseaFC]

Hamburg are the best performing team in Germany besides Bayern Munchen at this moment. They sit second in the German Bundesliga, and are the only team that can still realistically catch up with Bayern.

Horia, you have something to learn about German football:
The best German team is Werder Bremen. This is a fact and this always will be. ;)

Hamburg

Rapid is strong at home,
so i predict at least a draw for your team,
maybe a 2-1.

:tiphat: Well I know Werder rocks, but this season, Hamburg are performing great as well. But league position doesn't mean everything, Werder is 3rd and they just beat Juventus. Rapid is 6th in the Romanian league right now, it could be just bad luck, but we are the best team in UEFA cup this season surprisingly. So Hmaburg could flop. We are much better than FC Thun. Our defense is stronger and the attack is more dangerous.

[KezWOman]

i cant wait for this match...im too clueless to do a prediction though i rate both teams high. Rapid should win cause they're at home..

[Rufer]

Little correction: Mahdavikia is no striker, he´s a winger.

At Hamburg the forwards are only average,
except Sergej Barbarez, he is important for the team,
not a real top striker, but he gives the team winning spirit.
To solve this problem they signed Ailton from Besiktas,
but he´s injured and not allowed to play UEFA-Cup.
At the defense and the midfield Hamburg has many good players.

by the way:
I heard a funny story about Pancu from Rapid.
He once played at the goalkeeper position
against Fenerbahnce and saved a win for Besikatas this way.
(Think he is not allowed to play for you at UEFA,
because Besiktas was also in the UEFA cup (same as with Ailton), isn´t he?)

[JimChelseaFC]

Little correction: Mahdavikia is no striker, he´s a winger.

At Hamburg the forwards are only average,
except Sergej Barbarez, he is important for the team,
not a real top striker, but he gives the team winning spirit.
To solve this problem they signed Ailton from Besiktas,
but he´s injured and not allowed to play UEFA-Cup.
At the defense and the midfield Hamburg has many good players.

by the way:
I heard a funny story about Pancu from Rapid.
He once played at the goalkeeper position
against Fenerbahnce and saved a win for Besikatas this way.
(Think he is not allowed to play for you at UEFA,
because Besiktas was also in the UEFA cup (same as with Ailton), isn´t he?)

Yup, both our two super signings are not available for the game. Pancu is illegible because they were in UEFA cup, and he is cup tied, while Moldovan picked up an injury in a pre-season freindly. He might be back for this game though! So we are really not full strength at all in UEFA cup.

About Pancu, yes it's true. On Beskitas this season he wore number 1 or 99 can't remember which, because of the time he went in as keeper. It's pretty funny actually. He is class, fearless.

[JimChelseaFC]

Sorry for the double post, just some new news surrounding this game:

Rapid's Marius Maldarasanu will miss the first leg with an injury he picked up in the final minutes of the Hertha home game. He will be out for 2 weeks. He has a problem with a ligament. However, Daniel Niculae might drop in the center midfield position for the game, or Romeo will take the position.

Recent Hamburg league result:

Stuttgart 2-0 Hamburger SV
Hamburg seemed hopeless in this game from what I read. Rapid lost to Stuttgart 2-0 in Uefa Cup, in a game we threw away because we were already qualified from the group in first place unless we lost 5-0. Then we would be second and still qualify. So if we did not really try and we lost with that score, it gives me some hope.


Razvan Lucescu, Rapid manager was at the Hamburg game in the weekend, and he said that "It seems that most German teams have the same characteristics of playing. He noted that HSV was not a very agressive team in the game, but had some good chances that they could have finished. Players that looked dangerous were: Trochowski, Jarolim and De Jong.

The mistake of van der vaart in the HSV game was a blank pass. He had a free kick from 40 yards out, and the Hmaburg keeper ran in to the opposite box to try and score. The ball was cleared, and came back to vaart, who was pressured by Gomes.. Vaart thinking the keeper was back, played a blank pass but the keeper was in Suttgart's half, and Gomes scored.

Van Buyten got frustrated and received a double yellow in the game and thus a red card. Lucescu said that we just need to take the lead because it will frustrate Hamburg too much and they will go all out and make mistakes. A hint of what rapid might try.



Viorel Moldovan will be available for the game. A good sign for Rapid. He was out with injury, but the legend will be playing in this game and the weekend against FC Vaslui. With maldarasanu out, Daniel Niculae can go back in central mid, and Moldovan and Buga up top. It can't be too bad.

[Rufer]

Yes, Hamburg players lost their nerves sometimes, when they are loosing.

A chance for Rapid could also be, that at Hamburg there is trouble
about some players.

Veterans Barbarez and Beinlich are very angry,
that the club doesn´t offer them new contracts with good payment,
while new signing, like De Jong, who really couldn´t convince so far,
earn 2 mio € a year.
So the performances of Barbarez and Beinlich were poor
in the last weeks after they were not happy with the offers.

Wouldn´t surprise me, if they destroy everything they bought.
That´s nothing new at this club,
they only have sucess, because of their sponsors,
not because of the management.

But Hamburg still has a good squad, hard to make a prediction
for the match against Rapid.
(ok, i think every team will win one match)

[JimChelseaFC]

Game preview by UEFA.com

Romanian club AFC Rapid Bucuresti are determined to give nothing away as they take on Hamburger SV in the home leg of their UEFA Cup Round of 16 tie.

Clean sheet
"We must not concede any goals at home," said coach Razvan Lucescu, who will name forward Viorel Moldovan as a substitute following his return from injury. "So far we have had good results away from home in this competition, but we have to be more focused for this tie because Hamburg are very good on their travels too."

Famous victory
However impressive Hamburg's 2-1 weekend victory at FC Bayern München, the Bundesliga side should hold no fears for Rapid. After all, Lucescu's team disposed of Hertha BSC Berlin in the last round. Lucescu, who with midfielder Marius Maldarasanu injured, could recall Lucian Burdujan from suspension, said: "We are not afraid. In fact, I am happy they beat Bayern because my players will know they have to be at their best. All of them dream of playing in matches like this, which can be won with the heart and the soul."

Doll assessment
Hamburg, missing the injured Ailton, the suspended David Jarolím and Thimothée Atouba - who has a knee complaint - are not resting on their laurels either. "The Romanians don't mind that we have beaten Bayern," admitted coach Thomas Doll. "On the contrary, they will take motivation from it."

Scouting assistance
Doll has asked Hertha assistant coach Andreas Thom to give him the lowdown on what to expect from Rapid. "This means we are ideally prepared," said Doll, who should replace Atouba with Guy Demel at left-back. "We certainly won't underestimate Rapid."

[KezWOman]

time to change your sig into 'HSV...who?' Horia. Congrats.

de Jong got a red card

[JimChelseaFC]

2-0 wow.............. I can't believe it. It's amazing. I suppose we were a lot better than Bayern. Even without Maldarasanu we won. Daniel Niculae is amaaaazing!

Goals:

Daniel Niculae 1-0: http://www.youtube.c...NOmHHEV8U& eurl=
Mugurel Buga 2-0: http://www.youtube.c...aBBDEe6gY& eurl=

They assisted eachother for each of their goals... FANTASTIC goals.. watch them.. 35 meter strike and a heel goal. :D

This post has been edited by Horia: 09 March 2006 - 08:03 PM

[Rufer]

Congrats Horia, Rapid becomes a favorite killer in UEFA-cup. :worshippy:

But i am dissapointed about such f*cking performances of the BL sides.

[CC Is Klaas]

Both Brilliant goals, well deserved win. Shame about the bollocks UEFA and talking about, possibly fining Rapid for having too many fans :damyou: :meh: :eyebrow: . Will be posting downloadable goals later on when Filefront get their fingers our of their arse's. :thumb:

[Rufer]

I heard from many people, that the Rapid fans made
racist things (apes screams) against the colored HSV players.

Is this true?

[JimChelseaFC]

I'm not sure.. I didn't see any enws about misconduct or whatever. I did read that they booed de jong... but because he was being so dang dirty. And they booed van der vaart. But I haven't read anything about racism or booing every black guy on the team.

[Rufer]

I'm not sure.. I didn't see any enws about misconduct or whatever. I did read that they booed de jong... but because he was being so dang dirty. And they booed van der vaart. But I haven't read anything about racism or booing every black guy on the team.

Ok, i also didn´t watch the match live, just read the rumors in some other forums.
In press i didn´t find something about it, that´s why i asked.
So seems to be only a rumor.

Hope for a good match tonight. The better might win. :thumb:

(by the way: i am in a winning situation,
if Hamburg wins i can celebrate, because a BL team won
and if Rapid wins, i can celebrate the loss of the Hamburg scum )

[Vladinho]

Rapid lose with 3-1 but has qualified yeeeeeeeeyyyyyyy
Go rapid!!!!!!!

[Rufer]

And the tail goes on, congrats Rapid.

[jay-c™]

congratulations horia :thumb:

that first leg just too difficult to overcome

i hear it was a much more convincing performance from Hamburg tonight.. that was the team that did the double over bayern in the bundesliga :coffee: