Nordderby HSV against Werder Bremen: old tankers on a new course

When did it all actually start? Some people in Hamburg are firmly convinced that it all started with that cursed paper ball.

Back in spring 2009, when HSV and Werder Bremen met as part of the historic “Derby Weeks”, they played four duels in the Bundesliga and in the semi-finals of the DFB Cup and the Uefa Cup. Those were the golden days of football in the North. Hamburg, one hardly dares to say it today, still had serious chances of winning the championship, and the HSV squad featured illustrious names like Paulo Guerreiro, Mladen Petric and Ivica Olic. It was similar with Bremen, who were able to muster actors like the supple Claudio Pizarro, the Brazilian Diego or the later world champion Per Mertesacker – and moreover, at least that’s how the Hamburgers see it, this paper ball, which is now on display in the Werder Museum.

The NDR has dedicated its own documentary to the fateful utensil, no wonder, because everything that people find fascinating about football came together in this scene: happiness and misfortune, joy and sorrow, the power of chance. The paper ball was a remnant of the Hamburg fan choreography, nobody would have noticed it if it hadn’t intervened in the course of events. In the final stages of the European Cup second leg, she deflected the ball to a corner, which resulted in one of Werder’s great moments and paved the way for Bremen’s place in the final. Goal scorer then: Frank Baumann, today honorary captain and manager in Bremen. A circle that can only be closed at a real traditional location.

HSV versus Werder, that’s ten championships and three European cups, that’s a 100-kilometer drive before games on the A1 and by Hanseatic standards almost unheard-of emotions. Whatever the 155th North Derby this Sunday (kick-off 1.30pm) is: a duel between two entertainment establishments that have run aground but are just moving back to the surface. Werder leads the close-knit second division table, followed by HSV just one point behind. After years of constant SOS radio, hope can be heard again in the north of football.

But there is more that connects the two clubs, the ambivalent relationship is also reflected in the history of their cities. Since the founding of the Hanseatic League, the relationship between Hamburg and Bremen has been at times intimate and at times complicated, but both share an unconditional desire for freedom and an honest sense of the common good. Clever merchants have allowed cities to grow for centuries, later clever managers established successful football clubs in them. Which brings us back to the initial question: What was the big bang of their downfall?

From HSV’s point of view, the paper ball theory is certainly not the ultimate explanation, but for many supporters and former club officials there is a connection. Something got stuck on the club’s hard drive, they believe, a virus of failure that leads to regular system crashes. Anyone who thinks this is superstition or voodoo magic may find a better explanation for the four years in the second division, in which HSV oscillated between absurdity and tragic comedy.

“It has to be fun”: HSV youth coach Rodolfo Cardoso relies on attacking football

Players and coaches were exchanged, but the result was always the same: when it came down to it, there was a cacophony of bankruptcies, bad luck and breakdowns that would even be a number above for cabaret artists. A 1:5 debacle in Hamburg’s Volkspark against SV Sandhausen that shattered all hopes of promotion on the last day of the game? Couldn’t make it up – but that’s exactly what happened two seasons ago. After a 3-0 half-time lead in Hanover, still play 3-3? A 2:3 defeat at relegation candidate Osnabrück, who had previously lost an incredible 13 home games in a row? And these are just selected examples from the past season.

Of course, HSV wasn’t doomed to drown, because the club has a lot that others would like: a great history, a loyal audience, a location in a flourishing metropolis of millions. It took an immense chain of errors to keep a club with potential under water for so long. And it’s no coincidence that the less privileged people of Bremen quickly replaced HSV as the club with the most Bundesliga games, only to disappear from the top tier shortly afterwards.

Werder has always seen itself as a counter-model to the haughty HSV, as a brave resistance movement that reaches its goal with reason and continuity. But the Bremen crash manifested itself at the point when they decided three years ago to be a bit like their northern rivals. The Hanseatic principles were thrown overboard to launch the attack on the international places after a finally good season again, and when the plan threatened to fail, the pandemic spread in the country and the last money reserves had melted away.

Open detailed view

In the sporting struggle for survival, the club alienated itself from its primal desire for a good game, the brand-own Werder football degenerated into a destructive football prevention squad, which is why an important realization has prevailed in the club management: Where Werder is on it, Werder must be in it again in the future , otherwise one commits self-deception in unison with fraudulent labeling.

However, the accident can only be prevented if the old tankers are realigned, as those responsible in Hamburg and Bremen now know. “There has never been a worse time for these clubs to play in the second division,” says an industry insider with insight into some locations. After Werder and FC Schalke 04 were relegated, the lower house looks like a rehabilitation center for traditional brands, but in the Corona period they have to do without their tried-and-tested walking aids.

The family “Werder way” brings too few subsidies from the region

The lower income from spectators is particularly noticeable in the clubs with their large stadiums and expensive equipment, which is why the safety distance to the Heidenheims and Darmstadts is becoming smaller, while higher up the retort clubs from Wolfsburg, Leipzig or Hoffenheim, some of which are externally financed, are moving further and further away. With creative solutions in view of the changed competitive conditions, they continue to have difficulties in the north. For example, HSV has not been sold the naming rights for the Volksparkstadion for two years, and the family “Werder-Weg” has so far proved to be unattractive for subsidies from the region.

But there are also good reasons that someone like Rodolfo Cardoso places HSV and Werder “on the right track”. Cardoso, 53, used to be an experienced playmaker for the two greats from the north. As the current Hamburg youth coach, he doesn’t see himself at ease before the “most important north derby in years”. But the Argentine knows the milieu and its centrifugal forces, and he is therefore certain: “The way has to be fun, you have to grab people with attacking football.”

Open detailed view

In fact, the mood hasn’t been so positive in the north for a long time, but the clubs “had to be forced a bit to be lucky,” says Cardoso. What he means: In Hamburg and Bremen they found the ideal trainers for the reconstruction, but fate was at least as involved in their commitment as those responsible. According to reports, HSV sports director Jonas Boldt only had to deal with two or three cancellations before he hired Tim Walter as the new coach in the summer. And the Werder manager Baumann was only able to bring Ole Werner to Bremen in November because things had worked out accordingly: Werner had just quit his job at Holstein Kiel and was on the market as a successor to the owner of one at Werder falsified vaccination card convicted Markus Anfang was searched.

In essence, the two coaches are the opposite of the other, but they serve the individual needs of their clubs and pursue a related style of play. Walter is a soccer coach who plays an unconventional attacking style of football and can be awkward behind the scenes in the best sense of the word. Exactly such a guy was probably needed to breathe life back into the encrusted HSV. On the other hand, after turbulent years, the people of Bremen are benefiting from Werner’s North German level-headedness. What they have in common: Both coaches are capable talent developers and take great delight in unearthing the potential of the two youngest second division squads.

In the end, says Rodolfo Cardoso, what counts is “sporting success”, and with that a former European Cup player from SV Werder and HSV is of course only aiming for one thing: promotion.