Surrendering five goals in your home opener to a club who just barely survived a relegation scare at the end of the prior season has a way of quieting any discussion about hope for Europe at the end of the current campaign.

Six days after letting a 2-3 lead slip away in Schalke, HSV opened the home portion of their 2013-14 season with what would seem like a favorable opponent: TSG Hoffenheim 1899. Not only did Hoffenheim need a series of circumstances to fall favorably for them to survive a relegation scare, Hamburg outscored them 6 to 1 in their two meetings last year. Even though Markus Gisdol clearly has Hoffenheim playing much better football since taking over as coach late last season, Hamburg had returned most of a squad that nearly missed a European slot. Surely, this would be, at least, a close match

Really, though, it never truly was. Hoffenheim led for much of the first half on a Roberto Firmino goal in the fifth minute. Rafael van der Vaart equalized minutes before halftime thanks to a Taril Elyounoussi hand ball putting the HSV captain on the Elfmeter spot. Kevin Volland reclaimed the lead for the visitors five minutes after the restart, meaning the teams were on equal terms for more time in the locker room than they were on the pitch.

But a 3rd Hoffenheim goal seemed to visibly shake the giants from the north, leading to a defensive collapse only hinted at in through the three surrendered goals the week prior.

How did a quick counterattack completely expose and unravel the HSV defense at a point in the game when the deficit was only one with plenty of time for a comeback?

Let’s look.

Again, my disclaimer: I’m no football expert. I just play one on the internet.

Prelude:

This edition of Wendepunkt comes with a prelude, because one event really set the scene for what followed.

Andy Beck had just made a nice clearance down the sideline, forcing a throw-in. He’s now defending Beister, who has…how to put this gently…been diving like…let me quickly look for an Olympic diving reference that might speak to the English-speaking audience this site targets…Tom Daley! He’s been diving like Tom Daley, all day!

Maybe not quite Daley-like, though, because referee Günter Perl had been consistently unimpressed with Beister’s performances.

Beister clearly knows where Beck is here and decides to challenge toward the goal line. The flank may be more open, but one cannot earn a penalty kick out there!

Beck definitely tugs Beister across the chest. Beck definitely fails to play the ball when he gets his leg in front of Beister’s and impedes him. None of this is in question.

More importantly, however, Beister has to realize that going through Beck may have caused him to lose the ball.

So…what to do?

Somehow, this fairly typical amount of contact shifts Beister into some strange anti-gravity spot on the pitch, flinging his legs out from under him.

It always floors me how quickly a player who has been supposedly flung to the ground can locate the referee to see whether he’s earned a free kick. Here, you’ll have to take my word when I tell you that Beister’s momentum had barely stopped before he was looking back for the call. I’m not saying an official might interpret that as a sign of someone who was trying to generate a call, but it certainly could be interpreted as a sign of someone who was trying to generate a call.

In case all my subtle subtext has not yet told you the result here, Perl did not award a penalty here.

Now, minutes later, Hamburg is again on the attack.

Beister carries the ball into dangerous territory with options. Left back Marcell Jansen has come pretty far forward, so it might be good to include him. Plus, Beck has decided to leave Jansen alone to help with Jacques Zoua. Over to the right, recently substituted Artjoms Rudnevs breaks toward the goal. With his head down, however, Beister may not see any of this, much less that he has caught David Abraham a bit off-balance and could probably get some space by cutting to his right where there is no help for the Hoffenheim center back.

Jansen is a bit beside himself that Beister did not play the ball to him. Perhaps he is even more puzzled by his teammate not having taken a wider path around Abraham, who had been a bit flat-footed. Is it possible that Beister simply thought running into a guy who was a bit off-balance was a good time to maybe look like he was being illegally tackled and maybe win a free kick in a dangerous area? Even though the same idea had failed just a few minutes prior?

Beister somehow manages to fall in a way so he can look for Perl without craning his neck, and Perl is only too happy to signal to Beister to “Get up!”

The Hoffenheim defense quickly recognizes that play has not been stopped. Jannik Vestergaard played the ball forward to Tobias Strobl, who’d just come on as a sub and sees the opportunity for a counterattack.

Two minutes prior to this attack, Anthony Modeste had put the ball in the back of the HSV net, but had been ruled offside. It was a close, but clearly a correct decision.

Despite having had a good head start on his competition, Modeste has positioned himself perfectly, meaning that, should Roberto Firmino’s ball make it through to him, someone not holding a flag was going to have to be the one to stop him.

With Jansen completely out of the picture, Tolgay Arslan has moved to support the flank. As Arslan’s partner in the defensive midfield, Milan Badelj, had just been taken off for the scoring prowess of Rudnevs, he’s the lone midfield support for a back four desperately missing its fourth.

Firmino’s pass does not make it through, as Lasse Sobeich is in position to intercept and does, leaving him with plenty of options. A back pass is probably not in order with Modeste having shown prior he has the speed to close quickly on keeper Rene Adler from there, but he has room to turn upfield before Volland can challenge, plus there’s plenty of room to just clear the ball out of touch and let the defense reset, you know, since Jansen is still missing-in-action.

Inexpliably, Sobeich opts to play the ball into all the space in front of Firmino. Were the two teammates, you’d applaud such a measured lead for the man running up the flank. And, because Arslan had pulled up, Firmino has the ball with plenty of room from which to operate.

This is less than ideal.

Luckily, Sobeich still has Modeste under close watch.

Or wait…is he not even looking to see where the striker is?

With Sobeich perhaps admiring the beauty of his pass to Firmino, Modeste cuts behind him and makes a break for the space to the right of the near post as Firmino launches a low cross. Sobeich sees Modeste’s move just a second too late to be able to close the distance effectively.

Modeste does not take his space for granted, nor does he mess around with anything more than a first-touch redirect toward goal.

And it was exquisite.

Ball in the net. Hoffenheim celebrating. Hamburg dejected.

Seven minutes later, Modeste would score again and the rout was on, much to the delight of the visiting supporters.

Less amused was this guy.

And who among us has not known the feelings of the people in each of these caps? Isn’t that why we watch?

Header Courtesy of Süddeutsche.de