By Parkboy
July 10 2005

Raphael Van der Vaart the former Ajax wonder kid wows the HSV supporters at their first friendly last Wednesday in Pinneberg. SV ran out 6-0 winners in a friendly game in Pinneberg, much to the delight of the assembled and expectant core HSV supporters, who had come to witness the unveiling of their new prestige purchase from Holland Raphael Van der Vaart.


The 22 year old didn’t disappoint and it took only the first 45 min to win over the supporters. What turned out to be a rather large crowd for a friendly: some 5000 was the result of all the media exposure and fanfare of Van der Vaart’s arrival at Hamburg SV. Even at half time, huddles of supporters were already talking excitedly about the midfield performance they had just witnessed. This wasn’t an average pre-season game and there was already an air of expectancy half an hour before the game. The crowd who had voiced their criticism of the Hamburg performance last season weren’t expected to be won over so easily.

Van der Vaart went into his full repertoire of tricks, passes, traumpasse (dream passes) and Lupfer (his looped middle distance passes). There was an assured elegance as the Dutch maestro time and time again took control of the game from his preferred central midfield position. Raphael also showed great awareness of the pace of the game timing quick and sometimes delayed passes till the puzzle felt right in his vision of space and movement.

Some of the older fans remarked on the fact that the last time there was this amount of anticipation was during the Keegan days. Thomas Doll proud of the performance of his key signing went on to say, “It was plain to see that he plays in that position for the Dutch national side”. Van der Vaart, who had a hand in both of Mpenza’s goals, was seen as the spark to re-ignite the Belgian striker in the coming season.

Thomas Doll who himself is a former player for Hamburg SV, played all his internationals and it was a rare early season treat for the loyal fans who turned up. Notably another amongst the new buys for the coming season was Piotr Trochowski, the former Bayern and German U-21 striker, who will stay at the AOL stadium till 2009. The highly rated young German together with Van der Vaart, has shown that Thomas Doll has a keen eye in the transfer market and is determined to improve on last years mid-table finish. As Van der Vaart came off the pitch, club captain Daniel Van Buyten put an encouraging arm around his shoulder. The captain expects.