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Mid-season friendly against Hamburg in the UAE?


Falastur
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First of all - sorry if this is the wrong place and you would prefer this to be in an existing thread - I did also check to see this hadn't been mentioned elsewhere. If you want it to be somewhere else, please move it where it is best put.

 

Anyway, to the actual story - the news broke on the Bluemoon forum that Bundesliga side Hamburg are claiming to be going to the UAE for two friendlies during their winter break, and Manchester City are one of the teams they are supposed to be playing. This threw us since City have made absolutely no hint that this might happen, although they have had things like this leaked before they could react before. I checked out the site and noticed that the other friendly they are supposed to be playing is in fact against "Melbourne FC", who I have to assume is Melbourne City. I did another quick google check to see if anything had leaked on your side and found nothing again. If this were just on twitter or some random news website I'd raise an eyebrow, but this is actually on Hamburg's official website. So...looks like you might be playing a friendly out in the Middle East soon?

 

In case you wanted to see the evidence for yourselves, here is the link:

 

http://www.hsv.de/saison/testspiele/testspiele-201415/

 

Thoughts?

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First of all - sorry if this is the wrong place and you would prefer this to be in an existing thread - I did also check to see this hadn't been mentioned elsewhere. If you want it to be somewhere else, please move it where it is best put.

 

Anyway, to the actual story - the news broke on the Bluemoon forum that Bundesliga side Hamburg are claiming to be going to the UAE for two friendlies during their winter break, and Manchester City are one of the teams they are supposed to be playing. This threw us since City have made absolutely no hint that this might happen, although they have had things like this leaked before they could react before. I checked out the site and noticed that the other friendly they are supposed to be playing is in fact against "Melbourne FC", who I have to assume is Melbourne City. I did another quick google check to see if anything had leaked on your side and found nothing again. If this were just on twitter or some random news website I'd raise an eyebrow, but this is actually on Hamburg's official website. So...looks like you might be playing a friendly out in the Middle East soon?

 

In case you wanted to see the evidence for yourselves, here is the link:

 

http://www.hsv.de/saison/testspiele/testspiele-201415/

 

Thoughts?

 

Good sleuthing.

 

I'm all for it. The break for the Asian Cup is going to really halt any momentum that we are (hopefully) taking into the new year. To have a chance at a hitout against a Bundesliga side, while other clubs are organising intraclub scratch matches amongst themselves, will be gold.

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What date does the article have the match down for? Wouldn't surprise me if it was during the Asian Cup break to keep the boys sharp.

Otherwise we'd probably be sending over our NYL squad.

 

The 18th of Jan, 4 days after the Wellington game and another 4 before Perth. I'm not sure if they'd only send the NYL team - Manchester City themselves have a game on the 18th, 3 days before their proposed friendly on the 21st, and they have previous for sending teams over to Abu Dhabi. With the Manchester team they might send a weakened squad because they've been playing a game every three days for most of the last month and will continue to do so for much of the next one, but Melbourne City only plays once a week so should be fit enough to take it.

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What date does the article have the match down for? Wouldn't surprise me if it was during the Asian Cup break to keep the boys sharp.

Otherwise we'd probably be sending over our NYL squad.

 

The 18th of Jan, 4 days after the Wellington game and another 4 before Perth. I'm not sure if they'd only send the NYL team - Manchester City themselves have a game on the 18th, 3 days before their proposed friendly on the 21st, and they have previous for sending teams over to Abu Dhabi. With the Manchester team they might send a weakened squad because they've been playing a game every three days for most of the last month and will continue to do so for much of the next one, but Melbourne City only plays once a week so should be fit enough to take it.

 

we don't play at all in jan...

 

edit: we have ccm away on jan 4 but then a months break for the Asian cup.

Edited by bt50
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Well it hasn't been confirmed directly from the club but we are going to the UAE during the Asian cup break. This fits in nicely. Why would Hamburg be playing a friendly around this time? Isn't the budesliga still on?

Apart from England, pretty much all the other major European leagues have winter breaks. It's usually one of the many excuses used by England to justify the fact they just aren't good enough to do well at the WC/Euro.

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First of all - sorry if this is the wrong place and you would prefer this to be in an existing thread - I did also check to see this hadn't been mentioned elsewhere. If you want it to be somewhere else, please move it where it is best put.

 

Anyway, to the actual story - the news broke on the Bluemoon forum that Bundesliga side Hamburg are claiming to be going to the UAE for two friendlies during their winter break, and Manchester City are one of the teams they are supposed to be playing. This threw us since City have made absolutely no hint that this might happen, although they have had things like this leaked before they could react before. I checked out the site and noticed that the other friendly they are supposed to be playing is in fact against "Melbourne FC", who I have to assume is Melbourne City. I did another quick google check to see if anything had leaked on your side and found nothing again. If this were just on twitter or some random news website I'd raise an eyebrow, but this is actually on Hamburg's official website. So...looks like you might be playing a friendly out in the Middle East soon?

 

In case you wanted to see the evidence for yourselves, here is the link:

 

http://www.hsv.de/saison/testspiele/testspiele-201415/

 

Thoughts?

On the English version it says HSV are playing FC Astana on that day, not Melbourne City.

http://www.hsv.de/en/season/meldungen/bundesliga/december-2014/winter-schedule-dubai-sun-and-strong-opposition/

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This is a great thing to have them all travel together into a month long camp and any euro additions to the squad can join them in jan :up:

Yeah it worked a treat after their last training camp in UK. They should win a few games first or spend a month in Braybrook. 

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Yes, what a great idea! Lets take all our older players like Kennedy,Koren and Duff over to a place where its a 100 degrees everyday to play in some meaningless games!

What could go wrong?

You realise it's hotter in Melbourne in January then anywhere in the UAE.

 

Still don't understand the point in risking those three players playing overseas.

 

If this is actually going to happen i'd rather see fringe players like James brown and Archibald being given starts rather then risking 3 important cogs to the heart machine. They've played enough football and are professional enough that they won't lose fitness

Edited by kingofhearts
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Yes, what a great idea! Lets take all our older players like Kennedy,Koren and Duff over to a place where its a 100 degrees everyday to play in some meaningless games!

What could go wrong?

You realise it's hotter in Melbourne in January then anywhere in the UAE.

Yep. In the northern hemisphere it's the middle of winter. The temperature in the UAE at the moment is lower than even a British summer day, and we get some pretty mild summers.

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Yes, what a great idea! Lets take all our older players like Kennedy,Koren and Duff over to a place where its a 100 degrees everyday to play in some meaningless games!

 

What could go wrong?

 

Should they wrap the players in cotton wool for a month until the start of February? It's a balancing act. I'd rather our team plays in a game like this than trying to make do with what it can find back home. And if it isn't seen as an unacceptable risk for Manchester City and Hamburg, I'm not quite sure why it should be for Melbourne bloody City.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So is this our second friendly in the UAE?

 

It was originally quoted that the game will be played on the 18th and since our 12-day tour finishes on the 21st, this game would fit nicely in our schedule and give us a couple of days of recovery before the players fly back to Melbourne.

 

Never mind, Murfy the Resourceful just posted this in its own thread: 

 

 

Melbourne City FC will next face Ukrainian side FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in a behind closed doors friendly on January 18.

https://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/blogs/middle-east-football-matters/vucinic-stars-for-al-jazira-in-friendly-win-over-melbourne-city-fc-084128189-soccer.html

Edited by Red or Dead
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Melbourne City's second friendly match was supposed to be against Hamburg, but:

 

"The fact that Manchester City got eliminated from the League Cup and has a few game days off, they decided to travel at the invitation of the owner to Abu Dhabi," says [Hamburg club manager] Wehmeyer.

 

"We were then on short notice asked by the City Football Group if we would rather not test against Manchester City."

 

Wehmeyer inquired of coach Joe Zinnbauer, who was immediately enthusiastic.

 

 

So then Hamburg cancelled the match against Melbourne City, extended their stay in the UAE by 2 days, and now will play Manchester City. And then, as we know, Melbourne City arranged and then played a match with Ukrainian side Dnipro.

 

 

http://www.mopo.de/hsv/hsv-bernd-wehmeyer--er-ist-der-kracher-macher,5067038,29597230.html

 

http://www.mopo.de/hsv/dubai-ticker-trainingslager-hsv--so-laeuft-tag-sieben,5067038,29597826.html

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