Hamburg SV vs. Bayern Munich 2012: Preview and TV schedule

Hamburg visits Bayern Munich on Saturday in a big match for both sides. A Hamburg win will see them push into the European places in the table, and they haven’t lost at home to Bayern since 2006. Bayern will be looking to get back to their winning ways after losing for the first time all season last week to Bayer Leverkusen.

Hamburg have picked up thirteen points in their last six matches which is second in the league over that period of time. The only side with more is Saturday’s opponent, Bayern Munich, with 15. A big part of this run has been the play of Heung-Min Son. The South Korean forward has four goals in those six matches with three of those being the winning goal. Rafael Van der Vaart has been incredible since his return to Hamburg with four assists and one goal so far this season. A big surprise has been the play of Artjoms Rudnevs up top. The Latvian, who moved to Hamburg this summer from Lech Poznan, has two goals and three assists so far this season.

Bayern have the most in-form striker in the league so far this season with Mario Mandzukic. The Croatian has 8 goals so far this season and has scored them all different ways. He’s been backed up by the superb play of Thomas Müller. He has six goals and five assists which is one goal and three assists short of his total for all of last season.

Hamburg’s defense has been much improved this season allowing only 11 goals all season. Only three sides this season have conceded fewer. In their last four matches, they have only conceded one goal coming away with three wins. While all of that is impressive, Bayern have conceded only four goals this season and one of them was a silly penalty conceded by Dante against Mainz.

Saturday’s match is huge for both sides, and Bayern will be gunning to come out on top after falling for the first time last week.

Out: Ivo Ilicevic (knee), Petr Jiracek (groin).

Losing Ivo Ilicevic and Petr Jiracek loses a bit of the workrate and creativity off the bench for Thorsten Fink’s side, but they should adjust just fine without them.

Mario Gomez and Daniel van Buyten remain out this weekend for Bayern, but they’ve recently returned to training. It will be business as usual with the two of them out. Holger Badstuber will be out after tearing a muscle in his thigh last week against Bayer Leverkusen. With him out this weekend, Jupp Heynckes will start David Alaba at left back.

Match Date/Time: 6:30 p.m. local, 1:30 p.m. ET

TV: Gol TV (U.S. & Canada)