Heidenheim can get promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time – and push HSV into relegation. The differences between the two could not be greater.
When the season finale takes place on Sunday (3.30 p.m. live in the audio stream on Sportschau.de), Heidenheim will have it in their own hands to become the 57th club to advance to the Bundesliga. The prerequisite for this would be a win at Jahn Regensburg – then HSV would have to go into relegation. “When you’re an athlete, you long for situations like this, in which everything is at stake,” says Heidenheim’s coach Frank Schmidt. For Holger Sanwald, the situation is even more than that. “It’s a feeling like before getting married: you’re a bit tense, but you know it will work,” said the CEO of Heidenheimer at Sky.
Heidenheimer’s note to the critics
Sanwald can only smile about the concerns that clubs like Heidenheim would damage the attractiveness of the Bundesliga. “If the other clubs did it better, they would play in the Bundesliga,” says the club boss. “Let them do it. They should try to play football as successfully as we do. We don’t get that for free.“
Not even on the last day of the game, but: “If we win in Regensburg, we’ll have 67 points. Then you deserve to play in the Bundesliga,” says Sanwald. Because only if Heidenheimer drop points does Hamburger SV have a chance of climbing up the ranks. For this, HSV must win in Sandhausen – Finally, the Heidenheimer have the much better goal difference.
HSV in Sandhausen under pressure
“We have to win our game. That’s what we can influence,” said HSV coach Tim Walter before the parallel game at SV Sandhausen. For the coach, the leap up would be “the best experience” of his career. Thousands of HSV supporters want to accompany their club to Sandhausen and make the game at Hardtwald a home game.
This is also something special for the sand houses that have already descended. “I’m glad we still have a game where almost all of Germany’s football team is watching Sandhausen again,” said SVS coach Gerhard Kleppinger. “We want to make life as difficult as possible for HSV.” They shouldn’t particularly like to hear that in Hamburg. After four unsuccessful promotion attempts in recent years, Walter summed up the starting position for his club: “Second or further.”
HSV criticizes the relegation, FCH sticks to itself
Walter recently repeated his criticism of the relegation. “This is our best season in terms of points. And that’s why it’s tough when you don’t get promoted with so many points,” he quarreled. “That’s why you might have to exchange ideas and think about a relegation.” Walter made it clear that instead of dealing with the relegation, he would initially only deal with the coming opponent – and he warned: “It will be a tough game.” Maybe also because Dennis Diekmeier is an option again for the sand houses.
Heidenheim also wants to reflect on the previous strengths. That’s why coach Schmidt doesn’t want to change anything before the important game: “We don’t do anything differently than usual.” That’s a recipe for success in Heidenheim anyway. Schmidt has been head coach in Heidenheim since 2007HSV had more than 20 different coaches during this time.
