As of: November 3rd, 2025 11:49 a.m
After the defeat in Cologne, the third in the Bundesliga in a row, many at HSV were annoyed by the tight referee and VAR decisions. As emotionally understandable as that is, the Hamburgers were once again in their own way. Sports director Stefan Kuntz warns that mistakes should be “gradually eliminated”.
The frustration at HSV was enormous. Coach Merlin Polzin complained after the bitter 1:4 (0:1) that the promotion duel at 1. FC Köln was also lost due to “external factors”. The 34-year-old had referee Daniel Schlager in mind: “Who else?” The referee disallowed two Hamburg goals and also showed Fabio Viera and Immanuel Pherai yellow-red.
“We had another open exchange with our colleague Schlager,” said Polzin: “But I don’t agree with the decisions that were made.” Three things bothered Polzin: On the one hand, he criticized the long use of the video evidence when Viera’s goal was disallowed; it was only after more than six minutes that Schlager decided on a foul in the run-up to the goal. The HSV coach also missed “proportionality” and “tact” when sending off players. “I have to be careful what I say,” rumbled captain Yussuf Poulsen.
Polzin and Poulsen received understanding and approval from FC coach Lukas Kwasniok, who also said that “the external factors were on our side today. Two goals disallowed, two dismissals – what HSV still showed and played here afterwards with two men less was quite remarkable.”
“We weren’t awake in the first half and weren’t good enough, we have to remember that, especially since we gave ourselves the 0-1 advantage.”
HSV defender Miro Muheim
As understandable as the frustration was after another very decent performance from Hamburg, at least in the second half, it is also true: the defeat was deserved – and largely self-inflicted. The referee’s decisions may have been tough for the self-sacrificing “Rothosen”, but they were all understandable.
Remberg: “Deservedly lost”
Left-back Miro Muheim identified the weaker first half as one of the factors for the third league defeat in a row: The team was “not awake and not good enough” and “we have to record that”. And midfielder Nicolai Remberg felt that “in the end, we deserved to lose this game because of the first half, we have to be honest with ourselves.”
Cologne is calmer and more mature than HSV
In the first 45 minutes, HSV had little access to Cologne’s good positional play and rarely got into duels and won the ball. In addition, the transition to their own offensive game was hardly successful when Hamburg did have the ball. Nevertheless, the deficit was annoying from Hamburg’s point of view because “we gave ourselves the 0-1 advantage” (Muheim). Albert Sambi Lokonga lost the ball 30 meters from his own goal, a few seconds later Ragnar Ache scored to make it 1-0 for the hosts (25th).
The Kwasniok team not only acted calmer and more maturely in this scene than the Hamburg team, who also made the first mistake in the second round. Instead of starting an attack themselves, they lost the ball on the left and were countered. In desperate need, Lokonga took a free kick, which Florian Kainz wonderfully converted to make it 2-0.
Mistakes beat strong morale
The fact that HSV kept going despite all the blows in the neck and was on the way to equalizing after Jean-Luc Dompé’s goal speaks for the intact morale of the team and a good portion of resilience.
Nevertheless, there was also the realization in Cologne that the team is currently getting in its own way too often. While it was the blatant lack of efficiency in the unfortunate 0-1 loss against VfL Wolfsburg last week, the excessive number of errors in the Rhineland led to bankruptcy. Because even if Pherai’s sending off may have been unfortunate due to his slipping, HSV is now in penultimate place in the Bundesliga in the fair play ranking with four suspensions in nine games. Only table 17th. Mainz is worse in this respect because FSV has more yellow cards and straight red cards.
Vieira as a symbol of too many expulsions
Vieira, conceived as a game designer, has become to some extent a symbol of this problem. The Portuguese had to leave the field in Cologne for the second time this season. After he was sent off with a red card at Union Berlin on matchday five, he was shown yellow-red against FC for complaining about a time game.
“We don’t lose focus, but we have to make sure that we gradually eliminate the little things that we aren’t doing well yet.”
HSV sports director Stefan Kuntz
This is also why sports director Stefan Kuntz commented after the game and warned that “we have to make sure that we gradually eliminate the little things that we are not doing well yet. Because, according to the 63-year-old, “in the end, the fundamentally nice games only help us to a limited extent, because we need points. And we haven’t had any of those three times in a row recently.”
On Saturday Dortmund comes to the Volkspark
It is a gentle wake-up call that HSV has always scored points so far this season when it has impressed in its basic work – running and tackling strength, transition play, efficiency. The CEO doesn’t want to sound the alarm at the moment, but he does want to sharpen the senses. Because they will be needed even more against their next opponent, Borussia Dortmund, on Saturday (3:30 p.m., in the NDR Livecenter).
“The situation only becomes dangerous if you don’t face the reality of zero points from three games,” said Kuntz. The performance against BVB will show whether, in addition to those responsible, the players also assess the situation correctly.
BVB has recently been ultra-efficient
Because the Westphalians are one thing above all: efficient. There was an object lesson for this with BVB’s narrow 1-0 win in Augsburg. Serhou Guirassy’s goal resulted from a blatant misunderstanding between two FCA defenders. The striker grabbed the ball and scored the winning goal.
Although the Augsburg team has had a much worse season so far than the newcomer from the Hanseatic city, the mistake is very similar to the one that hurt HSV in Cologne or before against Wolfsburg and Leipzig. And if they are not stopped, they are likely to hurt even more against BVB. For Kuntz it is clear: “The games are not getting any easier.”
