HSV is facing troubled times after the deserved and embarrassing 1:2 defeat against 2nd division bottom club VfL Osnabrück. The new coach Steffen Baumgart seemed disillusioned after his team’s anemic performance and announced that he would now fundamentally question things.
The moments in which there was applause from the stands in the Volksparkstadion for successful HSV actions on Sunday afternoon were very rare. Only a few times in the football-unsightly northern duel were won duels or successful passes (of which there were very few) particularly loudly applauded by the fans of the promotion candidate. Noah Katterbach was one of the few Hamburg players who received such special applause. The left-back, who replaced the ailing Miro Muheim in the starting line-up, earned the love of the fans by winning the ball a lot and being very willing to run.
There was then special praise from the man who had hardly taken him into account when they were together at 1. FC Cologne: Steffen Baumgart. “Noah did very well. He showed what I want to see most: a lot of heart,” said the coach about the 22-year-old, who moved to HSV in the winter due to a lack of sporting prospects at his youth club. At that time the coach was still called Tim Walter. After his expulsion and the signing of Baumgart, Katterbach also seemed to have bad cards with the Hanseatic League.
However, the emphasis now is on “seemed.” Because after the former junior national player was the only bright spot for the promotion candidate against Osnabrück, he should also be in the game at Fortuna Düsseldorf next Friday (6.30 p.m., in the live center at NDR.de).
Baumgart misses “a lot of passion and a lot of heart”
However, the truth about Katterbach’s personality is that the defensive specialist did not show a world-class performance in the duel with VfL, but simply played a very decent second division game. Good duel behavior as well as a lot of commitment and willingness to run were enough to stand out from a team that, with the exception of a short phase at the beginning of the second half, didn’t really get going, as they say on the Elbe. Baumgart – as a Rostock native and a child of the north – summarized his team’s performance in far more drastic words.
“It’s just a matter of, when you play against a team like Osnabrück that is fighting for existence, then you have to do that too. And we didn’t do that. I was missing a lot of passion. I was missing a lot of heart. I have that “I also told the boys. And if you want to take this really big step, then it’s not enough to just look good – which we sometimes don’t have at all,” said the 52-year-old.
Trainer announces ruthless analysis
With this statement, which was nothing other than a ruthless reckoning, it became clear that the “We’ll stay with us” days at HSV are over. While Baumgart’s predecessor Walter almost always placed a protective hand over the team even after Hamburg’s negative performance and tried to implement a “Mia san Mia” mentality, now things are spoken plainly under the direction of the trained car mechanic Baumgart. And not just in press conferences like after the Osnabrück game.
“We don’t just go into analysis, but into questioning,” announced the coach. This means: From now on every stone in the Volkspark will be turned over. Because: “There are reasons why the club has been playing in this league for so long,” as Baumgart said in the NDR interview immediately after the final whistle.
Advancement? “It won’t work just with football games”
The 52-year-old was not more specific. However, it is clear from his clear statements that the coach has identified a mentality problem with his team. Not a new symptom for the former Bundesliga “Dino”. In previous years, the team repeatedly had failures against individually far worse opponents and lost promotion five times in a row. Now Baumgart wants to make sure that HSV doesn’t stay with itself – to use the words of his predecessor.
“We still have ten games and the boys have everything in their own hands. But it won’t happen just with football games, but with hard work, with duel behavior and a mentality that shows everyone outside that you want to get promoted,” said the coach. The former striker also explicitly took responsibility for himself. “What I’m missing is a certain clarity in the game. It’s now my job to make sure we get that done.”
Friday in Düsseldorf will show whether Baumgart can convey to the team the values that only one player actually embodied against Osnabrück: Noah Katterbach.
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Sports club | 03/03/2024 | 10:50 p.m
