Sports director Boldt talks about the 4th HSV slump in the 2nd league

HSV messes up the season finale

It’s spring again, the final sprint in the fight for promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga – and again Hamburger SV slips away. It seems as if the German lower house is becoming the permanent home of the former European Cup winner. After three unsuccessful promotion missions, the former first division dinosaur is faced with a heap of broken glass on the fourth attempt. The 1:2 (0:1) home defeat against Paderborn cemented the downward trend.

No win for five games, just two out of a possible 15 points in the past six weeks. With six remaining game days, the traditional club is seventh in the table and nine points behind a promotion place. “Development doesn’t just go in one direction, it can sometimes falter,” coach Tim Walter excuses his team and sighs: “Life is not a request concert, you have to work hard.”

The regular slump has nothing to do with a lack of fitness or a lack of class on the part of the professionals. When things get down to business in the season finale, your nerves will start to flutter in Hamburg on time. Walter denies that vehemently. For tactical reasons, he doesn’t even want to have a psycho-discussion. Because that unsettles the team even more, as previous years have shown. That’s why his favorite sentence is: “We’ll stay with us.” No matter how your own games end, no matter what the competition does, no matter what the table looks like: don’t talk about it, don’t think about it, only up to the better-placed teammate on the look at the lawn

When a “Sky” reporter wanted Walter to confirm before the game that a mandatory win against Paderborn was due, he replied: “It is mandatory for me to call my family later. It’s important for us that we have fun.” That’s neither snotty nor arrogant, but part of the anti-psycho plan. Even if the coach says “pressure is a privilege”, his players seem to see it differently.

Every year again: HSV starts strong – and drops even more

HSV’s season pattern can’t be a coincidence. In the three previous years in the second division, the team only got nine of the possible 24 points twice from the last eight games, and only six once. A strong first half of the season was almost notoriously followed by the crash after the winter break. The biggest discrepancy was in 2018/19: first in the first half of the season with 37 points, 15th in the second half of the season with 19 points.

“Ultimately, you are where you are, and you deserve it,” said Walter. There is little prospect of improvement if you believe the devastating statistics: HSV has never won in April. However, there were no April games in the 2019/20 Corona season. However, HSV has not yet been written off this season. If he wins the catch-up home game on Tuesday against the penultimate Erzgebirge Aue, there is still a six-point difference to a promotion place. After that, the team could benefit from a rarely favorable constellation: the top clubs all still play against each other and steal each other’s points. Just not the HSV. Without exception, he has rivals from the lower half of the table. To the remaining program of all second division clubs.

Either way, a change of coach is currently out of the question. “As long as we feel the key people have the power to counter it, there’s no need to. Tim Walter has a lot of energy and brings it with him, but he can’t substitute himself and shoot the ball over the line,” said Boldt (quoted via “Hamburger Morgenpost”).

Miracle in the fight for promotion? Competition gives HSV hope

HSV also has a little hope that the top teams are also weakening. Both the new league leaders Werder Bremen (52 points) in the 1-1 (0-0) at home against the relegation hopeful Sandhausen and 1. FC Nürnberg (46) on Sunday in the 1-3 (0-2) in Heidenheim ( 45) suffer a setback. A day earlier, the previous leaders FC St. Pauli (51) had failed in 0: 1 (0: 0) in Rostock. On the other hand, SV Darmstadt (51) took advantage of the moment and improved to second place with a 3-1 (2-0) win over Holstein Kiel.

“Development doesn’t just go upwards, there are also dents. At the moment we have a dent. But it’s about getting out of this dent again. That is the key point,” said Boldt, adding: “For me there are only two ways. Either one is willing to really build something here, even if there is a risk that the maximum goals to be achieved will not be achieved in the end. The alternative is to collect as much money as possible by selling shares or changing the club structure with American standards – and then collect the money that Hoffenheim or Leipzig needed to guarantee promotion. That doesn’t seem to be the intention here. I understand that too and stand behind it. I don’t see the alternative either, so it’s the other way, and that requires patience.”

A way that certain characters would do well, but which are not easy to get, as the HSV sports director explained to try (via “Hamburger Abendblatt”). “These types of players who have the gift of taking over the games at decisive moments are becoming fewer and fewer, and the majority of them play for Bayern Munich,” said Boldt, who has not yet completely ticked off promotion. “The season is not over yet, we will definitely not throw in the towel.”

To home page