Hamburger SV is four points behind the direct promotion spot – five games before the end there is a gap. In the catch-up game against SV Sandhausen, Daniel Thioune’s team could have put second-placed Greuther Fürth under pressure, but, like last Friday against Darmstadt (1: 2), made a difficult mistake at Hardtwald in the 1: 2 against SVS – and still delivered to a sometimes shockingly poor performance from. The fate of the past two years threatens the red trousers, when they gambled away the promotion on the home straight.
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After an astonishingly poor performance against the hosts fighting against relegation, the protagonists themselves were shocked. “When the game was lost at 2-0, we only started playing football”, scoffed HSV coach Daniel Thjonen Sky. “The sand houses wanted to give their lives on the pitch (…) One team wanted it more.” The bitter realization of the ex-Osnabrücker (“I could have changed ten times during the break”): He wasn’t talking about his own team.
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His keeper Sven Ulreich was also served. “It is a defeat that hurts a lot because we have big plans”said the former Bayern player, but he was also combative: “We will not give up and will fight until the last game.” As third in the table, Hamburg still has the return to the Bundesliga in hand, even if the lead over Fortuna Düsseldorf has melted to just one point. “All games should be viewed in isolation. Some games can simply be put in a drawer: deserved defeats. Other games were more about weaknesses,” said Thioune.
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In a short training camp in Herzogenaurach, the coach is now primarily in demand as a motivator before the next game on Sunday against Jahn Regensburg. After the blows in the neck of the past few weeks, he mainly sees a mental problem with his players. “It does something to the head – there is no stability and that is also missing on the pitch”, says the ex-professional, who does not want to suffer the fate of his predecessors Hannes Wolf and Dieter Hecking and who wants to fail with HSV in returning to the Bundesliga. He also wants to fight: “We went down again. I’ll be the last to give up. We’ll fight until the last game, we shouldn’t be written off under any circumstances.”
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Not only the Hamburgers themselves are surprised by the lack of chances against the relegation candidate. Real Madrid world champion Toni Kroos also watched the game and was apparently stunned. “My goodness HSV … honestly …”, wrote the German international on Twitter and probably wrote down what many fans of Hamburg were thinking.
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