Team

Training resumes at the Volksparkstadion

Tim Walter and his team officially started their preparations ahead of the new season on Friday. Around 600 supporters attended as the ‘Rothosen’ began pre-season training.

The sun came out as HSV’s team training began on Friday afternoon (30th June) ahead of the 2023/24 season. Around 600 HSV fans joined the players at the training ground at the Volksparkstadion to watch the start of training in the sunshine. Head coach Tim Walter was able to greet three new players onto the training pitch in the shape of Levin Öztunali, Immanuel Pherai and Guilherme Ramos, with HSV academy players Tom Sanne, Nikolas Kisilowski and Omar Megeed also attending first team training this coming week.

Immanuel Pherai was straight into the action in his first training session with the ‘Rothosen’ and showed straight away that he can benefit HSV with his attacking style of play. — Immanuel Pherai was straight into the action in his first training session with the ‘Rothosen’.

All the players took part in a warm-up session before the team moved into a more intense session focussing on shape on a small and narrow pitch with lots of duels. Ramos (shoulder) and Robert Glatzel (infection) didn’t take part in this as a precaution. In addition, Laszlo Benes, who tore a muscle at the end of last season, Andras Nemeth, who suffered an ankle fracture and has returned to Hamburg after being on loan at KSC and Stephan Ambrosius, who recently picked up a knock, were working individually with fitness coach Sebastian Capel.

Those absent included Miro Muheim due to a calf injury and HSV’s four international players. Ransford Königsdörffer, Ludovit Reis, Anssi Suhonen and Valon Zumberi received a few days more holiday from head coach Tim Walter following their international exploits at the end of the season. The head coach was already pleased with the commitment and attitude shown by his team in this first training session: “I felt a really good energy in the dressing room immediately on the first day and was very surprised with how much power the players had on the pitch, how lively they were and also how they were already coming up with good solutions on the training pitch. You could sense that the boys have successfully recharged their batteries; that was a very good first training session.”

Tim Walter was back in his element on the training ground and happy to be able to get underway working with the team.

You could see the joy the coach was feeling as he walked onto the pitch with his team again after a four-week break. “At first I thought I could have done with another week off, because our summer break was already quite short,” Walter joked after the opening session, “but when I came into the dressing room today and saw all the faces again, I realised how much I missed the boys. And also the football, so I’m very happy that it’s starting again now.”

He and his team don’t have time to waste either, after all, the pre-season is only short, with the opening game of the season in just four weeks. “We will train a lot until the first game,” promised Walter. This first game will be at home against FC Schalke 04. “It doesn’t get any better than this,” he added, taking a positive view of the 2023/24 fixture list, which was published on Friday. “We begin at home, in front of our own fans, and against a strong opponent. It’s great!”

600 spectators attended the opening training session, and there was also a lot of media interest when Jonas Boldt answered questions on the sidelines.

On the day of the first training session, board member Jonas Boldt was also very pleased with the season opener: “The fact that we as HSV are officially opening the season here in the Volksparkstadion shows the importance of HSV and the appreciation for our club. And then against Schalke 04, that is of course an exciting match, also because of the names, but it’s a very exciting league from that perspective too.” In order to perform well in the league and achieve the objective this time around, Boldt and the club have been working hard during the summer break.

“We know the league and what we have to improve, so we used the time intensively and pushed certain things.” The team was largely kept together, with new additions strengthening the squad. “I think there will be more moves because we want to continue to strengthen and broaden our squad to increase our chances of promotion. We’ve always been close, but now it’s about time we got it right, even though we know of course that it’s absolutely not a given.” The board, coaching team and squad want to set the course for success in pre-season, which began on Friday with lots of anticipation for the season ahead.