Baumgart: “I’ve always loved this competition”

After winning 2-1 at 1. FC Köln and drawing 1-1 at home with Hertha BSC across the opening two matchdays of the new 2. Bundesliga season, HSV begin their DFB-Pokal campaign on Sunday evening. The Rothosen will face SV Meppen in the first round at 18:00 CEST and naturally want to get the better of the Regionalliga outfit. Steffen Baumgart is well aware of how easy it can be to slip up to a lower-league side in the cup, having played 22 times in the competition and coached a further 20 games from the touchline. The 52-year-old spoke about his 21st Pokal game in charge on Friday afternoon and discussed…

…the squad: Jean-Luc Dompe and Dennis Hadzikadunic are both out. We’ve made the decision to rest them for this game to give them the best possible chance of being fit for our next game. Daniel Elfadli suffered a knock to his ankle yesterday. He’s ready to play, but we’ve not yet decided if he will. Matheo Raab is still working on his recovery. Robert Glatzel and Anssi Suhonen are in full training and are both options for the game.

"It’ll be an interesting and hard-fought game"

…SV Meppen: I think their team will be set up differently after the change of coach. I’m expecting the new coach to be a bit more attacking than they were in their first two games of the season. Meppen had by far the best strike partnership last season. The pair had a hand in 28 goals each, so that just shows the threat they possess. They are both big and powerful strikers. Meppen played really good football last season. They lost a couple of players over the summer and are maybe finding their feet still, but there is a reason they are one of the favourites for the title in their league. It’s a matter of sink or swim for both teams. You just want to get to the next round in any way you can. I’m therefore expecting Meppen to play a bit more attacking than in recent times. I’m confident it’ll be an interesting and hard-fought game.

…his Pokal memories: One of my worst moments in the Pokal came in 2021 with 1. FC Köln against HSV. I blame myself for that defeat and it still frustrates me to this day. That’s what the Pokal is all about. You experience so many positive and negative things, and you can never fully predict anything. There’s no doubt that we’re the favourites against Meppen, yet we still know how Pokal games can go. I’ve always loved this competition. My personal aim every year is to make it to the final, which unfortunately has never happened yet. We’ll now do our best again this year and go as far as we can. We’ll always name our best team too.