Interview

Meffert: “Want to play well and be successful”

Ahead of Saturday’s trip to face 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Jonas Meffert spoke about the season so far, the current situation in the team and the clash with the Red Devils.

HSV head coach Steffen Baumgart currently has several options to choose from when putting together his matchday squad and starting line-up. A constant in his teams has been Jonas Meffert. As a result, Baumgart made no secret of the fact that he wanted to keep the midfield stalwart in Hamburg, in the midst of heightened interest from abroad during the summer. In the end, ‘Meffo’ decided to stay with the Rothosen, extending his contract with the club. “HSV hold a special place in my heart and it makes me both happy and proud to play for this club,” he said, adding that he wants to help the team achieve their main goal: “We want to finally get promoted this season.”

HSV’s next opponent as their path towards achieving this goal will be 1. FC Kaiserslautern on Saturday evening (20:30 CEST). The match between the two storied clubs will kick off under the floodlights at the iconic Fritz-Walter-Stadion. “It will be a very, very tough game,” said Meffert. “But, I’m expecting us to take all three points home to Hamburg.” Asked what will be needed in order to make sure that this happens, he replied “We all need to do everything we can to ensure that we don’t concede, while also having the joy and creativity to attack and to silence the opposition fans.”

Baumgart was able to complete his first full pre-season with the team during the summer, which Meffert deemed an extremely important time for the team. “We spent a lot of time together and were able to really get to know each other, as well as working on the things that we wanted to put into action this season.” The keys to success could very well be found in exactly those things that the Rothosen have worked so hard on, which they will be looking to bring to the pitch in Kaiserslautern as well. “We’ve scored a lot of goals lately because we have a lot of talented players in attack, but our main goal is always on defending as a team and not conceding,” said Meffert.

The 28-year-old is satisfied with the number of points his side have managed to pick up so far. “Five games, ten points and we’re through to the second round of the cup,” he recounted. “It’s not a perfect start, but a satisfactory one.” The team are working on becoming even more in-sync, with the competition within the squad serving as extra motivation. “You can feel the level of competition within the squad, but I see it as a positive because even if there are tough decisions that have to be made, such as only subbing good players in later on, it still helps us move forward as a team,” Meffert said. Baumgart, for his part, frequently says that games are “mostly decided in the closing stages, with the substitutes playing a key role.”

HSV’s recent 5-0 win against SSV Jahn Regensburg serves as a good example of this. Three of their goals were scored from the 60th minute onwards, all by substitutes — an unusual feat that was accomplished by the introduction of proven goalscorers such as Davie Selke and Jean-Luc Dompe. Of course, a result like this is only possible as long as the team still have something to play for by that point — by being “solid at the back” and, ideally, having not conceded, as Meffert says. Dramatic closing stages might be fun to watch, but in the end, what Meffert and his teammates want is to “Play good football, but to first and foremost play successful football.” They will have another chance to deliver just that on Saturday.