2-2: Insightful friendly against Aarhus

Lively start, finely balanced by the end

The Rothosen started the game against Aarhus GF with tempo and managed to create a number of good chances in the process. New signing Sonny Kittel had the pick of the bunch after six minutes as he was beautifully found by debutant Tim Leibold, only for his shot to whisper past the right-hand post. Opposing winger Jakob Ankersen showed Kittel how it was done four minutes later, hammering the ball into the net on the half-volley from the penalty spot after a fine cross from the right-hand side, making it 1-0 for the guests. However, the home side weren’t deterred by going behind and were rewarded for their domination in the 21st minute. A cross found Lukas Hinterseer all alone in the Scandinavian’s box, and the Austrian used the room afforded him to head the ball back towards Jatta, who simply had to pass the ball over the line. Kittel had another chance to put his name on the scoresheet but his sharp effort was saved smartly by Aarhus ‘keeper Oscar Whalley. 

However the resulting corner saw Gideon Jung bundled over in the box, and Hinterseer stepped up confidently, sending the ‘keeper the wrong way and putting Hamburg in front for the first time in the game in the 28th minute. Straight from kick-off captain Aaron Hunt could have extended the hosts’ lead, only to find Whalley in his way once again. Whalley would have been left helpless a few minutes before the break if HSV had managed to make the most of a 5-on-3 opportunity from an Aarhus corner, but in the end a shot from distance from Leibold was the best that came from the situation. And the home side were left ruing the missed opportunities even more when another individual mistake at the back led to Ankersen picking the ball up on the edge of the penalty area and lifting it high into the top-left of Julian Pollersbeck’s goal to level the scores up once again (44’).

After the break the game became more of a midfield battle, with both teams generally cancelling each other out, with HSV not quite being able to make the most of the amount of time they spent on the ball. Having made three changes at half-time, seven more followed on the hour mark from Dieter Hecking, giving players much-needed game time but also disrupting the flow of the game, as the substitutes needed a bit of time to feel their way into proceedings. The game sprang into life in the 69th minute after a period of very little goalmouth action, as good work down the left-hand side by Josh Vagnoman and Manuel Wintzheimer saw the winger take the ball to the byline, only for his pull-back to be squandered by Berkay Özcan, whose left-footed effort just glanced the outside of the right-hand upright. This was however, the one standout chance for a game that failed to spark into life in the second period, with many attacks from the home side breaking down in the final third, not being able to land a knockout punch to break the stalemate.

Manager Dieter Hecking was fairly satisfied with the performance of his charges, given the amount of time left until the start of the new season: “The players implemented the ideas we've been working on in training well. Considering how far we are into pre-season I'm satisfied. Now we've got to work on reducing the number of mistakes."

This was how the team lined up:

HSV: Pollersbeck (46‘ Mickel) – Narey (46‘ Sakai), Jung (57‘ Papadopoulos), van Drongelen (57‘ David), Leibold (57’ Vagnoman) - Fein (57‘ Moritz) - Jatta (46‘ Wood), Hunt (57’ Özcan), Dudziak, Kittel (57’ Wintzheimer) - Hinterseer (57’ Jairo)

Tore: 0:1 Ankersen (10‘), 1:1 Jatta (21‘), 2:1 Hinterseer (28‘ pen), 2:2 Ankersen (44‘)