Excited and focused as preparations for Sunday begin

The Bundesliga 2 top-of-the-table clash between Fortuna Düsseldorf and Hamburger SV is fast approaching. One of the games to which fans are being offered free admission as part of the home side’s “Fortuna für alle” (Fortuna for all) scheme, there have been more than 135,000 tickets requests for Sunday’s game (13:30 CEST kick-off). A decent chunk of the tickets should be going the way of the away support, too, given that HSV fans have flocked in their thousands for the club’s last few games at the Düsseldorfer Arena and have almost turned the atmosphere into something reminiscent of a home game for the Rothosen. Recent results at the Düsseldorfer Arena have not been overly satisfying for HSV, who have drawn three times and lost once in four Bundesliga 2 meetings in Düsseldorf. 

This run should of course change on Sunday if defender Silvan Hefti (above) and the rest of the Rothosen want to prove themselves against the unbeaten league leaders (W5, D2) in front of 54,600 fans in Düsseldorf. The HSV first team began their week of training in grim weather conditions on Tuesday so that they can be best prepared for the game. In total, the squad will complete five sessions before the duel at the weekend. Head coach Steffen Baumgart, who has a balanced record as a coach against F95 (W2, D1, L2), has his full squad at his disposal with the exception of midfielder Lukasz Poreba (cold) and keeper Daniel Heuer Fernandes (adductor muscle strain). Bakery Jatta, who made a partial return to team training last week, has now fully reintegrated into the squad. Anssi Suhonen, William Mikelbrencis and Nicolas Oliveira were also absent as well as U21 players Omar Sillah and Hannes Hermann as they prepare for the next Regionalliga (German fourth tier) match against SV Todesfeld on Thursday (3rd October). 

The first team’s next trip on the road takes them to Düsseldorf, and they will be looking to avoid committing the same errors made in the games against 1. FC Kaiserslautern (2-2) and SC Paderborn (2-2). “We need to make sure we don’t go behind, because that makes the game unnecessarily more complicated for us,” explained Jonas Meffert after the last match. “We want to put in some good work at training this week and make a quick start in Düsseldorf. It’s about making as few mistakes as possible and at the same time playing brave football. The rest will come.” This means that HSV will need to remember to play with freedom despite the high focus during a hard week’s training. Given the context and the stage of this weekend’s match, the HSV family is very much looking forward to what is a massive league fixture. Bring on Sunday!