First Team

HSV gearing up for trip to Braunschweig

Following the bitter defeat against Holstein Kiel, the Rothosen will be looking to dust themselves off this week and get back to winning ways when they face off against Eintracht Braunschweig on Saturday. Despite feeling disappointed, HSV head coach Steffen Baumgart’s credo remains clear. “We’ve got to keep our heads up.”

The Rothosen returned to the training pitches on Tuesday morning (23rd April). The feelings of disappointment in and around the club were palpable following the frustrating 1-0 loss against Holstein Kiel. However, head coach Steffen Baumgart seemed even more motivated to gee his players up before they travel to Braunschweig this Saturday (13:00 CEST). “The boys have got to stay focused. They need to tune out what everyone else is saying and listen to me. I, too, have been guilty of doing that too often,” stated Baumgart, as he fielded questions from journalists after overseeing the training session. “Moping about is useless. We’ve got to keep our heads up. You’ve got to see what you’re doing well and what you can improve on. That’s what we’re going to work on.”

Robert Glatzel and Ignace Van der Brempt compete for the ball.

Benes training individually

The only player missing at the start of the new training week was Laszlo Benes, who missed the game against Kiel after picking up a niggle in the warm up.”Unfortunately, Laci isn’t fit enough to get back on the pitch just yet. He’s working on his comeback indoors,” said the 52-year-old. “We’re talking every day about when he’ll be able to make his return. At the moment, he looks unlikely to be involved this weekend. The Rothosen could have used the midfielder’s marksmanship in the primetime clash against Kiel at the weekend, as HSV had a number of shots on goal over the course of the match, but saw the vast majority of them go off target as they struggled to pose a serious threat to the scoreline. “We had 21 attempts on goal. The quality of the shots we were taking is an issue in itself, but we could’ve had a lot of good opportunities,” acknowledged Baumgart. “Improving the quality of our chances is something we’ve got to work on.”

"Even though it's a results business, there have been a lot of good performances.”

That’s why the squad was split into three teams straight after warming up in today’s training session. At any one time, two of the groups would be working with the ball at their feet, while the third worked on their stamina with fitness coach Daniel Müssig. The Rothosen looked to be at the top of their game in terms of athleticism and willingness to fight, just as they had been against Kiel. “It wasn’t down to our attitude, mindset or the hard yards we were willing to put in. We weren’t better than Kiel, but we weren’t worse than them by any means. Still, we’re struggling to get results at the moment, so clearly things have to improve,” stressed Baumgart, who is fully committed to sticking to this playstyle with his team. “Football is a results business, so we're left looking like fools, but I won't have that. There have been a lot of good performances.” Baumgart is looking for his team to focus over the next three days of training so that the result will match their performance against Braunschweig on Saturday. Just like top goalscorer Robert Glatzel said in the aftermath of that bitterly disappointing loss at the weekend – “It’s really tough, but we won’t give up.”