Walter: "It will be heated everywhere against us".

The Fritz Walter Stadium, named after the first honorary captain of the national team of the same name since 1985 and popularly known as the "Betzenberg" or "Betze", is one of the most impressive venues in German football. This coming Saturday, the top match of the 28th second division matchday will take place here between 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Hamburger SV (live on HSVnetradio from 8.15 pm). With 49,350 spectators, the Red Shirts can once again look forward to an away game in front of a sell-out crowd. For HSV coach Tim Walter, who was born in Bruchsal, 70 kilometres away as the crow flies, it will be a first in this stadium. He knows the atmosphere only from hearsay and from television, as the 47-year-old stated at today's pre-match press conference. But his team knows how to deal with a heated atmosphere.    

The football coach spoke in detail about ... 

... the personnel situation: Moritz Heyer and Ogechika Heil still have colds. They are feeling a bit better, but it is difficult to predict whether they will be able to play. We have confidence in all the players and will have to improvise if necessary, as we did last week. Of course, we hope that Moritz, an important player, will be ready for the match. But we won't throw in the towel now if it's not enough. That won't cause us sleepless nights.  

... His expectations for the game: It will be heated wherever there are many spectators. It will be especially heated against us, because the teams might invest more than against other teams. We have to make sure that we stay with ourselves and pave the way in time so that the game goes our way. If you look at the possession table, you know that we have the most and Kaiserslautern have 41 percent. So everyone knows what kind of game awaits us. We are prepared for that and we are just looking forward to this game. 

... Jean-Luc Dompe: He has so much quality. If he gets past the opponent seven times in ten attempts, then everyone cheers for him. But if he gets caught three times and then also runs behind, then they love him. He has to internalise that even more. I think he understands that too, but we have to encourage him more sometimes. That's why it's completely legitimate when teammates or even I as a coach bring it up.  

... the loss of Mario Vuskovic: We will never be able to replace Mario Vuskovic one-to-one. He is an outstanding player in the second division. If Bayern Munich or Real Madrid had to do without one of their best centre-backs, they would have similar problems to ours. We have two guys who have to improve and adapt and have already done so. At the same time, we always have different constellations in the back four. Accordingly, it has to settle down even more. That's what we're trying to do. You can always find a fly in the ointment, but I am happy with the boys and trust them.