2nd league
“Of course not enough”: HSV is in danger of failing again
Hamburger SV lost against SC Paderborn. photo
© Daniel Bockwoldt/dpa
Hamburger SV does not present itself as a candidate for promotion. The 1:2 against Paderborn once again reveals many construction sites. The pressure on coach Tim Walter is growing.
The next setback for the promotion candidate in the 2nd Bundesliga marked the low point of an alarming development. In this form, the sixth attempt to return to the Bundesliga is in danger of failing. If the Hanseatic League disappoint again at the end of the first half of the season next Saturday in Nuremberg (1 p.m./Sky) and do not end the year in a promotion place, Walter is likely to come under increasing pressure. The fortress that he and sports director Jonas Boldt have built around the team is slowly starting to crack.
Even at home, things are no longer going smoothly for the traditional club. After seven wins in the Volksparkstadion at home, HSV now lost the certainty that things were somehow going well at home despite weak away performances. “That’s very, very bitter,” said attacker Robert Glatzel.
Poor performance recently
Now the squad, which is actually overqualified for the 2nd league, is about to fall out of the promotion zone. HSV was lucky that city rivals and league leaders FC St. Pauli only got one point against bottom club Osnabrück and SpVgg Greuther Fürth also lost a home win against Magdeburg in stoppage time. The distance to St. Pauli and the second Holstein Kiel is already four points. The Kiel team defeated Fortuna Düsseldorf 1-0 in the top game.
“Of course that’s not enough for what we plan to do,” said goalkeeper Daniel Heuer Fernandes. However, the 31-year-old said about the poor performance in recent weeks: “I don’t see any trend.”
However, the development at Hamburger SV sounds very worrying. The club only got four points from the last four league games and only four wins from the last eleven league games. Even the narrow 2-1 win against relegation candidate Eintracht Braunschweig was hard-fought. The two defeats against the newcomers from Elversberg and Osnabrück were the first warning signs in September. Most recently, HSV was eliminated from the DFB Cup by Hertha BSC.
In typical Walter fashion, the coach was still optimistic about getting three points in Nuremberg. “We’ve been down so many times, and we always get back up.” The next slip-up in Nuremberg could have consequences.