The second most pressing question had already been clarified before kick-off: Steffen Baumgart, famous throughout his coaching life for wearing a flat cap on his head and being resistant to cold on his body, wore his favorite fashion accessory in Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion and braved the northern German winter cold in a T-shirt with the greeting “Moin”. What was new on Sunday was that a diamond and the number 72, the Hamburger SV logo and the year of Steffen Baumgart’s birth were embroidered on the gray flat cap.
As far as the emotional component is concerned, lifelong HSV fan Baumgart did everything right on his debut as HSV coach. The only thing that was even better was that when the final whistle blew, the most important question was answered in his opinion: Hamburg won their second division game 1-0 against newly promoted SV Elversberg, with attacker Ransford Königsdörffer scoring the goal in the 53rd minute.
It was eagerly awaited to see which elements of his predecessor Tim Walter would survive and where Baumgart would put the red pencil in order to ensure courageous but at the same time more stable football. The score sheet immediately provided clarity on a much-discussed topic of debate: Baumgart continued Walter’s recent decision to put the young goalkeeper Matheo Raab as the new number one ahead of Daniel Heuer Fernandes, who was shaky this season – which, as it turned out, was not a mistake. Raab held together a defense that has conceded an incredible eight goals in the last two home games – and although everything else in Hamburg’s performance was perfect, because a flat cap on the sidelines does not clear all players’ heads of weeks of pent-up uncertainty: Baumgart’s stabilization measures worked, for the most part .
Königsdörffer is exactly the right guy for Baumgart’s attacking game
It was immediately apparent that the new coach had made the game structure, which had been wild under Walter, more conservative. The defenders were allowed to defend, which gave the offensive players the comfortable feeling that there was someone back there who could correct a mistake. One of these offensive players is the talented attacker Königsdörffer, who has recently been more of a decoration in the Hamburg squad than a real alternative. Königsdörffer created depth, and with his speed he proved to be exactly the right guy for Baumgart’s vertical attack game, which the clever Elversbergers sometimes got well under control.
After a pass from Robert Glatzel, he got going again at the beginning of the second half and scored with a powerful shot to give Hamburg the lead, which was also the final score – and for Baumgart the first step in a comeback that should lead to promotion: of all things against city rivals and league leaders FC St. Pauli helped HSV with their 4-3 win on Friday against Holstein Kiel. Direct promotion place two is only a point away.