HSV won their final friendly before the new season begins in earnest with a DFB Cup round one away trip to Karlsruhe on Sunday. The Rothosen beat Hamburg Oberliga side Altona 93 5-3 on Tuesday evening (14.08.12). The victory was hard work though for coach Thorsten Fink and his depleted side. The HSV supremo was without nine regular players due to international friendlies being played this week. The 3,500-strong crowd inside the Adolf-Jäger-Kampfbahn saw the home side take a two goal lead (16./19.), and a HSV defence which looked shaky to say the least. 
 
It all started as Zhi Gin Lam played a wayward pass which was pounced upon by Sezgin Akgül to open the scoring. There was more to come too for the Bundesliga visitors as former HSV pro Stefan Winkel made it 2-0 to Altona, who continued to create decent scoring chances. HSV pulled a goal back on 33 minutes through Heung Min Son. The home side led 2-1 at halftime, during which Fink told us: "We approached the game sloppily. Our first half was rubbish."   
 
Fink must have found choice words during the break because his team emerged for the second half, upped the tempo and scored twice in as many minutes. First through a Jansen header and then Son completed his brace on 70 minutes made it 4-2 to the Rothosen. Then Fink almost completely changed his team to give the reserves some match practise. Altona scored a third goal through Mehdi Jaoudat to make it 3-4 (80.), but Felix Brügmann restored HSV's two goal lead with his side's fifth goal (86.). "I am satisfied with the second half. The team showed the right reaction. You never know, we could go two goals down in Karlsruhe", explained Fink after 90 minutes. 
 
Match details:  
 
Hamburger SV: Mickel - Diekmeier (72.Bergmann), Bruma (72.Dettmann), Mancienne (72.Labus), Aogo (72.Sowah) - Sternberg, Skjelbred (72.Ingreso) - Lam (72.Brown), Arslan (Farrona-Pulido), Jansen (72.Graudenz) - Son (72.Brügmann) 
 
Goals: 1:0 Akgül (16.), 2:0 Winkel (19.), 1:2 Son (33.), 2:2 Jansen (52.), 2:3 Arslan (53.), 2:4 Son (70.), 3:4 Jaoudat (80.), 3:5 Brügmann. 
 
Att: 3.315 
 
Referee: Sven Ehlert 
 
Booked: Heitbrock / Bruma, Jansen