First team

Fun and games ahead of the international-break weekend

A bit of fun is always necessary: HSV head coach Tim Walter is allowing his team to rest over the international-break weekend thanks to their hard work in yesterday’s friendly and today’s competitive training session.

Just like yesterday, the blazing sun hung over the Volkspark as the Rothosen stepped onto the training pitch on Thursday afternoon. The only difference was that HSV played a friendly against Eredivisie side FC Volendam on Wednesday, where they were ultimately defeated 2-1. However, it was “fun to watch” and a “very decent performance” on the whole, according to head coach Tim Walter, and one that Immanuel Pherai also wants to build on: “We didn’t manage to score at the end, but other than that we had the lion’s share of possession, controlled the game a lot, and actually created quite a few chances. Most importantly, we played with intensity, which is definitely something we can take from the friendly.”

Robert Glatzel and Jonas Meffert were back in training on Thursday.

On Thursday, the HSV players gathered in the same place once again for training, before they head into a three-day-long break because of the international fixtures. As has been the case all week, youngsters Felix Paschke, Tom Sanne, Luis Seifert, Jesse Kilo, Davis Rath und Bilal Yalcinkaya were all present, who were also given some minutes by the coaching staff in the friendly against FC Volendam and, in Seifert’s case, got on the scoresheet.

Those named in international squads were of course not involved in the friendly, as well as Matheo Raab, who is recovering from illness, and Anssi Suhonen, who is training individually. Ludovit Reis, Bakery Jatta, Robert Glatzel and Jonas Meffert missed the game to instead take part in a training session. That quartet were back on board with the team for Thursday’s session, which saw the group divided into four teams for a series of fun games and competitions. In addition to the players showing that they love to play, compete and ultimately win, the focus was also on the ball. And when that’s involved, we all know that fun is never far behind. As a result, the Rothosen enter the weekend happy and in good humour, ready to get the ball rolling again at the Volkspark on Monday.