Merlin Polzin: “The Pokal is fascinating”

On Saturday both the summer break and pre-season preparations draw to a close as competitive football begins with HSV’s first game of the new season at 13:00 CEST. In the first round of the DFB-Pokal, the Rothosen make the trip to fifth-division side FK Pirmasens, and on Thursday (14th August), Merlin Polzin answered questions from journalists about the return to competitive action. He spoke about...

...the DFB-Pokal as a competition: The Pokal is fascinating and holds great appeal for both small clubs and big clubs. The winner remains – I like this motto and we want to get as far as possible in the competition. The goal for the weekend is clear: move into the next round as winners. We will treat our task in Pirmasens as absolute professionals and will look to play a good game and to be successful. We had a good week in training, are as ready for our opponents as we can be and will not underestimate anyone or anything. We’re very excited to be getting underway and I would already like to give the organisers at Pirmasens my utmost respect. There will be 10,000 spectators there for whom we want to provide a fun and successful afternoon of football.

“Difficult moments are an investment in the future”

...the available squad: Dompe, Poulsen, Jatta and Pherai still won’t be available for this weekend, but all the other boys will be. Baku and Manu will need more time after the cup game, but for the other two there is the option to bring them back for the start of the league in Gladbach.

...the team’s form before the start of the season: Nobody needs to worry. We deliberately planned and tested ourselves against strong opponents and knew we would lose a game or two. Because we know what awaits us in the Bundesliga, we wanted to prepare the team as well as possible. Games against lower level opposition would not have helped us as much as games against tougher teams. For us on the coaching staff, it was about presenting the lads with challenges, not fuelling their self-confidence with victories against lower level opposition. Difficult moments are an investment in the future, such as competitive matches. The boys have taken many steps forward and have gotten better every day, making it a very informative pre-season, as we learned something from every friendly and every training session, so we can make a good start to the season. That starts this weekend in the cup.