Polzin ahead of Bundesliga opener: “It brings a smile to your face”

The wait is over: Bundesliga football is finally back! Germany’s top flight gets its 64th season underway tomorrow on Friday, with the opening match between defending champions FC Bayern München and VfB Stuttgart (kick-off: 8.30pm). HSV will enter the fray on Saturday (29 August), immediately facing a top clash on Matchday 1 away to BVB. HSV head coach Merlin Polzin spoke about the match against the runners-up this Thursday (27 August), discussing in detail ...

… the squad: Not much has changed compared with the cup match. Warmed Omari and Alexander Rössing-Lelesiit are still undergoing their rehabilitation programmes and will not be available. Miro Muheim took part in sections of team training again during the week, but it will still be too soon for him to part of the squad at the weekend. Everyone else is ready and full of energy for the trip to Dortmund. That also applies to Jordan Torunarigha, who has trained with the team and is available for selection.

… the last match at Dortmund: If you are 2-0 up at Borussia Dortmund until the 70th minute, then you haven't done too much wrong. We saw and felt that, with their quality, particularly at home, they can turn a game like that around. It will be another major challenge for us. There has almost been an overhaul in Dortmund; they have spent a lot of money on some excellent players. For us, it will be about putting our style of play onto the pitch. We need passionate defending, a lot of concentration and intensity, and certainly a bit of luck as well.

… the opposition: Dortmund have a clear structure to their play and have also become more versatile. Through positional changes and the quality of their individual players, for example, they repeatedly manage to pull opponents apart. In those moments, we have to be extremely alert because they have the quality to exploit those situations with a great deal of dynamism and pace. We have to defend compactly while also making sure we don't allow ourselves to be pinned completely back. It comes down to just a few metres. We are aware of that and have prepared for it. It will come down to defending against them with maximum intensity and full determination.

… his anticipation of the Bundesliga opener: It brings a smile to your face. When the fixture list was released, we knew that this was exactly the game we would be looking forward to. And it doesn't get any bigger than this. You can clearly see the importance of HSV when we get to play the top match on Saturday evening. We are immediately in the spotlight, we have to be ready from the start and deliver. That also has an impact on us during our preparations: we are approaching this match with the necessary edge. We will need the support of the boys and girls in the stands, we will have to endure a lot and we are absolutely determined to throw everything into it so that, on this particular day, things go just that tiny bit better than they did last season.

… new signing Terem Moffi: Huge credit to Claus (sporting director Costa, ed.) and his team for ultimately managing to convince him to join us and finding a way to make the transfer happen. Terem is a player who laughs a lot, communicates and is very open with us coaches and the team. He is absolutely eager to play football. He is a huge asset to our squad, simply because of his personality. As a player, too, he has already given us a glimpse of what he can do in the few training sessions he has had. He definitely has a nose for goal in the opposition box. He will complete the final training session tomorrow and then we will see how ready he is for Dortmund.

… a potential signing of Fabio Vieira: I have said so many times that Fabio gave us so many great moments last season. He is an outstanding player. He is also someone who fitted perfectly into the team and brings something very special. Regardless of how realistic it may be, for me as someone who loves football, who likes to be a little naive and not think too much about things behind the scenes that I can't influence, it would be a huge boost if he came back. It is our duty to do everything we can to make that happen. Claus and his team are doing that. And then we'll see what happens between now and next Tuesday.