Rothosen return to the Volkspark in front of 400 fans

The Rothosen are back in Hamburg. Following their four-day training camp in Helsingør, Denmark (8th to 11th July), the HSV players completed their first session of pre-season at their Volkspark training ground on Monday afternoon. Around 400 spectators were in attendance, some forming a guard of honour to welcome the team before watching an intense workout on the pitch. Fans had also been able to arrive an hour earlier and take part in activities including a target-shooting challenge and a shot-speed test.

Born in Hamburg and a passionate HSV fan, head coach Merlin Polzin once stood on the other side of the fence himself. His delight at the strong turnout and at being back at the Volkspark was clear to see, although he continued to demand maximum commitment and intensity from his players, just as he had in Denmark. The 35-year-old had almost his entire squad available, with Alexander Rössing-Lelesiit and Fernando Dickes continuing their individual recovery programmes and Miro Muheim, Sander Tangvik and Otto Stange on holiday after recently being on international duty. Six academy players who were also part of the short training camp were again involved: Louis Lemke, Jason Bissi-Mouelle, Thierry Sedlatschek and Jannes von Diczelski, along with goalkeepers Elias Lahti and Colin Poppelbaum.

“We want to get straight to work and make our game even more complete.”

“It felt absolutely brilliant to be back here and training again. The groundskeepers have done an outstanding job over the summer. It’s simply fantastic to be home again, especially with the other teams based here as well. We have already seen the U21s and our women’s side today, for example. It’s a fantastic feeling,” said Polzin after the session, which lasted around 90 minutes.

The focus in Denmark had been on getting plenty of touches on the ball and setting high standards as a group. From now on, each week of pre-season is due to culminate in a friendly, beginning with Saturday’s opening warm-up match away to SK Rapid in Vienna. “The first step is to lay the foundations again,” Polzin explained. “We’ll gradually step up the workload and intensity as pre-season progresses. We want to take the next step in our development. In controlled phases of the game, we are clear about how we want to attack and defend. There is definitely still room for improvement in transition, both when we win the ball and when we lose it. That is where we want to pick things up. We want to get straight to work and make our game even more complete.”

HSV will now spend another four days training at home before the travelling party heads via Vienna to the next training camp in Austria, temporarily leaving the Volkspark behind once again.