Walter: "We have competition among friends".

After two games away from home (2:0 in Rostock and 3:3 in Heidenheim), Hamburger SV will be back in action in their own living room on Sunday afternoon. And here, the Rothosen can once again expect a full house for the home match against DSC Arminia Bielefeld: As of now, more than 55,000 spectators are present at the Volksparkstadion and provide for special conditions. It is self-explanatory that the HSV professionals would like to show themselves on this stage. But as is well known, a maximum of 16 players from each team are allowed to play on match day, so Tim Walter is currently spoilt for choice as to which of his well-behaved boys he will nominate for an appearance. The HSV coach spoke about this exciting competition in today's press conference, as well as about the immense crowd of HSV fans and the upcoming opponent from East Westphalia. 

The 47-year-old spoke in detail about ...   

... the personnel situation:  "Bascho" (Sebastian Schonlau, editor's note) has a fat lip. He was inside today, completed his individual programme and will be back on the pitch tomorrow. Matheo Raab will also train again tomorrow and Bakery Jatta has already done so today, so we assume that these two players will also be part of the squad. 

... the competition in the team: The boys all want to play. It's a competition between friends. The boys like each other. That's the most important thing. We have a good team, a good harmony. Something like that has to grow, and of course the time we've spent together so far serves that purpose. We are further along than last year because of that. 

... the large number of spectators: That speaks for us and HSV. People enjoy coming to see us. They like to see spectacle and the Dino delivers great cinema. That's football. We would like to take a more relaxed approach and put the lid on the games earlier. But football is not a concert of wishes and every opponent gives 100 per cent against us until the end.

... the upcoming opponent: Arminia Bielefeld has a lot of individual quality - be it with Ogukawa, Serra or Hack. These are players who have a lot of potential and quality. You always have to have respect for them because each of them can use situations for himself and the team. We know that and yet we go into the game with a broad chest. We'll give everything until the end, we must never be written off - we've shown that again recently and it gives us a lot of self-confidence for the weekend.