HSV: Failed again, but continue with Walter

Approaching promotion with HSV for the third time: Coach Tim Walter.

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The former Bundesliga Dino is going into his sixth year in the second division, and as dramatic as the 34th match day in Sandhausen was and as bitter as the relegation opponents of Stuttgart caliber were, it must not be ignored that the club missed its goals. Once again.

Too many setbacks for the big goal

A year ago, the relegation place behind Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen was a success, especially given the final sprint. This year, behind Heidenheim and Darmstadt and after a squad upgrade, he is not. And as justified as Tim Walter’s remark that his team put on a lot of spectacles in the past season, it is also worth mentioning that many setbacks have shaped the season. Too many for direct promotion.

The applause of the fans after the 1:3 in the relegation second leg against the Swabians and the rousing atmosphere during the first half allows for two interpretations. One, positive, is: Walter and sports director Jonas Boldt, together with the team, managed to form a unit with the spectators again.

The other, less positive: Hamburg comes to terms with the 2nd division. “We are now a normal second division team,” says Walter to explain why the gap between the formation he coached and VfB was so large in this relegation. In fact, this sentence is now true in a cross-comparison with most Bundesliga clubs, both relegation games ultimately made it abundantly clear how far the club has come from the upper house.

Bigger than everyone else, but too small for the Bundesliga

And yet it is undisputed: Compared to the second division competition, HSV was still bigger than all the others in the past season. The fact that this is changing due to the relegation Hertha BSC and Schalke makes the hurdle of promotion a little higher and the apostrophe of the “normal second division club” even more realistic.

The fact that after two years Walter has released a lot of passion and emotions gives his followers a glimmer of hope. The fact that HSV failed twice under him due to the same problems, namely a lack of stability, is far less encouraging. On Monday in the second leg against VfB, too, naïve defensive behavior and an individual drop-out by Daniel Heuer Fernandes destroyed the hope that burgeoned after a courageous first half.

“Of course, continue with Walter” – and with a mortgage

The future will now be clarified quickly, the course has already been set. Immediately after the final whistle, Jonas Boldt also decided on the coaching question. “Of course it goes on with the coach,” said the Hamburg sports director. “We built a foundation. We scored 66 points, but in the end we were just missing a few nuances,” Boldt continued.

At the beginning of April, Walter had announced that the coming season for HSV would again take place in the Bundesliga. “We know we’re going up,” Walter said in early April. Judging by these words, the 47-year-old failed on Monday evening and especially during the second division season before.

And in just a few weeks he will start his third season in Hamburg with this mortgage.