It is often said that clothes make the man. But do outfits say anything about football coaches? At Hamburger SV, a club that is more of a pocket square model, they have not been able to achieve the desired success with their casual wardrobe in recent years: the staunch wearers of sweatpants Daniel Thioune and Tim Walter failed to achieve promotion, as did the recently dismissed Steffen Baumgart, who wore jeans and T -Shirt defied wind and weather, but his team had recently had rather soft performances.
On Sunday, in the 2-2 draw against Darmstadt 98, the dress code, which was actually not very traditional from HSV’s point of view, was continued: Merlin Polzin, previously assistant to the aforementioned coaches, appeared in the classic HSV tracksuit for the first of four second division games that he can now definitely deny it as… yes, what actually? Interim coach? Not quite an official head coach who then becomes an official one in the winter? Of course, nothing is appearing at HSV at the moment, although until recently everything had pointed to the fact that the sidelines would in future – actually typical of Hamburg – be populated again by a man in a stylish trench coat. But Bruno Labbadia’s third term in office, the announcement of which had been expected almost every day, was quickly canceled by Hamburg’s sports director Stefan Kuntz, despite intensive and friendly discussions. Why? The circumstances. The young Polzin, 34, had meanwhile achieved a convincing 3-1 win in Karlsruhe. Apparently reason enough for Kuntz to rethink the future of HSV, at least for now. And then things might be rethought again around Christmas.
When it comes to finding or not looking for a coach, HSV is currently not giving a particularly confident picture; the industry largely agrees on that. And the performance on the pitch was similarly difficult on Sunday. On his plus side, Polzin can say that the Hamburg team is less timid under him and that he no longer demotes potential lower house difference players, such as the air attacker Jean-Luc Dompé, to emergency helpers (like Baumgart). It was that Dompé who ripped open the Darmstadt defense with a fine pass and set up Ransford Königsdörffer for the opening goal (10th minute). However, the team didn’t have much more sparkling to offer: the Darmstadt team had been excellently mixed by their coach Florian Kohfeldt, who by the way once again appeared in the stadium in black jeans, and the dominant team – which, conversely, meant that the Hamburg team didn’t play like that, as they could. And in the local Volksparkstadion they should.
Captain Sebastian Schonlau once again didn’t cut an impressive figure when Darmstadt equalized after a corner (33’/Aleksandar Vukotic). For Hamburg to take the lead again, it took a quickly executed free kick and an artificial shot from Adem Karabec (45th). And because after a double fault by full-backs Miro Muheim and William Mikelbrencis, not only Killian Corredor was allowed to score the 2-2, but Hamburg only managed to make it a little ahead at certain points, Kohfeldt was able to attest to an “outstanding performance” by his team. Polzin was more reserved in his assessment, and for HSV that means: the coaching question is expressly unresolved.
#HSVs #coaching #question #remains #unresolved #draw #Darmstadt
