No kickabout test! HSV take on Copenhagen like a proper match | OneFootball

On Sunday, HSV will face Denmark’s FC Copenhagen in a friendly at their home Volksparkstadion. The atmosphere alone is expected to be extraordinary for a test match: More than 50,000 spectators are expected to watch the friendly live at the stadium. And fittingly, Bild is now reporting that not only the setting will feel like a real competitive match.

The coaching staff around Merlin Polzin is also apparently taking the matter especially seriously, and there will hardly be any differences compared with a Bundesliga match. That is likely also due to the sporting situation. The narrow home win against Cologne can hardly disguise how disappointing the first three league matches were. All the more important now, then, is for HSV to build on the positive aspects from the Cologne game. The groundwork for that is to be laid during the long international break.

HSV friendly of enormous importance

Coach Polzin sees it the same way. “The friendly is extremely important. We’re not going into this saying everyone gets to play a little, or that it has no relevance for us. Both this training week and the match are absolutely crucial for what lies ahead,” said Polzin at the start of the week of the friendly.

Even though they do not play Hoffenheim until October 10, HSV are already training twice a day this week. The team meetings and tactical briefings against Copenhagen are meant to be handled exactly as they would be in the Bundesliga. And everything around the game will also be treated with the necessary seriousness; the team will even meet at the Grand Elysée team hotel on matchday.

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“We are approaching it exactly like a league match,” Polzin confirmed. For now, he said, it is about fundamental things and behaviors that HSV showed during preseason. “We showed those better at times against Cologne or in the first 70 minutes against Leipzig, but not yet at the highest level,” the coach explained.

That includes things in defending, but also details in attacking. HSV wants to—and has to—make excellent use of this week and next week in order to consistently show the identity they set out to have in preseason.

Meeting of friendly clubs

Alongside the seriousness, however, the anticipation is also extremely high. Polzin highlighted the special relationship between the clubs and the cities. He himself is also a big admirer of the city and a supporter of the club.

And that is set to be visible in the stands and in the fan shop as well: a special match scarf will be sold, and thousands of Danish supporters are expected in the Hanseatic city on Sunday. Thanks to the friendship between the fan bases, they will get their own cheering section in the South Stand.

So this match will definitely not have the usual run-of-the-mill friendly feel about it.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.