Elfadli sent off: HSV set unwanted Bundesliga record! | OneFootball

HSV suffered a bitter defeat at SC Freiburg. Once again, a yellow-red card turned the game around.

Exactly 180 seconds after Luka Vuskovic headed the Hanseatics into the lead, Daniel Elfadli brought down Lucas Höler in his own penalty area. Referee Timo Gerach deemed the contact sufficient to award a penalty. He also showed Elfadli the yellow-red card. This meant that after 16 matchdays, a Hamburg player had already received a second yellow card for the fifth time.

As Bild reported, this is a Bundesliga record: Never before has a team received five yellow-red cards in the first half of the season since their introduction in the 1991/92 season. Before Elfadli, Giorgi Gocholeishvilli had already been sent off in the city derby against St. Pauli, Immanuel Pherai – who set the record for the fastest yellow-red card in Bundesliga history – as well as Fábio Vieira in the 1:4 loss in Cologne and Alexander Røssing-Lelesiit (2:1 against Stuttgart) had already seen red.

HSV card problem: Polzin looks for solutions

Coach Merlin Polzin still did not want to accuse his team of a discipline problem: “I would say that if we were reckless or unsporting. Clearly, it’s an issue for us and we need to change something.” Most of the dismissals resulted from harsh or even excessive referee decisions, but for example in Cologne, they led to HSV losing a game in which they absolutely needed to score points.

Some players gave the referee the opportunity to show a second yellow card through their behavior on the pitch. That’s why Polzin, who did not exclude himself from the problem, emphasized: “First and foremost, we need to find solutions. One solution from my side could be to take off players who are already on a yellow. But it’s also about improving our individual tackling. We want to get better through training, so that we defend situations earlier and better. But also to go into tackles with the right sense of touch.”

Nur die Raute – All the news about HSV

In the future, avoidable dismissals should be avoided. Otherwise, several closely contested matches – like yesterday’s Saturday in Freiburg – will be lost. “If you want to survive in the Bundesliga with eleven men, that’s already very demanding for HSV and as a promoted team. But if you’re down to ten, that doesn’t exactly increase your chances,” emphasized Polzin, whose team is fighting relegation and depends on every point, and therefore cannot afford to stand in its own way.

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