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Sven Ulreich at the game in Würzburg: His front men were lousy, the goalkeeper also made a mistake:
Photo: Heiko Becker / imago images / HMB-Media
Sven Ulreich was able to prevent the really big faux pas with a tackle at the last moment.
Gideon Jung had passed the ball back to the Hamburg goalkeeper.
He didn't jump, but for Ulreich the play equipment was still a danger, he almost steered him into his own goal.
In this scene, Ulreich just prevented the 0: 1 against the Würzburger Kickers a week ago.
A little later, the bottom of the table in the second division took the lead with a long-range shot, and the goalkeeper did not look good here either.
In the meantime, HSV were 0: 3 behind, in the end they lost 2: 3.
Ulreich wobbled especially that afternoon and with it the whole team.
Sven Ulreich, 32, was signed by HSV from FC Bayern before the season.
In Munich he was Manuel Neuer’s representative, but he still played 70 competitive games.
Ulreich was used in the Champions League, became champion and cup winner, in the meantime he was even discussed as the third goalkeeper for the 2018 World Cup (even if the people in charge of FC Bayern brought him into this conversation).
Ulreich came to Hamburg as a made goalkeeper.
His reflexes on the line, his positional play in one-on-one situations, both were already considered great strengths in his days in Stuttgart.
“Few other finalists can fool him when it comes to responsiveness,” Huub Stevens once said of Ulreich.
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New with the beer shower for Ulreich after the championship title in 2018
Photo: Langer / Eibner-Pressefoto / imago images
In Munich he had developed in the game opening, judged national coach Joachim Löw in 2018, and the "Schwäbische Zeitung" wrote that Ulreich was now someone who was "made for high-level tasks".
Returning HSV to the Bundesliga - that is an upscale task.
In the past two years, numerous forces have failed in this task, the coaches Dieter Hecking and Hannes Wolf, various managers, experienced players or young talents, Pierre-Michel Lasogga, Fiete Arp.
The season always started promisingly, but from spring onwards HSV ran out of breath.
And this time?
With a win in the Hamburg city derby in the evening against FC St. Pauli (8.30 p.m., live ticker SPIEGEL.de; TV: Sky), HSV (42 points) would be top of the table again, but they have stubborn competitors, Bochum and Kiel are already with them 45 points after 23 games.
And recently HSV did not win three times.
If you talk about the again shaky HSV, then you can't get past Sven Ulreich.
On the eighth matchday he initiated the first defeat of the season against VfL Bochum when he owed the penalty to make it 0-1.
A week later he suffered a serious dropout in Heidenheim, which led directly to the 3-2 defeat.
Even with the bankruptcy in Würzburg, Ulreich was a shaky candidate, along with a few other HSV players.
Sports director Michael Mutzel even had to take a stand on the subject of a goalkeeper change, although he also said: »We don't have to open the issue now.
We don't think about it. "
The axis does not deliver
Anyone who follows Ulreich this season has seen both sides: strong reflexes, but also unsuccessful defensive attempts and bad long passes.
Anyone who has seen HSV this season saw an impressive second half in Braunschweig with four goals after a 2-0 deficit, but also a 3-2 defeat in Heimheim after a 2-0 lead.
The fluctuations in performance have been an issue at HSV for years.
Ulreich has not yet been able to turn it off.
In three of the four season defeats so far, it was Ulreich who, with individual mistakes, was jointly responsible for the bankruptcies.
But Ulreich is not alone either.
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Terodde's hunger for goals has also lessened recently
Photo: Uli Deck / dpa
HSV started the season with several additions, four of them should form the central axis at HSV: Ulreich in goal, Toni Leistner in defense, Klaus Gjasula in defensive midfield and Simon Terodde in attack.
The HSV planners had recognized that they had to strengthen the defensive in order to finally get up.
But the axis has become brittle.
Gjasula has been out since the beginning of the year with a torn knee ligament, Leistner was absent at the beginning of the season due to a red card suspension, then he slowly became a stabilizer - he has been out for three weeks due to injury.
During this time, HSV did not win a game.
And even striker Terodde (19 goals this season) has recently been unable to maintain his outstanding quota (16 goals in the first 15 games): in the past seven games he has only scored three times.
Suddenly he has to be a leader
Sven Ulreich is also in the spotlight because he is the last left on the axis on the defensive.
He actually has to give the team a lot of security now, he has to lead it - but
this
role is more new than familiar to Ulreich.
In Munich he was one of many, he was the second man behind Neuer, whom the many superstars supported, when Neuer was suddenly injured for months.
He was forgiven for mistakes, such as the severe dropout in the 2018 Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid.
In Stuttgart he was the former home grown man who matured behind Jens Lehmann and later ousted Raphael Schäfer.
He was one of the club who kept making mistakes, but he was also a young goalkeeper who learned and got even better.
In the summer of 2015, at the age of 26, he chose to go to the bank in Munich.
But there you tend not to learn how to lead a team.
It is precisely in this role that he is needed more than ever in the young Hamburg team.
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Sven Ulreich: He played six times this season to zero
Photo: Frank Scheuring / imago images / foto2press
However, taking on such a leadership role is difficult, especially as a newcomer in times of pandemic.
Footballers are allowed to train and play together, but because of the hygiene protocol they spend little time together - even in the dressing room.
Becoming a leader takes more time.
But the club doesn't have that.
According to statistics, the probability of a club being promoted in the third year after relegation from the Bundesliga is only 4.9 percent, compared to 32.4 percent in the first and 12.7 percent in the second year.
With every additional year in the second division, sales decrease and the opportunities on the transfer market decrease with it.
HSV has to get out of this shrinking process.
For that he needs a strong keeper.
Sven Ulreich now has to prove that he can be.
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