Sebastiaan Bornauw said a pre-match visit from a visually impaired supporter gave Hamburger SV a lift before their late win over VfB Stuttgart. Bornauw told bundesliga.com that the visit from Matthias gave the squad "a real boost" and that the players wanted to perform for him too.
The support behind the visit
Matthias has very limited vision and has been coming to the Volksparkstadion for years. Special trained commentators describe the action through headphones, which makes the visit more than a simple pre-match cameo. It is part of how he follows Hamburg, and it gave the team a different kind of energy before kick-off.
Hamburg needed it. They came into the Stuttgart match with a mixed five-game league run, and had won three of their first six Bundesliga matches while losing three. The club sat 9th after six matches with nine points and a goal difference of -9.
Polzin's dressing-room methods
Merlin Polzin has leaned into unusual motivational touches before. The article also points to previous dressing-room reminders, including Miroslav Zadach speaking about the Nordderby rivalry with Werder Bremen and youth jerseys and childhood photos in the room.
The result itself was decided late, with Miro Muheim scoring the winner in Hamburg's 1-0 victory over Stuttgart on Matchday 6. The emotional part of the story is the visit, but the football part is still a club that has plenty to steady as it heads to SC Paderborn 07 on 24 October.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →
