FILE - In this March 17, 2017 file photo Wuerzburg's coach Bernd Hollerbach attends the second league soccer match between TSV 1860 Munich and Wuerzburger Kickers in Munich, Germany. Struggling Hamburger SV has hired Hollerbach as coach to replace the sacked Markus Gisdol. The Bundesliga side says the 48-year-old Hollerbach has signed a deal through June 2019 and will be presented after taking charge of his first training session on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018.
FILE - In this March 17, 2017 file photo Wuerzburg's coach Bernd Hollerbach attends the second league soccer match between TSV 1860 Munich and Wuerzburger Kickers in Munich, Germany. Struggling Hamburger SV has hired Hollerbach as coach to replace the sacked Markus Gisdol. The Bundesliga side says the 48-year-old Hollerbach has signed a deal through June 2019 and will be presented after taking charge of his first training session on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. dpa via AP Andreas Gebert
FILE - In this March 17, 2017 file photo Wuerzburg's coach Bernd Hollerbach attends the second league soccer match between TSV 1860 Munich and Wuerzburger Kickers in Munich, Germany. Struggling Hamburger SV has hired Hollerbach as coach to replace the sacked Markus Gisdol. The Bundesliga side says the 48-year-old Hollerbach has signed a deal through June 2019 and will be presented after taking charge of his first training session on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. dpa via AP Andreas Gebert

Sports

Hamburg hires Hollerbach as coach in bid for survival

The Associated Press

January 22, 2018 09:01 AM

HAMBURG, Germany

Struggling Hamburger SV hired Bernd Hollerbach as coach on Monday to replace the fired Markus Gisdol.

The Bundesliga club said the 48-year-old Hollerbach signed a deal through June 2019 and will be presented after taking charge of his first training session on Monday. The club gave no other details.

Gisdol was fired early Sunday following Hamburg's 2-0 loss to last-place Cologne. It was the team's fourth league loss in a row and left Hamburg only three points from the bottom.

Gisdol had been in charge since September 2016 but never managed to steer the side away from the bottom half of the table. Hamburg — the only team to have played every Bundesliga season since the league's formation in 1963 — finished one point above the relegation zone last season.

While it finished five points clear in 2016, the club needed the playoffs to survive in 2015 and 2014.

Hollerbach, a midfielder who scored 23 goals in 197 Bundesliga appearances for Hamburg between 1996 and 2004, last coached Wuerzburger Kickers. Hollerbach resigned from the team last year when it was relegated from the second division to the third tier.