Baum: “We won’t be taking our foot off the gas pedal”

FC Augsburg might have already hit their first target for this season’s Bundesliga campaign, but this Saturday, Manuel Baum’s side will travel to Berlin not only looking to pick up points, but also fight towards new goals. Even though FCA have reached their 40-point target, they’re now fully focused on getting points from their trip to Berlin. “We’ve secured our place in the top flight for next season now, but we’re not going to rest on our laurels. We want to come away with as many points as we can,” said Marco Richter. FCA suffered a 2-0 defeat when they made the trip to face Hertha last season, and the Berlin side also find themselves in good form at the moment. “They managed to win against both Leverkusen and Frankfurt and they have an almost fully-fit squad. Even though we have 40 points we won’t be taking our foot off the gas pedal - we’re going there to win. Berlin are a tough team to match up with and we played very poorly against them last year,” said Manuel Baum. “After we secured our Bundesliga safety we set ourselves a new goal, that being to finish in the top half of the table,” Baum continued. Three points against Hertha would go a long way in helping that to happen. Daniel Baier is back and available for the game, but Raphael Framberger, Kilian Jakob, Ja-Cheol Koo and Fabian Giefer will miss out. “We have to wait and see how Koo’s injury develops. The World Cup is just around the corner for him, so we don’t want to take any risks to put that in doubt. He gives his absolute all for FCA, so we’re more than happy to allow him to rehab as he pleases and therefore have let him travel back to South Korea,” Baum explained. Baum will be able to call upon the creative skills of Marco Richter, however. The young 20-year-old forward has played more and more of a role with the first team in recent weeks and showed once again in Mainz his importance to the team. “Marco can play in a variety of positions and has adjusted to the intense level of football in the Bundesliga quickly. It’s obviously great when a young player from the academy makes the step up to the first team, but that doesn’t mean you’re granted an easy ride,” said Baum regarding Richter. “My goal is to play the full 90 minutes and make use of every bit of game time that I’m given. I will give my all once more in Berlin,” Richter added.