B.Are you starting to get intoxicated by your work of the past few weeks? Or are they staying on course? Do you continue the impressive series of successes? Or does it tear on the day of the game when you believe it less? Now, a feeling of security that is too great in the second division is still bad for many – but what can go wrong for these “lilies” this Friday evening (6.30 p.m.) in the FAZ live ticker for the second division as well as at Sky) in the home game against the weak Düsseldorf Fortuna?
A team that used to be highly betted, has not gotten up to speed at all this season, has had one uninspired appearance after the next for weeks and is confronted with a coaching discussion and other secondary theaters of war. SV Darmstadt 98, on the other hand, has acquired a football-style muscle armor as a team, on which the opponents ricochet off in rows and are overwhelmed.
Since the end of September, the South Hesse have not lost a game, have – despite the two defeats at the start of the season – collected 29 points after 15 match days, which no Darmstadt team has ever achieved. In the second division promotion season 2014/15, which is often used as a reference value in the current high-altitude flight, it was 29 points at the end of the first half of the season.
Confidence and stability
Torsten Lieberknecht does not try to cover up the fact that the “lilies” are currently on historically good paths. Although the head coach publicly never looks further ahead than the next match, the Palatinate already provides insights into how things are going with the self-confidence and stability of the SVD construct. Lieberknecht speaks of “extreme security”, which he registers with his professionals when the focus is right. And then he enumerates: “We know that we can take care of everything, regardless of whether the opponent is pushing high or standing low. We know that we can catch up. That we can score goals on the counterattack. That we can score goals from nowhere. That we can score goals from positional play. “
Lieberknecht describes the comparison with Fortuna as a “big game against a well-known opponent against whom my boys can show everything they can”. The 48-year-old says that he likes to put himself in the shoes of the opposing coach. And using the example of his current counterpart, Fortuna coach Christian Preusser, he comes to the conclusion: “It is totally difficult to play against us because we have solutions and security in what we do.” The SVD has this with Fabian Schnellhardt (calf injury) only had one player on sick leave.
So far, the people of Darmstadt have been carried by a wave of appreciation from the audience. This is unlikely to be sustained to the same extent this Corona winter. And so the home game against Düsseldorf will probably be the last big fiesta for a long time at the Böllenfalltor.
For the last home game of the year – before Christmas there are still two away tasks – the “Lilien” have received the approval to use the Böllenfalltor stadium with a 2-G rule and mask requirement with 13,000 spectators. It is uncertain whether this authorization will be valid until kick-off and, if so, whether some (permanent) cardholders will prefer to stay at home given the current incidences. Also at the risk of missing Darmstadt’s seventh home win in a row.