A successful start: the comeback in analysis

Corredor’s one-two punch. Not just one scene, but a short, important period of time: With Düsseldorf’s goal to make it 2-0 in the 61st minute, it seemed as if Fortuna had finally turned onto the road to victory. The home team came out of the break with too much pressure. But the Lilies immediately got up after the blow and scored the next goal just eight minutes later. Luca Marseiler was knocked off his feet in the penalty area, Killian Corredor converted from eleven meters. But that’s not all: the Frenchman even wanted an “encore” and scored again 4 minutes later. Aleksandar Vukotic headed a corner into the six-yard box, from where Corredor nodded in from very close range. The sequence of goals finally provided a boost in the second half, and as the game progressed, the South Hessians even had further moments to even achieve an – admittedly somewhat fortunate – away win.

The moral. The moments described above provide a wonderful segue to the most obvious point in this section. The comeback qualities of SV 98. “Morality” was a frequently used word by the protagonists afterwards. While head coach Florin Kohfeldt gave his team a “big compliment” for their morale, the hard-working Marseille player also expressed his “proud” of the team: “We have good morale in the team to turn games like this around seen today.“ This was also the ninth point overall under Kohfeldt and further proof that the team under their head coach has faith in their own strength, even in difficult moments in the game. Kohfeldt himself classified the experience as follows: „Although the team wasn’t so clean in many small things today and didn’t reach its performance limit, in the end it is a well-deserved point. However, it is also one that is no longer necessarily to be expected after this game was.

The Set Pieces. During the winter preparation, a lot of attention was paid to the set pieces. In the training camp in El Saler, the team had established behaviour when the ball was at rest at the end of each training session. With success, as the away game in the Rhineland confirmed. The 2-1 was still in the category „Advantage of Set Pieces“, the equaliser in particular demonstrated the meticulous detailed work of the team and coaching staff – especially assistant coach Darius Scholtysik, highlighted by Kohfeldt at Sky. When the score was 2-2, Vukotic broke away cleverly instead of moving into the dangerous zone. He then delivered the precise corner in front of the goal, where his teammate Corredor was waiting and converted.

The setback before the break. Kohfeldt then spoke of a “typical first half after a break”. That means: here and there a few lapses in concentration on both sides and overall an engine that wasn’t running completely smoothly. Although Darmstadt had had more of the game overall so far, Fortuna were not completely restricted in their half. A game with teething problems, which was heading towards a 0-0 score at half-time without any major incidents before the home team took the lead with their first real action in the game. „We lost ourselves in a few moments. We have to keep working on feeling the moment,“ outlined the Lilien head coach and then explained what he meant specifically: „Overplay the line or chain, stay in the combination game and move forward „Going into halftime with a score of 0-0, you just have to feel that this is not the halftime in which you can allow yourself to do the things you did before the goal.“

The restart. In the time so far under Kohfeldt, the Lilies have mostly managed to make important adjustments at halftime in order to play the second 45 minutes with even more verve and determination. On Friday evening, however, Fortuna appeared completely different in the second half of the game and put the guests under enormous pressure right from the start. First, Schuhen had to intervene on Kwarteng’s curling shot in the 47th minute, then he blocked an effort from Haag with his foot after 52 minutes. In Haag’s impressive goal, the Lilien goalkeeper was also powerless. “We had a very difficult time getting into the game after the break,” said Riedel. Kohfeldt agreed with his captain: „We played 20 really bad minutes in which Fortuna deservedly made it 2-0 and could possibly have even added a third goal.“ All the more remarkable that the Lilies pulled themselves out of trouble with their own strength.