Analysis: Great morale. Lack of cleverness.

The sending off of Fraser Hornby. „The yellow-red card was the key moment.“ With this sentence, Florian Kohfeldt took some of the work off the author’s shoulders by clearly identifying the scene of the game after the final whistle. Until Hornby’s yellow card in the 66th minute, the Lilies had been the better team on Saturday evening. Hornby himself could have given the Lilies the lead just two minutes after the restart, but was denied by Marvin Schwäbe. The striker’s sending off then changed the course of the game. With the numerical advantage, Köln increasingly took control of the game, as SV 98 naturally had to retreat and forgo the attacking approach that had worked well up to that point.

„We had to play tactically differently and run a lot,“ Marcel Schuhen summarised, referring to the half-hour of being outnumbered, but also added: „But we were able to adapt as a team.“

Ultimately, the promotion favorites from the cathedral city needed a penalty to beat the South Hesse side with a numerical advantage. Speculation about what the score would have been at the final whistle without the sending off is purely theoretical and therefore not really productive. Kohfeldt, Schuhen, and Clemens Riedel all agreed that the sending off represented a crucial moment in the game. At the same time, the trio immediately emphasised that blaming Hornby was out of the question.

Marcel Schuhen: „Mistakes are part of football. Everyone makes mistakes. Yes, the sending off changed the game. But it didn’t decide it. Because it was still open afterward. Fraser is a very important player for us. And the development he has made in the past few weeks has been exceptionally good.“

Florian Kohfeldt also highlighted the striker’s outstanding performances in recent weeks, commenting on the incident: „He knows he shouldn’t go there like that. Of course, he blames himself a lot. But he will learn from it and emerge stronger. And it’s important to me to emphasise how crucial Fraser Hornby has been for us so far this season and will continue to be.“

The reaction to setbacks. Saturday evening. 8:30pm. A sold-out RheinEnergieSTADION. An absolute highlight game. In which it took less than 60 seconds for the Lilies to pull the ball out of the net for the first time. „That was bitter and a difficult start to the game,“ Clemens Riedel summarised in light of the early deficit, adding: „But we showed a very good response.“

The Lilies were unfazed by the setback, gradually finding their way back into the game and equalising after 25 minutes. Sergio Lopez, who initiated the 1-0 goal with a misplaced pass, but subsequently delivered a more than decent performance, was symbolic of this mental strength, as Schuhen confirmed: „What he played after his mistake was anything but bad. It shows how good he is. And the biggest compliment we could pay him was to simply pass him the next ball back. We did that, and he made very brave decisions. Mistakes happen, and the important thing is how you react to them. And that was really good.“

The same was true of the Lilies after Fraser Hornby’s sending off. While the goal was to quickly find their own way into the game after the 0-1 deficit, SV 98 had to react, especially in terms of team tactics, while down 10 men. „We were able to adapt our game management. That was really good,“ Schuhen summarised.

The South Hesse side suffered a third blow in the 80th minute, when the hosts took a 2-1 lead from a penalty following VAR intervention. Despite being outnumbered and trailing, Florian Kohfeldt’s team tried everything deep into stoppage time to snatch a point from Köln. Aleksandar Vukotić had a shot on goal to make it 2-2 in the 98th minute, but was denied by goalkeeper Schwäbe.

Kohfeldt then quite rightly spoke of the team’s „very good morale,“ but at the same time criticised „the cleverness“ that his team lacked in some situations and that represented perhaps the biggest difference to the rather cunning Köln team.

A lack of cleverness. A bad backpass, a sending off, and a clumsy situation resulting in a penalty. The Lilies played into 1. FC Köln’s hands three times. These things are somewhat part of SV 98’s history this season. The South Hesse side are reaping far too little reward for what they put out on the pitch week after week. Kohfeldt therefore used Köln’s defeat as an opportunity to assess the situation overall: „There are no classic reasons why we aren’t winning games. We are the better organised team in almost every game, including here in Köln. We are physically there, we compensate endlessly for absences, and we always manage to put in a good performance. But we aren’t able to take advantage of the small moments and win games.“

In addition to the goals conceded and the sending off, the Lilies also lacked this same edge in attack in several moves on Saturday evening. Hornby was denied by Schwäbe, as were Fynn Lakenmacher and Vukotic in stoppage time. In addition, the head coach of SV 98 complained that his team had „not made enough use of positional play.“

A journalist subsequently asked the coach how to learn cleverness. Kohfeldt’s answer was this: „Unfortunately, there’s no shortcut to this learning process. You have to feel it. We’re regularly praised by the opposing coach, but we have to develop an awareness of which points in a game are the decisive ones. And you have to experience these things; I can’t dictate it.“

There are eight games left on the schedule for this season, and in addition to cleverness and taking advantage of opportunities, SV 98 also needs some points to finally move away from the danger zone. However, the upcoming international break also offers some time to recharge after the intense past few weeks for the final stretch of the season.