Analysis of the Home Win

The 2-1 by Isac Lidberg. Lily players with bandages have a special tradition at Bölle. The pictures of Aytac Sulu, who finished the match against Erzgebirge Aue in September 2014 wearing a face mask and bandage, are particularly unforgettable. Isac Lidberg joined this list against Hertha. In the 45th minute, opponent Zeefuik hit the Swedish attacker hard on the back of the head with his forehead in a duel, resulting in slight swelling and a laceration. After a short treatment and the usual tests for head injuries, Lidberg was given the green light by the medical department to continue playing and completed the second round wearing a blue and white bandage. And this in no way influenced the leader of the second division top scorers list. After a cross from substitute Guille Bueno in the 65th minute, Lidberg flew into the ball with full confidence and slotted it into the net to make it 2-1. „The fact that he goes there is the mark of a striker,“ praised Florian Kohfeldt afterwards, while Lidberg himself explained: „I didn’t think about the injury, I just wanted to score.“

He did that and put his team on the road to victory. The number seven of the Lilies now has nine goals to his name. The Scandinavian passes on the praise for these impressive statistics to his teammates: „We play good offensive football, we are a good team, that makes it easy for me.“

The adjustments during the game: “It will be important to go into the game with a good idea. But also to find the right adjustments in the game.” Florian Kohfeldt chose these sentences at the press conference before the game against Hertha to outline the challenges of the upcoming encounter. And he was right. Due to the guests‘ tense personnel situation, it was extremely difficult to anticipate a possible formation of the „Old Lady“. „In the preparation for the game, it wasn’t really clear what they were doing,“ the Lilien head coach explained again after the end of the game and added: „You saw that at the beginning against the ball. We didn’t press through, but we looked in the rearview mirror. Then it became difficult to defend Hertha’s individual quality in the first half. Consequently, the guests from the capital were the better team in the first half hour, without playing the Lilies to the ground. But they at least earned the lead through Niedelrechner.

However, as the game progressed, SV 98 managed to „break Hertha’s man-orientation“ said Kohfeldt before the half-time whistle and thus gained more access to their own game. Smaller tactical changes were also a factor in this, particularly after the break. „After the break, we often formed a three-man central defence with Andi Müller so that we could get Philipp Förster in the eight position to build up the game,“ revealed Kohfeldt, who also agreed with the observation that the strikers Lakenmacher, Lidberg and Vilhelmsson were in the second half always shifted a little more to the wings, while Killian Corredor, with his running strength, increasingly played in the center behind the leaders.

“We heard good things from outside,” summed up Andi Müller in view of the tactical tricks during the encounter, which SV 98 implemented very well on the pitch. With that despite the fact that the first transmission of the adjustments was extremely unfavourable, as Kohfeldt admitted with a laugh: „It was basically the worst case scenario that we had to give Killian Corredor the piece of paper. Because he doesn’t speak German or English. But it was there close by.“

The changes were nevertheless fruitful. And they were a decisive factor in South Hesse’s home win.

The first half hour: The Lilies‘ first 30 minutes were by no means bad, but they were the Lilies‘ weakest phase of the entire game. And they reminded Kohfeldt a little of his team’s performances at the beginning of his term in office: „We were a little passive, we waited when we lost the ball and didn’t counter-press.“

Thanks in particular to the strong Michaël Cuisance, Hertha had greater control of the game and was often able to open up with too much space in the offensive area against retreating Lilies and switch and act accordingly. „We didn’t cover the situations well, Hertha had good phases, but we defended much better as the game progressed and had more pressure phases ourselves.“

It speaks for the development of SV 98 that they first recognised problems in their game, then made the appropriate adjustments and were ultimately able to be so successful.