Analysis: Remained calm

For us, the defining moment of the match came in the 29th minute. It was the instant when Hertha’s Michaël Cuisance found himself unmarked about ten metres out, but his shot went just centimetres wide of the Darmstadt goal. A goal from the Frenchman would have made it 3-0 for Darmstadt, and likely sealed the victory. „If Cuisance had made it 3-0, we probably wouldn’t have been able to come back,“ Florian Kohfeldt summarised, and Hertha coach Stefan Leitl also stated after the final whistle that a third goal for the Berliners would almost certainly have sealed the home win for his team.

But as we know, the technically gifted player’s effort sailed wide, marking a turning point in the match. After 30 forgettable minutes from Lilies (more in „That didn’t go well“), SV 98 gradually found their way into the game, scored the equaliser before halftime and earned a point at the Olympic Stadium with a strong second half.

The first half hour. Florian Kohfeldt didn’t mince words: „The first half hour was a bit of a blackout,“ said the 43-year-old, referring to the 30 minutes in which his team barely got a foothold in the bitterly cold Berlin. Numerous misplaced passes, lost challenges, and two early goals conceded made for a disastrous start to the 20th matchday for the South Hessian side. While Hertha put in a strong performance during this period, Darmstadt actively helped them along. „Hertha didn’t outplay us in the first half hour; instead, we gave them the ball and said, ‚Score a goal,'“ Kohfeldt summarised. In two out of three instances, the Berliners accepted this invitation, with Cuisance missing another opportunity to add to the tally.

The South Hessians didn’t have an explanation for their performance in the first third of the 90 minutes after the final whistle, but they were unanimously self-critical: „We wanted to play with confidence, but we didn’t do that for the first 30 minutes. We were sluggish, and that annoys me,“ said Marco Richter, while two-goal scorer Fraser Hornby added: „Our start to the game wasn’t at all what we wanted. Hertha punished us for that in the first 30 minutes.“

Despite the impressive run of ten unbeaten games, head coach Kohfeldt admitted afterward that his team had shown phases in some of the recent matches where they did „strange things.“ Certainly not to the extent seen in the first half-hour in Berlin, but the head coach emphasised: „We have to work hard on these issues.“

Frequent absences. In general, Darmstadt’s personnel situation this season is significantly better than last year. Player availability on match days is above 80 percent. And yet, the South Hessian club is repeatedly missing players, and especially key performers, whose absences often have to be compensated for at short notice. In Berlin, it was Kai Klefisch who was sidelined with illness; although he sat on the bench, he wasn’t really an option for the match against Hertha Berlin. Darmstadt has also been without Killian Corredor for weeks, and Matthias Bader and Bartosz Bialek have also been out since the winter break. It was therefore encouraging that Fabian Nürnberger was able to return to the starting lineup; Darmstadt had also had to compensate for the left-back’s absence for several matchdays. „It sounds strange when you haven’t lost ten games in a row. But I haven’t seen that complete flow in that respect yet,“ said Kohfeldt, referring to the regular absences of „key players,“ which the coach didn’t want to overemphasise, but certainly wanted to address as a topic of the past few weeks.

Cool head in the freezer. 2-0 down after 15 minutes. Almost 3-0 down after 29. And all this in an away game against perhaps the best squad in the league. As weak as Darmstadt’s first half-hour was, the reaction of the South Hessians was equally impressive. „The team kept their heads, didn’t get nervous, and simply carried on,“ Kohfeldt summarized, adding: „We don’t lose our heads after bad spells; instead, we know we can rely on a few things.“

And so, Darmstadt 98 gradually found their way into the game, pulled one back with a penalty, and therefore went into the locker room with a positive feeling despite the deficit: „We had more control towards the end of the first half, so we knew we’d get our chances after halftime,“ revealed Fraser Hornby, who capped off the significant improvement in performance after the break with the 2-2 goal after just over an hour.

„We won’t let ourselves be defeated. Even if we don’t look good for 30 minutes.“ Marco Richter’s words offered insight into the mental fortitude of Darmstadt, who have now amassed 14 points after falling behind (only eight times) and have only lost two matches. Kohfeldt summarised his team’s performance from the end of the first half onward as follows: „Then it was an impressive display, as few teams can dominate Hertha for so long and so consistently, creating so many chances from their positional play.“

For us, three positive things can be gleaned from this paragraph: Darmstadt remained calm despite being behind, they displayed footballing class, and they extended their unbeaten run to ten matches.