Analysis: This is how SV 98 fought back in Karlsruhe

The disallowed equaliser. SV 98 came out of the locker room as if unleashed, after two half-chances from substitutes Luca Marseiler and Philipp Förster, the latter grabbed his first goal for the Lilies after 49 minutes. This was preceded by aggressive pressing, which put the KSC backline in danger. Even though assist provider Isac Lidberg was offside, the scene proved to everyone involved that something was going on in the Wildpark Stadion this Friday evening.

The morale. A lot went against the Lilies in the early stages and other teams – especially in the Lilies‘ situation – would probably have fallen apart because of that. But the South Hesse team pulled themselves out of the mire and bit into the game over the course of the first half. “Big praise to the team for catching themselves within the first half,” said Florian Kohfeldt in the direction of his charges: “Because from 1:2 up to the 70th minute we played an outstanding game – in both directions. We should have led significantly higher.” And even after the 3-3 goal came out of nowhere, the Lilies did not fall back into their old passive patterns, but remained stable. Cope with unpleasant phases in the game and fight against them. This resilience and defensiveness will also be important in the next few weeks.

The game with the ball. In the past few weeks, Kohfeldt’s game idea was already apparent within a very short time, especially when playing with the ball. The away game in the Wildpark confirmed the development. What’s more: the team had at times played a KSC, which was brimming with self-confidence, against the wall. Or as KSC coach Christian Eichner summed it up succinctly: “We were bombarded.” Many processes, routes and important spaces to be used are visible in the forward movement. SV 98 scored ten goals in the first four matches under Kohfeldt. In general, the Lilies were ahead in all relevant statistics against Karlsruhe. The expected goals statistics for the guests showed a value of 2.84 (Karlsruhe: 1.27). “Our development is more than visible,” said Kohfeldt, but emphasised: “It would be nice if we could convert our footballing development into three points soon.”

The start of the game. Karlsruher started like a fire department in front of their own crowd and put enormous pressure on the Lilies‘ goal. Certainly: in the second division, where the qualitative difference is not as great as in the Bundesliga, there will always be game sequences in which the pendulum swings in favour of the opponent. Nevertheless, after the first 15 minutes, SV 98 could have faced a seemingly insurmountable mammoth task early on. Kohfeldt complained afterwards: “After 15 minutes the game could be over for the KSC. In those first 15 minutes I was worried that we would be overwhelmed.”

The number of goals conceded. Marcel Schuhen had to reach behind him three times and fish the ball out of the net, which is again too many. The automatisms in defensive behavior – which already last season ensured that the hope of staying in the Bundesliga had to be buried early on – are still not correct. Even in a league lower, people often act too carelessly and the gaps are too big. Coach Florian Kohfeldt wants to use the international break, in addition to a larger athletic block, to further consolidate his principles and approaches when playing against the ball. There will be no classic international break: “We want to step up our defensive behaviour, especially in individual duels and in coordination. I don’t like that very much yet.“ After all, for around half time (from the 30th to around the 75th minute) the Lilies not only unleashed enormous offensive force, but at the same time managed to do so with grit, greed and passion to keep opponents far away from their own goal and not to give them any chances to score. A glimmer of hope.