After the narrow defeat against 1. FC Magdeburg, SV Darmstadt 98 faces the current third-place team. The Lilies will meet Karlsruher SC away on Friday evening (October 4th/6:30pm). In order to be well prepared for the game in the Wildpark Stadium, we have put together all the important facts and figures for you here.
These two players score and assist as they please! Marvin Wanitzek and Budu Zivzivadze. Together they lead the current scorer rankings in the 2nd Bundesliga with eight goals each and also form the top duo in the German lower house of football. The Georgian striker is also at the top of the scorers list with his six goals, while Wanitzek is the second best assist provider in the league with his four assists.
… but also Isac Lidberg. His record: 5 games in the 2nd Bundesliga, 5 goals in the 2nd Bundesliga. The Swedish attacker has recently been extremely dangerous in scoring. He was responsible for four of Darmstadt’s last five goals. It’s also worth noting that the 26-year-old doesn’t need much warm-up time: Lidberg only needed 15 shots on goal to score his five goals this season. This means that every third shot from No. 7 is currently hitting the net.
The Lilies are up against the next top team in the league. Four teams are still unbeaten in the current season – in addition to Düsseldorf, Magdeburg and Paderborn, Karlsruher SC is also one of them. Head coach Christian Eichner’s team has collected four wins and three draws to date. Especially in the Wildpark Stadium at home, the KSC has not lost any points. The balance here: 3 home games, 3 home wins.
The fastest player in the 2nd Bundesliga comes from Darmstadt and is called Luca Marseiler. The SV 98 midfielder was clocked at a speed of 36.37 km/h last weekend – no one in the second division has ever been that fast this season. Overall, he is in third place in the German top leagues behind Sirlord Conteh (1. FC Heidenheim) and Nathan Ngoumou (Borussia Mönchengladbach).
Residues? So far, the KSC has not had any problems. Christian Eichner’s team has already managed to catch up four times this season – twice they turned it into a win, twice they at least got a draw. With eight points behind, KSC is, together with 1. FC Magdeburg, the best team in the league in this category. Most recently, the men from Baden were behind 0:3 and 2:4 in Cologne. In the end they fought for a spectacular 4:4 and took a point from Cologne.
Some players will see their former club again on Friday evening. On the Karlsruher SC side, four players have a past with SV Darmstadt 98. The memories of Luca Pfeiffer, who was on loan to the Lilies last season, are very fresh. In total, the striker made 57 appearances and 18 goals for SV 98; he was under contract at the Bölle in the 2023/24 and previously 2021/22 seasons. Nicolai Rapp, on the other hand, was active for the Lilies from January 2020 to summer 2021. The Heidelberg native played in 45 competitive games for the Darmstadt team on loan. Marcel Franke, who played at Böllenfalltor in the 2018/19 season, will also meet his former club. With the Lily on his chest, he made a total of 27 appearances. And some people might also know Robin Bormuth from their youth. The central defender played for SV 98 from U17 to U19 before moving to Fortuna Düsseldorf.
The Lilies also have a triple KSC past on offer. Both newcomers, Philipp Förster and Marco Thiede, once played in the Wildparkstadion. Unlike Förster, who was active for the KSC in the U17, Thiede played for the Baden professionals for seven years. The right-back played in 202 competitive games for KSC. Unfortunately, the injured Matthias Bader cannot take part on Friday evening. Because it would have been a reunion for him too. Bader went through all of Karlsruher SC’s youth teams and became a professional there. KSC has 50 competitive games in his CV.
| Games | Wins | Draws | Defeats | Goals | |
| Home | 16 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 20:27 |
| Away | 15 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 11:37 |
| Overall | 31 | 7 | 7 | 17 | 31:64 |
Fabio Torsiello will also play for Alemannia Aachen next season. SV 98 is loaning the 21-year-old attacking player to the third-division club for another season. Aachen also has an option to sign him permanently.
SV 98 has secured an offensive boost. Noah Weißhaupt will wear the Lilies' jersey in the future. The 24-year-old is transferring from SC Freiburg to Darmstadt.
For organisational reasons, SV 98 is postponing the first team training session of its summer preparation to June 28th. The session was originally scheduled for June 27th at the SV Winterkasten grounds in the Odenwald region.
Darmstadt 98 will play their final pre-season friendly against English Championship side Portsmouth FC. The match will take place on August 1st at 2pm at the Merck Stadium at Böllenfalltor.
The season is currently suspended, and the start of the new second division season is still some time away. Nevertheless, attention is already turning to the upcoming season: Starting Friday (June 12th) at 12 noon, club members without a current season ticket can purchase their season ticket for the 2026/27 season. Tickets will be available both online and at the ticket office at the stadium.
With the sales of Fraser Hornby and Isac Lidberg, SV 98 has generated considerable transfer revenue. We spoke with President Markus Pfitzner about the right moment for such transfers and the balancing act between financial stability and sporting ambition.
This coming weekend (June 13th & 14th), the veterans team will be playing two matches. We'll give you all the details. We also celebrated two birthdays this week and have several events coming up. At the same time, we're keeping an eye on how our partner club, San Antonio FC, is doing. We've compiled all this and more for you in this edition of Lilies Across the Board.
SV Darmstadt 98 is looking for enthusiastic Lilies fans for the new FuFa volunteer team. As a volunteer, you'll support fans and the club around match days and be right in the thick of things in and around the stadium. You can find all the information here.
Browse, sell, and do good at the same time: On Sunday, July 12th, SV Darmstadt 98 is hosting its first Lilies flea market in the forecourt of the Merck Stadium at Böllenfalltor. With a focus on family, sustainability, and social cohesion, the event aims to give well-preserved items a second life.
Isac Lidberg is moving to the Bundesliga. SV 98 and Borussia Mönchengladbach have agreed on a transfer for the Swedish striker.
The pairings for the first round of the DFB Cup have been drawn: SV Darmstadt 98 will face FC Carl Zeiss Jena away from home. The draw took place on Saturday evening (June 6th) at the German Football Museum in Dortmund. Under the supervision of DFB Vice President Peter Frymuth, Referee of the Year 2026, Deniz Aytekin, who acted as the draw's host live on ARD, drew the match between Darmstadt and Jena.
From the warm opening ceremony to the awards ceremony: The German Football ID Championship in Darmstadt offered exciting games, many wonderful encounters and a well-deserved German champion in the Hesse selection, which also included players from the SV 98 ID team.