Opposition Check: SV 07 Elversberg

Things are looking promising for SV 07 Elversberg this season too. On the 13th matchday, the team managed to play their way up to third place in the table and was therefore within striking distance of the direct promotion places. Just three match days later, they even managed to climb to the top of the table. However, the Saarlanders ultimately had to give up the autumn championship to 1. FC Köln and slipped out of the top three. Before the duel with SV Darmstadt 98 (08.02./1pm), SV Elversberg is currently in ninth place – a more than stable midfield position for the Saarland team.

From the regional league to the 2nd Bundesliga. And they formed a team that is currently competing for the top places. Horst Steffen has been on the sidelines of SV Elversberg for six years and has celebrated numerous successes with the club during this time. Review. It was clear from the first meeting between Steffen and the SVE that this collaboration would work. The first conversation took a long time. Very long. „My wife was hiking around the lake at that time and at some point thought I had forgotten her,“ the 55-year-old told kicker with a smile.

His playing philosophy is clear and offensive: always look for the direct route to the goal instead of “cutting off when we are outside or behind the chain”. This season, Steffen is primarily relying on the 4-2-3-1 and 4-2-2-2 systems and is a big supporter of the back four. Julian Nagelsmann was able to get him excited about a five-man chain system in the past, but after little successful experience with this basic order during his time in Chemnitz, he quickly returned to the four-man chain.

Basically, the experienced coach follows a clear line: he places his “best” players in their strongest positions and builds a powerful team around them with the other players. Steffen attaches particular importance to good cooperation within the team: “The word competition bothers me. The players shouldn’t fight against each other and be mad at the other when they play instead of you, but rather work for success.”

The SVE travels to SV Darmstadt 98 with an extremely strong attacking duo. The attackers Fisnik Asllani and Luca Schnellbacher have an impressive 23 scorer points (16 goals and 7 assists) this season, making them one of the most dangerous strike duos in the league. Only the duos from Schalke, Hamburg, Karlsruhe and Magdeburg have scored more goals. With a total of 35 goals this season, the Saarland club ranks in the upper midfield of the most dangerous teams.

34th matchday of the 2020/21 Bundesliga season. The big Allianz Arena – and in the middle of it all, a young man behind the sidelines who is just waiting to celebrate his professional debut under extraordinary circumstances: against the German record champions, but in front of empty stands. In the 87th minute the time had come: Lukas Petkov entered the field while still in the service of FC Augsburg. The home team won 5-2. But despite the defeat, this moment remains unforgettable for the offensive player. “The fact that it was at FC Bayern, with the best team in the world at the moment, is of course an optimum,” Petkov told kicker after the game.

His debut was followed by a loan to SC Verl in the 3rd league, later a return to FCA and another loan – this time to the 2nd Bundesliga to SpVgg Greuther Fürth. Before the current season, SV Elversberg finally struck and signed the talented 24-year-old. The right winger has scored three goals in 18 competitive games so far this season – two of them in the last three second division games. Is the boy building a run for himself?

Petkov has also already played at international level and has been in the Bulgarian national team squad since 2023 – sometimes together with Darmstadt’s left-back Fabian Nürnberger. So far he has played five international matches, including three friendly matches and two European Championship qualifiers.