Review: That was the deciding factor for the FCN

The goal. As in the previous week, it was again a brief moment of inattention that left the Lilies empty-handed after the final whistle. „You can’t concede a goal like that. We can prevent it twice. We can prevent the cross and then also the finish at the far post,“ said Florian Kohfeldt in view of the late blow to the neck in the 85th minute of the game. “Football is not just about tactics and technique,” ​​the SV 98 head coach continued, adding: “It’s also about attention and greed.”

Since FCN coach Miroslav Klose explicitly emphasised the latter in his team, looking at the goal of the day it can be said that this Friday evening was probably the small but crucial difference between the two teams. Because little things decide the games week after week in this 2nd league.

For Kohfeldt, the goal also served as a transition to a conclusion from the last three matchdays: „Düsseldorf, Paderborn and Nürnberg were all evenly matched games. And in the end we only have one point overall. Despite all the calmness that we have in our development, we still have to be critical. In the small moments we don’t have the attention that we had in other phases, both in front of the opponent’s goal and in front of our own goal.“

The injuries. Fraser Hornby or Kohfeldt didn’t want to use these as an excuse for the defeat, but the early injury-related absences of Kai Klefisch and Fabian Nürnberger still hurt. From the player’s perspective, Hornby said that the changes had definitely had an influence on their own „rhythm of the game“, while for the head coach the early loss of two „substitution slots“ was more important: „That has restricted us massively.“

We can only hope that there will at least be no long-term failures. Kohfeldt gave a first update after the final whistle: „Kai Klefisch has injured his groin, Fabi Nürnberger’s is probably a bruise. With Fabi I hope it’s not that bad, with Kai I’m not quite as optimistic.“

Overcoming a compact defense: Despite the defeat, Florian Kohfeldt had a small smile on his face when he was asked why his team found it difficult to create top-class opportunities. The slightly sarcastic smile had a logical background, as the 42-year-old had already been confronted with this question after the 0-1 defeat against Paderborn. „Nobody is pressing us up anymore. That’s clever, I wouldn’t do it anymore either,“ said Kohfeldt, given the FCN’s approach, which was definitely similar to the style of play of Paderborn and Fortuna Düsseldorf. Teams like 1. FC Köln, Hertha BSC and 1. FC Kaiserslautern tended to run the Lilies high and thus left space on the pitch and behind their own defence. Space that SV 98 exploited mercilessly and punished with goals.

The majority of teams are now increasingly letting SV 98 have the ball, standing compactly and waiting for their own transitions. “The teams have all done their homework,” said Fraser Hornby about their opponents, who were more interested in stability, before admitting frankly with regard to the duel with FCN: “We simply weren’t at the level we can be at. Unfortunately, we haven’t managed to really put the opponent in trouble since the winter break.“

“Decision-making” had already become something of a bad word against Paderborn, and the South Hesse protagonists also struggled with this category in the Max Morlock Stadium. „We weren’t consistent enough,“ said Philipp Förster, Kohfeldt explained succinctly: „We want to put the ball into the goal a lot at the moment. But a goal can also be easy sometimes.“

According to the coach, the current lack of victories is due to things that “have little to do with tactics.” Rather, it’s about the attributes of attention and greed mentioned above, to which are added the often cited wrong decisions. To put it positively: the Lilies know what they have to work on.

Calmness when in possession of the ball: 54 percent of ball possession, 511 passes played, 86 percent of passes received. With the ball, the Lilies played an absolutely sensible game in Nürnberg, ignoring the damned decision-making in the final third. “Both teams were strong in possession of the ball, good at building up the game and good at playing into the gaps,” summed up Kohfeldt, who justifiably extended the praise for his team in this area to the opponents. Words of respect for the opponent, which Miroslav Klose also expressed to SV 98: „Darmstadt was difficult to grasp when in possession of the ball and played well in the spaces.“

Even though the Lilien had to leave Nürnberg empty-handed, this flexibility and the ability to occupy space is a foundation in SV 98’s game, which comes into play week after week under Kohfeldt. The Lilies feel comfortable in possession of the ball. Now it’s about increasingly converting this back into something that can be counted.

The duel leadership. With 51.5 percent of duels won, FCN led the list of the teams with the strongest duels in the 2nd league before the match day. On Friday evening, the Lilies won 53 percent of the duels in the Max Morlock Stadium, held their own against the very robust Franconians throughout the entire season and even beat them in some phases.