Start of process

„We said to the team beforehand: if something goes against us, like when we were denied 2-0, let’s continue to do what we discussed before. But I think they still flinched a little and then certain things no longer work. There was a moment where we were no longer able to take control,“ explained Florian Kohfeldt later when asked about the reasons for his team’s certain passivity during the second half.

It is entirely understandable that the Lilies are currently not a team that can overcome any resistance or let any circumstances throw them off course. Of the past 32 league games across the seasons, SV 98 was only able to win one game. „After the goal was taken back, you already noticed what had happened to the team in the last few months,“ analysed the new head coach and goalkeeper Marcel Schuhen, summing up: „With the lead behind us, the football plan was no longer the same after the break because we wanted to defend the result, of course. That’s also a mental issue, how you deal with something like that. In our situation, it changed something for one or the other, we wanted to play a little more safely and fell deeper.“

These insights from the game led Kohfeldt to make a general classification: „Football is not just tactics and not just individual quality. Football is also: How do I deal with special moments?“ After his debut, the 41-year-old also openly answered the question as to whether the area between the shoulders was currently a particularly important construction site for the Darmstadt team: „Of course we also have to influence the heads. This means trust in yourself and in the idea of ​​the game are completely there and there will always be moments in which a game can tip over. It’s important that we don’t tip over as a team.“

And yet, despite the late equaliser, there were many positive things that SV 98 can take away from the home game. Detached from the moments that SV 98 is currently not meeting with the stability it had hoped for, the process that had been initiated under Kohfeldt was already clearly visible. Especially in the first half. “You could see a lot of our basic ideas,” said Kohfeldt, who emphasised “determination,” “paced actions” and a “stable basic structure.” Kohfeldt had already changed the basic formation, the Lilies acted in a chain of four and largely took control of the game in the first section.

Kohfeldt noted that “a lot of the content that we discussed and trained was already there.” The coach’s feeling when looking at the pitch was also shared by the protagonists on the pitch, as Schuhen said: “We’ve already implemented some of the coach’s plans as well. That shows that we feel this plan. If you can say something like that after seven days, that’s a good sign.“

For both the goalkeeper and the coach, it is now a matter of becoming more and more “automatic” in order to further strengthen the development that has been initiated and thus make the team more stable. “It’s a process,” summarised Schuhen, who also pointed out once again that the team had only been on the pitch together with Kohfeldt for the first time last Monday. „It’s not that easy to internalise a lot of things within a week of training. We’ve done quite well for that.“

Now a short week awaits the South Hesse team, who will be playing at FC Schalke 04 next Friday. A highlight that the Lilies and especially the head coach look forward to with positive thoughts: „We are continuing on the path and I am sure that we will have already taken another step at Schalke.“

The Lilies are still at the beginning of the process under Kohfeldt. But it seems as if this could progress quickly.