Suck it up, work on the thrust!

After 38 minutes, it certainly didn’t look like the Lilies could have celebrated anything after the final whistle. Ron Schallenberg had just scored Schalke’s third goal. “Of course, after the third goal, you briefly think that everything is going in the wrong direction,” Marcel Schuhen admitted honestly. Florian Kohfeldt also assessed the situation in a similar way after this significant deficit: “Normally you can’t come back after a first half like that. Normally you can’t win a game like that after 3-0.”

But: “We did it today,” said the SV 98 head coach happily. Because the Lilies showed an outstanding mentality and incredible morale. Because despite these blows in the neck, they became more and more courageous in the first half of the game and got back into the game thanks to Fraser Hornby’s penalty. The number 9 of the SVD? A good example of courage anyway: He played a crucial bad pass before the score was 0-1, but then he grabbed the ball in front of Schalke’s north curve and converted confidently and ice-coldly from the spot. A hit that made people believe. “You should never give up believing in something. It suits us very well today,” summarised Schuhen in his statement after the final whistle. The story of the game: 0:3 became 5:3 – thanks to goals from Hornby, a hat-trick from Isac Lidberg and the final goal from Sergio Lopez. A spectacular and celebrated away win for the Lilies that “feels incredibly good,” as Lidberg made clear.

…that the Lilies didn’t show what they had planned in the first half, especially defensively. In addition, FC Schalke 04 could have put the lid on the game with two top-class chances after the restart, which Schuhen was able to prevent with two strong saves. “Especially against the ball, what we played before the break doesn’t work at all,” said Kohfeldt angrily. At halftime, the head coach, who had only been in office for a good two weeks, made crucial changes. “He made a very small change during the break, but it was huge,” revealed Schuhen and added: “We had incredible power on the pitch after the break, everyone wanted to have the ball. A special body language has emerged. That was exceptionally good.” In any case, Kohfeldt works every day to instill his game idea in the team, which they are now getting better at implementing. Of course, experiences of success help. “You believe in ideas when they are successful,” says Schuhen. And the head coach’s ideas were successful on Friday evening.

The first win in the league, a very special one at that. How much confidence and boost can these three points give the team? Florian Kohfeldt was asked this at the press conference in the catacombs of the Veltins Arena. “Of course, this game can certainly give us a big boost,” emphasised the head coach of SV 98, but at the same time made it clear: “But we can’t rely on it.” After all, it was only one game, and in the end only the first three points for the current season.

There is still a lot of work ahead of the Darmstadt team, who will host 1. FC Magdeburg in the Merck Stadium at Böllenfalltor next Saturday afternoon (September 28th/1pm). “We need to use the boost sooner to continue working on our content,” said Kohfeldt, who specifically meant football-tactical as well as mental and athletic content. Only in the Magdeburg game will we see how much of Schalke’s emotions the team absorbed and channeled, and how much they were able to use the boost from Gelsenkirchen to work on their content in training.