U21 young Lilies full of anticipation

Not on freshly mown lawn, but on artificial turf in Kastanienallee. The U21 of SV Darmstadt 98 will meet VfB 1905 Marburg on Sunday (2.30pm) at the Lilien NLZ site. In the first leg, the South Hesse team narrowly lost 0-1. But towards the end of last year things were going really well for the Darmstadt team – and the team now wants to build on these strong performances before the winter break. The U21 of SV 98 is currently in sixth place in the table with 35 points.

However, an easy start to the new year looks different. “The first three games against Marburg, Alzenau and Eddersheim will be equally big tests. “We still hope that we can pick up where we left off in the first half of the season,” explains U21 coach Daniel Petrowsky to sv98.de. His team made good use of the winter break to prepare themselves well for these challenges.

Several players from the U19 completed the preparation for the Hessenliga team. In addition, Marcello Maier was added to the defense from TSG Hoffenheim. Overall, the U21 head coach has had a broader squad at his disposal since the winter break, which has noticeably increased competition. “Of course, this also raises the level of training enormously,” emphasizes Petrowsky and adds. “In the end I’m spoiled for choice because there are significantly more than eleven players at a good level.”

The goal in the remainder of the second half of the season remains to prove that the team can compete at the level of the Hessenliga. At the same time, the focus is on developing the players individually. The positive approaches from the preparation gave us courage and self-confidence: out of five test games, the team only narrowly lost one, 2-1 against SV Gonsenheim. In the other games, the Junglilien always left the pitch as winners.

“If you compare it with the summer preparation, you can clearly see how the team has developed in these six months. “We are much more stable defensively and play more dominant football overall – we had some difficulties with that at the beginning, especially against men’s teams,” says Petrowsky with satisfaction. The last test before the start of the competitive game in particular should have given the team a lot of self-confidence: with a clear 7-1 win against the association league team VfB Bodenheim, the U21 warmed up for the start of the Hessenliga. “The anticipation is huge. We haven’t had any competitive games for two and a half months and were in preparation for six weeks, during which we had a lot of intensive training sessions.“ The Junglilien want to continue their positive trend against VfB 1905.