With Basics and Stability

Scene of the match: After the goalless draw, we’ve chosen a scene in this section that perfectly encapsulates Darmstadt’s selfless defensive work on Friday evening. With just under 81 minutes played, the visitors from the north delivered a sharp cross into the Darmstadt penalty area, and substitute Taichi Hara found himself in a promising position in front of Marcel Schuhen. However, the striker was tightly marked by Patric Pfeiffer, who prevented his opponent from getting a shot off with physical contact, high intensity, and perfect timing. Similar moments and crucial blocks had already been witnessed earlier by Yannik Lührs and Raoul Petretta, leading Lührs to aptly summarise afterward: „We were fully focused, we gave it our all, and we won every challenge.“

The Darmstadt side was rewarded with their first clean sheet of the season and a point against the relegated Bundesliga team.

Defensive Stability: As already described in the „Scene of the Match,“ Darmstadt 98 displayed arguably their best defensive performance of the season. „We initially focused on maintaining a solid defence,“ confirmed Lührs after the final whistle, echoing what had been evident on the pitch. „We defended a bit deeper,“ explained head coach Florian Kohfeldt, whose team formed a back three (Pfeiffer, Lührs, Petrettta) when out of possession and then switched back to a back four when attacking. It was a plan that worked. The visitors struggled to utilise their fast attackers, and Darmstadt’s defensive unit offered little space behind the back line. Furthermore, the team from southern Hesse were highly focused in their box defense, allowing goalkeeper Marcel Schuhen a relatively quiet afternoon.

The Basics: These are the fundamental prerequisites for a successful football match. The basics: challenges, work rate, aggression, mentality. Darmstadt 98 lacked all of these elements in their 4-0 defeat in Karlsruhe. The resounding defeat was the bitter consequence. Against FC St. Pauli, SV 98 could tick off every single one of the points listed. Their 62 percent tackle success rate was particularly impressive. „That’s what you need in this situation,“ said Marcel Schuhen, and Florian Kohfeldt summarised: „In the current situation, it’s about basic stability. We implemented much of what we wanted.“

The offensive firepower: It’s quite logical that Darmstadt didn’t create a multitude of chances due to their more defensive approach. Nevertheless, there were several situations that could have resulted in significantly more dangerous attacks. „We should have switched the play more, we should have been more decisive in the half-spaces in the final third,“ said Kohfeldt in his brief tactical analysis, before phrasing it more generally: „We need absolute determination. Defensively, we did very well, but offensively, we need to integrate that more into the team.“ Given the strong defensive performance, that one decisive moment alone might have been enough to secure three points at the Böllenfalltor stadium. As it was, the final whistle blew with a deserved draw. One point and a performance that led the Darmstadt head coach to the following conclusion: „It’s no reason to run around Darmstadt celebrating, but it’s a good foundation to build on.“