There were only a few minutes between the scream of relief and the two of them with excitement for the Darmstadt fans who had traveled with them. He drove through the visitors’ corner in the Sinsheim Arena in the 80th minute with relief: Hoffenheim professional John Anthony Brooks managed to miss the goal from close range on Tuesday evening – it would have been 4-2 for TSG. The first with enthusiasm came in the 85th minute: Hoffenheim professional Ozan Kabak managed to misdirect a free kick in his own half into the foot of a Darmstadt player – the strong Tim Skarke then equalized Darmstadt’s deficit for the third time with his goal. Goal to make the final score 3:3. Shortly afterwards, there was an outcry of enthusiasm, part two, from the throats of the 2,500 SVD supporters: in response to Marcel Schuhen’s keynote speech.
The “Lilien” goalkeeper, a solid ball catcher and rousing speaker, grabbed the microphone of the Darmstadt fan singer at the end of the Bundesliga year. Schuhen vowed to fellow players and fellow travelers to continue the fight against relegation in the new year. It seemed as if exactly such an evening was needed to strengthen the bond between the team and the fans. To get rid of the feeling that the “lilies” might be in the wrong place in the Bundesliga. That the quality of this surprise promoted team, which was only strengthened at certain points in the summer, is literally not enough, front and back, for a complete success against a first-class competitor.
There are two after 16 games, and both of them were a while ago, so that the South Hessians are now going into the short Christmas holidays with ten points and a series of nine winless games in a row. Coach Torsten Lieberknecht was still “totally proud” of his team and spoke of a “moment of happiness” for Sinsheim and a “bringer of strength for everything that is to come.”
High sickness rate in Darmstadt
The past few weeks had cost the “lilies” a lot of energy. The performances of the first weeks of the season, when they showed cheerful football, picked up a few points and sometimes went down with flying colors, are only vague memories. In response to the flood of goals conceded (32 after ten match days), there was a reflection on the core defensive virtues of a relegation candidate that seemed natural given the financial conditions. Especially since the promotion was based on being the strongest defensive team in the second division. Most recently, the “Lilien” had tough, unsightly clashes at their home Böllenfalltor, without taking on Bochum (1:2), Mainz (0:0), Cologne (0:1) and the weak Wolfsburg (0:1), who were also in danger of relegation to find an acceptable point balance.
In addition, they are plagued by an extremely high level of sickness. In Sinsheim there was a skeleton team made up of players who had already reached their limits in the second division and are now allowed to deliver Bundesliga work samples that were not thought possible. But this obviously led to a feeling of despair in North Baden. The “impressive team performance” (Lieberknecht) of the last squad was based on attacking and not backward-looking play. The Hoffenheim goals from Kramaric (14th) and Bebou (28th and 66th) were based on their individual superiority over their Darmstadt opponents. The “Lilien” hits are based on never-ending fighting power and the fruitful collaboration between Skarke and striker Luca Pfeiffer.
Alex Westhoff, Sinsheim Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1 Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 4 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 4
The latter had made an impression with 17 goals at Böllenfalltor in the previous (second division) season and then moved on to VfB Stuttgart. Exactly zero league goals for the Swabians later, the 1.96 meter giant returned to southern Hesse on loan – where he hit the crossbar and post, but not the goal. Against TSG, Pfeiffer, who was once trained at TSG in his youth, scored his Bundesliga debut goal and set up his colleague Skarke for his fifth and sixth goals of the season. “We walked on the gums, but pulled together,” said Pfeiffer. “Our team spirit is that we don’t fall apart no matter how hard it is,” Skarke said. “We will attack fully in the second half of the season.”
