In the second half of this second division season, more precisely on Saturday, March 11th, Carsten Wehlmann experienced a real Christian Streich moment for the first time. The SC Freiburg coach reacts in panic to the tips of his hair as soon as he has the impression that his football team’s successes lead to expectations that he considers completely exaggerated. And that’s exactly what happened to Wehlmann, sports director of SV Darmstadt 98, when he was asked after the 3-1 defeat in Bielefeld how he intends to explain it to the public: three games in a row without a win. “I was surprised at how quickly the mood of some observers changed,” he says in retrospect. He was not only surprised, but rather “shocked” by the sound that suddenly broke through in the reporter’s questions.
After all, before that 1-1 draw against promotion rivals HSV and the two defeats in Heidenheim and Bielefeld, his Darmstadt Lilien had not lost for 18 games. And even after the 1:3 on the Bielefelder Alm, Wehlmann was still the head of sports for the reigning leaders of the second division. The questions also surprised him because the internal and external perceptions were so blatantly different: “We are always aware here,” emphasizes Wehlmann, “that it cannot be taken for granted that Darmstadt 98 is where it is.” After all, the club’s past includes decades in divisions three to five. In addition, Darmstadt are starting with a budget that is well below that of the two closest competitors, Heidenheim and Hamburger SV. And of course also under that of clubs like Hannover 96 or 1. FC Nürnberg, the two prominent under-performers in the league.
Of course, the modesty with which the officials of the lilies are currently expressing themselves is also a deliberate understatement – they don’t want to be told at some point that they have spoken too much. On the other hand, the matter-of-fact Hanseat Wehlmann, who keeps hearing that he should “finally knock one out”, doesn’t have to pretend when he says that “every game day on which we occupy such a place in the table is a holiday for us “. For head coach Torsten Lieberknecht, a down-to-earth football pragmatist who fits in perfectly with Darmstadt, boasting is out of the question anyway.
The current season consists almost exclusively of public holidays for Darmstadt. After the recent 2-1 win against Karlsruhe, they are still number one in the lower house of football, even after the devastating series of two defeats. In the three-way battle for the two direct promotion places, they have by far the best cards. The gap to fourth place is already 14 points – so it seems almost impossible that Darmstadt will not at least play the relegation games at the end of the season.
Efficiency in figures: Darmstadt achieved ten of the 18 wins of the season by just one goal
In addition, the team from Hesse is a model of consistency this season. In home games, where many people who were there against FSV Frankfurt and FV Bad Vilbel are noisy in the small, cramped stadium, Darmstadt have been unbeaten for 17 games. And the lilies have not lost their lead in the table since the twelfth matchday.
Consistency in the narrower sense is also reflected in the Darmstadt team on the pitch. There is probably no other team in paid football whose games you notice so little what the current interim result is. Whether after taking the lead early on, after conceding a goal at the wrong time or in front of 49,500 spectators at the DFB Cup quarter-finals in Frankfurt: Lieberknecht’s players never let themselves be thrown off balance and always unwind their tactically disciplined, running-intensive football that they so made strong. This football isn’t always spectacular, but it’s always engaging and entertaining.
And above all, he is effective: Darmstadt achieved ten of the 18 wins of the season by just one goal, and the team already has the best defense in the league with only 24 goals conceded. It certainly doesn’t hurt that one of the best keepers in the league is in goal in Marcel’s shoes. Braydon Manu stands out on offense, and Mathias Honsak, who was injured for a long time and was able to be replaced during this time, is in a class of his own in this league. As does attacker Philip Tietz, who often stands out even when he doesn’t score – like in the past two months, until his last goal against KSC.
The 2-1 in this tight derby was the next tight result on the way to promotion. “It’s not that I wouldn’t like to lead 3-0 at halftime,” says Wehlmann, but he has no problem with all the narrow victories: “Maybe that’s no longer a coincidence, but also a Maturation process, which we have noticed since the beginning of the season at the latest.” Back then, in September, Lilien had led 2-0 at Betzenberg in Kaiserslautern and finally made it 3-3, because Lauterer had scored three goals against Darmstadt, who were still a little too self-confident at the time: “That was maybe a pivotal experience,” says Wehlmann, “after that came the game against Nuremberg and despite a 2-0 lead we didn’t let up a bit and just finished the game with concentration.”
