IClemens Riedel and Matthias Bader agree on one thing when referee Deniz Aytekin decides on a free kick for SV Darmstadt 98 after 76 minutes: it has to be quick. Disagreement, however, on the question of who should execute. You? I? Both decide to give preference to the other player, and so the chance of a quick counterattack against Fortuna Düsseldorf is lost.
Riedel clenches his hands in desperation. A little earlier on the opposite side: “Yes,” shout the two Düsseldorf soccer pros Hoffmann and Kownacki, making it clear that they will steer the incoming Darmstadt corner kick out of the danger zone. Hoffmann heads the ball, Kownacki the head of the other player – and so both are on the ground. But they have achieved their common goal.
The two scenes are representative of an extremely unhappy Sunday afternoon from the point of view of the 3000 Darmstadt fans who traveled with them in Düsseldorf, where the “Lilien” had to admit defeat 0:1. It wasn’t that her team didn’t want to. In the decisive moments, there was simply a lack of assertiveness. Meanwhile, the people of Düsseldorf threw themselves into everything that came their way. Or in front of the forehead.
Lieberknecht maltreats his chewing gum
“I’m not a fan of statistics,” said Darmstadt coach Torsten Lieberknecht after the game. But he will also have to take note of the following figures: 20:6 shots on goal, 57 percent ball possession and 13:2 corners for his “lilies”. But: 0:1 goals. “It completely annoys me. The only point of criticism I have for the team: that we lacked consistency when we had so many chances to score.” A lack of consistency from the team that had won twelve of their 17 games by just one goal so far – and continues to be at the top of the second Bundesliga.
Darmstadt started unchanged compared to the 2-1 win against Paderborn. On the sidelines, Lieberknecht constantly maltreated his chewing gum, and his team started just as powerfully. After eight minutes Fabian Schnellhardt went to the third corner, the Düsseldorfers watched respectfully at first. And yet they should have been ahead after 12 minutes when Christoph Klarer and Dawid Kownacki both failed from close range to Darmstadt goalkeeper Marcel Schuhen.
The same reflex, more prominent goalkeeper – and quite a few sports commentators would have given the defense the title “world class”. But at SV Darmstadt 98 you keep the ball low. When, in the 28th minute on Sunday afternoon in the Rheinstadion, one of them headed for Marvin Mehlem in the Düsseldorf penalty area, he couldn’t really decide on any of his feet for a moment.
Left? To the right? For its part, Darmstadt missed the huge opportunity to take the lead. The assist came from Braydon Manu, who repeatedly threw opponents Karbownik out in the first half.
The crucial scene
It was goalless in the dressing rooms. And maybe it would have been better to withhold the parallel result from St. Pauli from the “Lilien” players there. It is not known whether and with what emotion the Lieberknecht players reacted to the 0:2 deficit of the lurking FC St. Pauli, but in the first six minutes of the second half the Darmstadt team seemed a bit casual.
They turned that off a little later, but six minutes was enough for the Rhinelanders to take the lead through a well-played goal by Emmanuel Iyoha (51st minute). “We once lost the order that we were actually able to maintain almost the entire time from the twelfth minute,” Lieberknecht describes the crucial scene. As a result, Darmstadt ran again and again, but nothing more than a shot from the post by Bader (59th) and a dangerous header by Tietz (82nd) came out.
And so the next time the “Lilien” set off for a league game in the North Rhine-Westphalian state capital, there will again be talk of the “Düsseldorf curse”: 1988 was the last time you could win here. Whether and in which league this clash will take place next season seems to be open again six games before the end of the season.
