Dhe moments of triumph said a lot about the person and goalkeeper Marcel Schuhen and his Darmstadt status. When promotion to the Bundesliga was finally achieved after weeks of extremely nervous stress and a physically and mentally demanding match against Magdeburg, the 30-year-old fell to his knees. Tears of emotion came to his eyes in no time. Behind him, the fans ran wildly cheering onto the pitch, but despite the general hullabaloo, the first path of some “Lilien” professionals led to their goalkeeper, their consistently strong goalkeeper, who is also a foreman when it comes to the internal climate and team spirit.
The players followed the impulse to share the first moment of great happiness with – or rather: lying on shoes – which expressed a lot. A lot of recognition and gratitude for his enormous contribution to the win against Magdeburg and the success of the whole season. “Whenever the team wobbled, he was there,” says the experienced defensive player Klaus Gjasula. “He is an outstanding support. With a goalie like that, you can only get promoted. If he had been in goal for another team, they would have been promoted. Chapeau, I doff my hat.”
Shoes, you can say that, were factor X, Y and Z for SV 98 in this round. The Siegerland, who came to southern Hesse from Sandhausen in 2019, not only played a season without classic goalkeeper mistakes, but also with various top-class actions kept the team in the game a few times or secured important points. After 33 match days, Schuhen leads the rankings of the top second division players in the specialist magazine “Kicker” with an average grade of 2.56.
With skin and hair there
The appreciative “Schuuuuh”, which echoes through the stadium at the Böllenfalltor after his parades, has long been a well-known accompaniment to his game. The leading player also comes across as a rousing guy, both internally and externally, who speaks in a firm, loud voice and prefers clear edges to spongy phrases. He exudes a degree of emotionality that sometimes makes him appear in the interview zone like a fan who has gained access to the team and dressing room by winning a raffle and is enthusiastic about the experience. His haunting words on the stadium microphone on the last day of the pre-season, when Darmstadt’s dream of the Bundesliga was shattered, set the tone for the next successful attempt. The goalkeeper is one of those players “who want to do everything for this club and are wholeheartedly involved,” said coach Torsten Lieberknecht.
He performed Schuhen’s provisional masterpiece against FCM in the 74th minute. The way he cleared the ball in front of Schuler, who was ready to head in, got up and seconds later reflexively parried Ceka’s hard-hitting shot was – the thesis is not too daring – a decisive factor in the season. Lieberknecht later made it clear that it would have been very difficult to endure a third missed match point in the season finale.
Teammates and fans knew who to thank
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Image: Reuters
Schuhen stands out from the stable “Lilien” defense, which was the key to promotion. In the previous season, the total of 46 goals conceded, which were also the receipt for many a hooray-style match, were the main reason that the SVD just missed the chance of promotion. Currently there are only 29 goals against (twelve times played to zero), which is due to stronger shoes and a fundamentally changed defensive attitude. “There is a lot of energy in our goalkeeping team,” goalkeeping coach Dimo Wache told the FAZ. “We set ourselves a goal before the season in terms of the number of goals conceded.” What number is that? “I’ll just say this much: We’re not done yet.” It could well be that Wache and the three goalkeepers on Sunday (3.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the second Bundesliga and on Sky) after the final end of the season with the graduated Game at Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth again in the arms – because they may have contested a season with fewer than 30 goals against.
Marcel Schuhen is now the Bundesliga goalkeeper. can he do that Does Wache, who himself stood between the posts in first and second class for many years, trust his protégé to do that? “I honestly said that to him: not last year, definitely this year,” said the 49-year-old.
In general, one can hardly imagine that at the moment, shoes have not had an easy time in Darmstadt for quite a while. Less with the fans, who took him to their hearts after a bumpy start in southern Hesse because of his always combative and positive nature, than with those responsible. Lieberknecht’s predecessor Grammozis and especially the beginning are said to have stranged with shoes as number one. In the summer of 2021, Wache and Schuhn then started to “change the basics of his game. Physically and mentally. How he interprets a game and his role, how he can be more dominant, attitude, courage, presence, all those things,” said Wache, who has been keeping the “Lilien” goalkeepers on their toes for ten years. “There was a lot at stake for shoes. We then worked really hard, and I am happy and grateful that we trusted each other so extremely on this path.”
In the first few minutes after the ascent was completed, there was a second memorable scene from shoes. After the first tears dried and the excessive adrenaline and testosterone gained the upper hand and in countless hugs – in which enormous forces work with Schuhen’s hands-on participation – he suddenly had his little son in his arms. And Schuhen, the strong man in the Darmstadt penalty area, cried into his little yellow goalkeeper jersey.
