SV Darmstadt 98 - The Dangerous Flirt with Relegation Battle

If you look at the 0:4 flap from Sunday in Karlsruhe, you have to be afraid and scared about Darmstadt 98. The lilies are deep in the table cellar and there is a danger that the flirtation with the descent zone could take longer. Friday will be very important. Darmstadt 98 does not come out below. One week after the 3-1 victory against Cottbus, the lilies slip through the bitter 0-4 defeat at Karlsruher SC back deep into the table cellars of the 2nd division. Rank 17, descent place, that is the sobering reality in Darmstadt. The performance against the KSC was worrying: behind the lilies made hair-raising mistakes, in front they were harmless. In the defensive confusion, two lily players stood out: First goalkeeper Marcel Schuhen. He prevented against the game end with a shining parade an even higher defeat, but patzed at the second goal quite tremendously. Shoes bounced a harmless Karlsruhe shot, the KSC thanked with the 2:0. "Catastrophic performance of us from the first to the last minute," Schuhen talked in the aftermath not long around the hot porridge. Hair-raising duel behavior of Pfeiffer "Catastrophal Performance" applies to the offensive, but above all to the defensiveness of the lilies. In the days before the KSC game, Lilien central defender Patric Pfeiffer had shown himself quite optimistic with the words "We see that we are strengthening as a team", against the KSC Pfeiffer caught a used day. Before the first goal in the 6th minute, the Darmstadt defensive man lost completely the orientation in the header duel, allowing the template to 0:1, in the second half it got even worse. Pfeiffer inexplicably no longer jumped up to the header duel, the forced KSC defender Christoph Kobald could head unrestrained to the preliminary decisive 3-0. With 18 goals, the lilies have caught by far the most goals of all second division players. This was not a second division level. It lacks the basics, so the tough verdict of goalkeeper and captain shoes. Running at the back, harmless at the front - that smells like a relegation fight No second division level? Is Darmstadt 98 threatening a tough relegation fight this season? At the moment it looks like this, especially because of the lilies’ away performances. The South Hessen have achieved a single goal in the four games in foreign countries so far. At the 0:4 in Karlsruhe, Darmstadt brought just one shot at the opponent’s goal, far too little. The big gap in the offensive, which was created by the departure of the top strikers Fraser Hornby and Isac Lidberg, could not close the lilies in the summer. Ho-Jae Lee and Milan Smit, who had only 20 ball contacts in the KSC game in 90 minutes and also left the best Darmstadt chance, so far only two goals in eight games, Lance Duijvestijn did not hit in the league yet. And so the lilies are currently conceivably harmless. But how will this change? Now Kohfeldt is asked to change the currently only one: Coach Florian Kohfeldt. From a struggling team he must now get the maximum out. We must find the reasons for the failures and work on them as soon as possible. Kohfeldt also knows that his team distributed "at least three gifts" at the goals on Sunday in Karlsruhe. So is the relegation struggle beginning today? Until the ninth place in the table, there are only two points, so you shouldn’t talk about it now, but don’t panic. Our problem is not the table, our problem is these performance fluctuations. These fluctuations must be addressed. Internally, we will address things very clearly, Kohfeldt announced. Especially in terms of defensive behavior. If Aleksandar Vukotic had to listen to critical words from the coach a week ago, this time it will probably meet his central defender colleague Pfeiffer. It has to get better quickly with the lilies, because already on Friday the home game against FC St. Pauli (18.30 clock) is pending. Since the SV Darmstadt 98 is actually doomed to points, the South Hessen do not want to slide even further into the table cellar. If this goes wrong against St. Pauli, coach Kohfeldt would have to listen to more critical questions.