SV Darmstadt 98 remains true to the bad luck with injuries. Even before the top game against Hamburger SV, the lilies have to complain about failures again.
If the SV Darmstadt 98 would not in first place in the 2nd Bundesliga, one could speak of an epidemic season. The supposedly best team is almost never on the pitch with the southern Hesse team. The team around coach Torsten Lieberknecht has to complain about injuries again and again. This is also the case before the absolute top game against Hamburger SV on Saturday (8:30 p.m.).
The list of injured people keeps getting longer
As the Lilien announced on Monday, central defender Jannik Müller suffered a torn muscle in his thigh. Midfield director Tobias Kempe is also out with a partial tear in the inner ligament – and that probably for several weeks. “Of course we wish Tobi and Jannik a speedy recovery, hopefully they can be back on the pitch soon,” said Carsten Wehlmann, the Darmstadt team’s sporting director. Complaints are not to be heard from southern Hesse this time either.
It’s amazing how the SVD continues to ride the wave of success despite all the personnel setbacks. And it’s not just substitute players that the Lilien are missing, but clear pillars of the team: Star defender Patric Pfeiffer, for example, aggressive leader Klaus Gjasula or Matthias Bader, who is perhaps playing his best season ever on the Lilien’s right side – at least until he had to have emergency surgery earlier this year. But none of the failures threw the tireless Darmstadt team off track.
Against all odds
The lilies have been unbeaten in league two for 20 competitive games. The only loss of the season put it already on the first day of play at Jahn Regensburg. After that, Lieberknecht and Co. repeatedly managed to compensate for the injuries: through tactical changes and – above all – through team spirit.
He should also help the Hessians to succeed again against the second-placed Hamburgers. Or, as Carsten Wehlmann puts it: “We will need the will shown this season to defy all odds as a team in the coming weeks – starting with the home game against HSV.”
