Bundesliga: Darmstadt with primal scream therapy to draw 2-2 against Eintracht Frankfurt

And then the stadium exploded in the middle of the game. At least goalkeeper Marcel Schuhen used this phrase when he tried to describe how it felt when his Darmstadt team scored the goal after an hour in the Hessenderby against Eintracht Frankfurt: “The stadium totally exploded. That’s what we need.” The Darmstadt keeper then commented comparatively soberly that half an hour later, when his team was even able to equalize, it got even louder because many thousands of people were performing primal scream therapy at the same time: “Everyone has the real thing today Seen Böllenfalltor. That’s how I measure the people in the stands now, just like they measure us.”

One can assume that the emotions on and off the pitch on Saturday were so vehement because Darmstadt came back from a deserved and clear 0-2 deficit thanks to goals for Eintracht Frankfurt from Niels Nkounkou in the 33rd minute and Ansgar Knauff Six minutes after the start of the second half, they probably no longer really believed that they could still get a point from this Bundesliga game. Especially because the dramaturgy of so many of the Lilies’ games this season is familiar: the promoted team gives everything, is warmly praised, but has to hand over the points to the opponent.

Sisyphus can also be an underfunded but suitably motivated up-and-comer like Darmstadt – the ball still rolls downhill again and again. As is well known, the King of the Corinthians never gave up, nor did Marcel Schuhen’s team from Kirchen an der Sieg. »With the best will in the world: what more should we do today? At some point the moment will come when you deserve it,” said the 31-year-old later on Saturday and said: points.

Even though the visibly upset Frankfurt coach Dino Toppmöller spoke of a deserved division of points, it was as strange as it was correct, because Darmstadt played with high energy for an hour, but were still clearly inferior. Eintracht, whose stadium is 23 kilometers away from the “Bölle”, had the game completely under control for a long time and made it much more difficult for the home team to put together a clean build-up game than in Dortmund the previous week. Rarely this season have the Lilies had as little chance as they did in this first hour against Frankfurt in a good mood: new signing Saša Kalajdzič played two really sensational passes, one of which led to the opening goal, Mario Götze was a good distributor of the ball and the collective looked concentrated like a team that knows that only your own mistakes and sloppiness can lead to loss of points. It was all the more inexplicable what happened on the favorite’s side after Julian Justvan’s goal in the 61st minute, aided by a sloppy pass from keeper Kevin Trapp. Namely, nothing more.

On the Frankfurt side, after the final whistle, either “full pants” (Kalajdzič) or “passivity” were used as an explanation to explain the drastic drop in performance in the final third. “We had the chance to score big points today, but then we were far too passive,” analyzed sports director Markus Krösche: “We just have to play for the third goal.”

Sebastian Rode also saw it that way, who was allowed to play for two more minutes after a long injury break and was able to see up close how Christoph Klarer scored the equalizer at the last second. You shouldn’t be afraid of losing something if you want to win, said Rode. With this he, who grew up in Seeheim-Jugenheim near Darmstadt, unintentionally addressed what is special about the brave newcomer from southern Hesse. He knows that most opponents in the Bundesliga have at least two or three footballers who together have the market value of their entire squad. And he knows that he will lose quite a few of the next 16 games because of this. Above all, he knows that he only has the option of scoring points if he plays every game according to the “all or nothing principle”.

“Think independent of the result,” is what goalkeeper Schuhen called it on Saturday. And, no, they are definitely not afraid in Darmstadt. But now the same meager number of points as Mainz and Cologne in 16th and 17th place. And next Saturday we go to Köpenick, currently three points away from 15th place. Union Berlin. If they believe in Darmstadt that they will stay in the league despite their measly eleven points, that is not that unrealistic. After the willful effort on Saturday, not at all.

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