Darmstadt 98 in the relegation

For current reasons, here is another text that I published about 10 years ago in my old blog, when I was still blogging about football, motorcycling and GPS. And to apologize: the picture is just an example picture. I only started taking photos for newspapers in the following season. Nevertheless, the picture shows Bodo Mattern, a former player from Darmstadt 98, who played no role in the dramatic story that followed. And to explain: I learned sports photography with the "Lilien" from Darmstadt when I stood on the sidelines for several years thanks to my youth press card and exposed a film for myself every other weekend.

20140516-101923.jpg

In the 1987/88 season, SV Darmstadt 98 took third place behind the Stuttgarter Kickers and FC St. Pauli. They had the best defense in the league, but there was something lacking in the attack - that's why it was only enough for the relegation game against the third-to-last team in the first Bundesliga to decide who would play in the first league the following season. The opponent was none other than SV Waldhof Mannheim. The spatial proximity and the fact that the coach of SV Darmstadt 98 was called Klaus Schlappner and had previously been coach at Waldhof for 7 years, made for a particularly explosive situation. It turned out to be the bitterest football thriller I have ever experienced!

The first match took place on June 1, 1988 at the home stadium Böllenfalltor. Berg, Emig, Bernecker, Lachmann, Sanchez, Scholz (Gu), Posniak, Heß, Dörr (Künast), Kuhl and Gutzler played for Darmstadt. In front of 25000 spectators, the dream of promotion seemed to be over after 47 minutes. Darmstadt was 2-0 down! But within 10 minutes the "Lilien" turned the tables and got the stadium boiling. Gutzler (63'), Posniak (66') and substitute Gu (73') secured a 3-2 win. Guangming Gu was, by the way, the first Chinese player in German professional football.

The second leg took place in Ludwigshafen's Südwest Stadium, as the Waldhof Stadium at the time was more like a dump and would never have offered safe entertainment for so many spectators. Almost the same team played in Darmstadt as in the first leg, only Trares played for Dörr. Darmstadt was the better team in terms of game play, but was 1-0 behind for a long time. Until the 86th minute: Lux scores 2-0 for Waldhof! That's it! Deep disappointment spread among the Darmstadt supporters - they had missed some excellent scoring opportunities.

However, the players did not finish the match so quickly. What followed was a storming run by the 98ers. Uwe Kuhl was played steeply and shot at the goal - goal!! Incredible cheers! It was 2:1 and everything was open again! The crowd roared again. But that's all there was to it that day.

The rule of away goals counting twice in the event of a tie did not yet exist. A playoff on neutral ground had to bring the final decision. The neutral ground was called Saarbrücken and a huge convoy of white and blue cars moved from Darmstadt to Saarland. The drama of the third part followed.

After 90 minutes it was 0-0 – extra time! There were no goals in extra time either – penalty shootouts! Never again should the decision about the 1st or 2nd league be so close.

Darmstadt had to take the lead: Posniak missed the first shot, Lux scored for Waldhof to make it 1-0. Uwe Kuhl equalized, Bockenfeld (Waldhof) missed, Uwe Schreml scored, Bührer equalized. Gu scored to make it 3-2, Trieb missed. Huge celebrations in Darmstadt - Karl-Heinz Emig, one of the most reliable penalty takers, had everything at his feet as the fifth shooter. Darmstadt could be promoted to the first division for the third time. As he already had a contract with 5.FC Kaiserslautern at the time, this was to be Darmstadt's last shot after four years as head of defense for the "Lilien". Waldhof's goalkeeper Zimmermann was able to save the weak shot, however! The penalty shootout continued. Waldhof equalized, Scholz (later Darmstadt coach) increased the score to 1-4, Waldhof equalized, Bernecker missed and Klotz scored for Waldhof to make it 3-5. Out! Over! Final! Waldhof Mannheim remained in the first league.

Darmstadt did not recover from this defeat so quickly. From then on, things went downhill in terms of sport and finances - until they were relegated to the top league in 1993. I will never forget these games - these games threw me into a violent rollercoaster of emotions for over a week. It was all damn close...

Today and on Monday, SV Darmstadt 98 can find its way back into German professional football. Now you know who I'm keeping my fingers crossed for.

 

  1. Stefan, thank you very much for the contribution!
    After your post, I suddenly didn't care about Bielefeld (it was the same before) and I really liked Darmstadt 98 (it was different before).
    I took the relegation game with me as one of the last football infusions before the summer drought, which wasn't quite as dry thanks to the World Cup. And then that thing!
    I called a friend who moved to Darmstadt 10 years ago and congratulated him! Football connects, magic, football god and all that.
    Many thanks to you and congratulations to Darmstadt!

Leave a Comment

Your e-mail address will not be published. Required fields are marked with * marked