Elversberg’s dominance goes unrewarded – first home defeat in nine months
For nine months, the URSAPHARM Arena was a reliable constant in this second-division season: opponents arrived, Elversberg played their game – and were never left as the losing side. This streak ended on Saturday when SV Elversberg lost to Hertha BSC 0:3. This was an annoying result given their control of play, ball possession, and wealth of opportunities, but also provided a merciless demonstration of how things work in this division.
SV Elversberg went nearly nine months without losing a home game in the second division. On the 21st day of play, this streak came to an end. In front of 9,291 spectators in a virtually sold-out URSAPHARM Arena, Vincent Wagner’s team were defeated by Hertha BSC 0:3 (0:1). This was a deceptively decisive result – but still left its mark: Elversberg not only suffered their first loss in their own stadium, they also dropped out of the direct promotion spots.
Wagner saw no need to adjust his starting eleven after their impressive 3:1 away win against 1. FC Kaiserslautern, sending out the exact same team that had done so well on Beztenberg. Felix Keidel, Lasse Günther and Immanuël Pherai (signed that very same week) were missing from the squad due to injury, so were replaced on the bench by Luca Pfeiffer and Luis Seifert for the first time this season. Hertha’s manager Stefan Leitl was also forced to make some changes. As well as Kownacki (serving a red card ban), he also had to manage without Diego Demme and Maurice Krattenmacher. Kownacki was replaced in the attacking lineup by former Elversberg junior player Luca Schuler, Zeefuik stood in for Julian Eitschberger on the right back, and Toni Leistner served as a last-minute replacement for Márton Dárdai in the central defence.
After a brief period of feeling each other out, Elversberg immediately took control. A potential lead was on the cards just five minutes in when Maximilian Rohr lobbed the ball over the Berlin ranks to David Mokwa. He was foiled from close up by Hertha’s keeper Tjark Ernst, and Lukas Petkov’s follow-up from the rebound was cleared away by Michal Karbownik at the last moment. This scene would be representative of the entire afternoon.
Elversberg remained dominant. The ball primarily circulated around the Berlin half, with ball possession sitting at around 70 percent at points. SVE kept Hertha deep and forced them into long periods of defending but initially struggled to clearly break through. The away team stuck to order, discipline and securing space. Hertha’s first opportunity was not until 32 minutes in, when a deflected corner was fired from the back by Sequin, but one of his teammates blocked the ball in the penalty area.
Elversberg continued to have the better opportunities. Conté’s cross from the right was blocked at the last moment after a counter-attack, then shortly after, Nicholas Mickelson’s shot from the rear after a deflected corner sailed some two metres over the goal. At the other end, Gecher’s completely unchallenged header after a free kick from the right flew straight into the arms of Nicolas Kristof. Then, 0:1 appeared seemingly out of nowhere shortly before half-time. Seguin fired a corner from the left towards the far post, and amid the commotion, SVE‘s captain Lukas Pinckert and Pascal Clemens leapt up – and the ball landed in the goal. The goal was officially assigned to Clemens, but the TV pictures showed that Pinckert’s head and shoulder were the last to touch the ball. The captain later described this in matter-of-fact terms: ‘We both jumped up, and ultimately you never know what happens. We had been playing very well up until that point, but we didn’t manage to capitalise on our dominance.’
We must accept the criticism that we allowed ourselves to lose possession of the ball too often, despite being the dominant team.
SVE manager Vincent Wagner
The away team held this lead until half-time – a scoreline that did not reflect the actual course of the match, but perfectly fit Berlin’s game plan: stand deep, trigger set pieces, wait for moments of transition. And that is how things would continue in the second half.
Wagner responded in the second half and brought on Florian Le Joncour to replace injured Jan Gyamerah. This substitution initially paid off in defensive terms. After a Berlin counter-attack, Fabian Reese was left completely undefended at close range, but his shot simply hit Le Joncour, who was already on the ground on the goal line.
However, Hertha struck again shortly after. A long ball from his own defence reached Reese, who won the race and delivered an exemplary cross to the penalty line. Luca Schuler was ready and waiting in front of Kristof and upped the score to 2:0. For Elversberg, this was another setback at a point where the momentum of the match seemed to be tipping.
It took SVE a few minutes to recover from the goal, but they then regained their structure. From that point on, Elversberg controlled virtually all play – but the ball just refused to go in the goal. Schmahl narrowly missed with a free kick from 18 metres out, whilst Mickelson and Zimmerschied repeatedly broke through on the left but were unable to find anyone to pass to. Le Joncour’s header after a set piece hit the far post, Jarzinho Malanga was foiled right in front of the goal by Tjark Ernst, then Luca Schnellbacher suffered the same fate from a tight angle.
The Berlin keeper excelled himself, saved everything that came his way and became a crucial factor in the match. Stefan Leitl understood the shape of things: ‘We had some lucky play, but also a strong Tjark Ernst in goal.’ Whilst Elversberg allowed opportunity after opportunity to pass them by, Hertha remained at peak efficiency. In the 78th minute, a long-distance shot by Toni Leistner after a deflected set piece saw the ball slip beneath the crossbar – 0:3.
Despite their clear defeat, Vincent Wagner had no fundamental criticisms to make of his team, but did touch on one sore point. ‘We must accept the criticism that we allowed ourselves to lose possession of the ball too often, despite being the dominant team. Hertha then got 0:1 with a good variation and we wanted too much at the start of the second half. Nevertheless, we had enough opportunities, but sadly failed to score goals. So congratulations to Berlin,’ the SVE manager said. He made a wry comment on this season’s unusual number of own goals: ‘Yes, our central defenders are becoming top goalscorers. That’s a bit unfortunate.’
Leitl also had a nuanced view of the match. ‘We planned to be very disciplined and keep spaces tighter, so that we could keep Elversberg’s position play under control. And we succeeded for much of the match’, Hertha’s manager explained, but added: ‘I am delighted that we were able to exploit a set piece and keep momentum in our favour. This win came with too high a score, as Elversberg played very well, but overall it was not undeserved.’
This win came with too high a score, as Elversberg played very well, but overall it was not undeserved.
BSC manager Stefan Leitl
SV Elversberg suffered defeat despite not necessarily performing poorly. However, it did teach them an object lesson in efficiency: they failed to score despite 18 shots on goal, whilst Berlin chalked up three goals in five shots. Their home streak is over, they have lost their direct promotion spot, and after this weekend SVE are sitting in fourth place in the table.
Next weekend brings Dynamo Dresden for one of their most distant away games of the season. There, SVE will most likely be facing a more cautious opponent. Nevertheless, Elversberg must be on their guard: Dynamo managed to take falling 2:0 behind against Schalke and turn it into 2:2. But if SVE have demonstrated one thing this season, it is that defeats cannot knock them off their stride.